Crux Probat Omnia

On Good Friday, it is important to remember the words of Martin Luther: Crux probat omnia — The cross is the test of everything. Below is an excerpt from The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ by Fleming Rutledge (Via Internet Monk):

The crucifixion is the touchstone of Christian authenticity, the unique feature by which everything else, including the resurrection, is given its true significance. The resurrection is not a set piece. It is not an isolated demonstration of divine dazzlement. It is not to be detached from its abhorrent first act. The resurrection is, precisely, the vindication of a man who was crucified. Without the cross at the center of the Christian proclamation, the Jesus story can be treated as just another story about a charismatic spiritual figure. It is the crucifixion that marks out Christianity as something definitively different in the history of religion. It is in the crucifixion that the nature of God is truly revealed. Since the resurrection is God’s mighty transhistorical Yes to the historically crucified Son, we can assert that the crucifixion is the most important historical event that ever happened. The resurrection, being a transhistorical event planted within history, does not cancel out the contradiction and shame of the cross in this present life; rather, the resurrection ratifies the cross as the way “until he comes.”

…The resurrection is not just the reappearance of a dead person. It is the mighty act of God to vindicated the One whose very right to exist was thought to have been negated by the powers that nailed him to a cross. At the same time, however, the One who is gloriously risen is the same One who suffered crucifixion. It is not an insignificant detail that “doubting Thomas” asks to see the marks of the nails and the spear in the Lord’s resurrected body (John 20:25). The book of Revelation is an extended hymn to the risen Christ, but he is nevertheless the “Lamb standing, as though it had been slain,” the One whose wounds still show, the One by whose blood the robes of the redeemed have been cleansed for all eternity (Rev. 5:6-7)

The reason Paul said to the Corinthians, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2), is not that he considered the resurrection to be of lesser importance. The reason Paul insisted on the centrality of the cross in polemical terms was that the Corinthian Christians wanted to pass over it altogether. This tendency persists in the American church today. H. Richard Niebuhr put it unforgettably in The Kingdom of God in America: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” When this happens, we may have spirituality, but we do not have Christianity.

Nailed It

Just a reminder that whatever you've carried around, whatever has weighed you down and held you captive has been paid for... You're debt has been paid in full, "Once and for all". - HT KLove

We Need Good News, Not Good Advice

News Before Advice by Darrin Patrick

The order is vital if you want to connect with God.

That’s why the disciples talked so much about the gospel, which means good news. In the Roman world, the word referred to the announcement of a new emperor taking the throne. Messengers would declare to all people that this new ruler would bring peace and freedom.

What was startling about their claim was the particular event they pointed to as good news.

That event was the death of Jesus on the Cross.

What looked on the surface like defeat was actually triumph. The Apostle Paul says that on the cross God provided forgiveness of sin “by canceling the record of debt” (Colossians 1:14). On the cross, Jesus reconciled fallen, sinful humans to a holy and just God.

Jesus did not simply come as a wise teacher, or visionary leader.
He came as a Savior and Redeemer.
Jesus did not simply offer proverbial wisdom or philosophical principles.
He offered himself as a Sacrifice.

This is why Christianity is something to be received, not achieved.
This is why Christianity is good news before it is ever good advice.

Whatever advice there may be is not about reaching up to God, but realizing God—through Jesus—has already reached down to us.

Wounds

The Crucial Paradox

"Hence the Cross, conceived as the expiatory penal sacrifice of the Son of God, is the fulfillment of the scriptural revelation of God, in its most paradoxical incomprehensible guise. It is precisely in His revelation that the God of the Bible is incomprehensible, because in His nearness He reveals His distance, in His mercy His holiness, in His grace His judgement, in His personality His abosluteness; because in His revelation His glory and the salvation of man, His own will and His love for men, His majesty and His “homeliness” cannot be separated from one another."

— Emil Brunner, quoted by David Wells in Above All Earthly Pow'rs (Grand Rapids, MI.: Eerdman's Publishing, 2005), page 225

HT: Of First Importance

Seeing More

"Growing in the gospel means seeing more of God’s holiness and more of my sin. And because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross, we need not fear seeing God as he really is or admitting how broken we really are. Our hope is not in our own goodness, nor in the vain expectation that God will compromise his standards and ‘grade on a curve.’ Rather, we rest in Jesus as our perfect Redeemer — the One who is ‘our righteousness, holiness and redemption’ (1 Cor. 1:30). "

— Bob Thune and Will Walker, The Gospel-Centered Life (World Harvest Mission, 2009), page 6

HT: Of First Importance

The Key To Change

"The key to change is continually returning to the cross. A changing life is a cross-centered life. At the cross we see our source of sanctification (Ephesians 5:25–27;Colossians 1:22; Titus 2:14). We find hope, for we see the power of sin broken and the old nature put to death. We see ourselves united to Christ and bought by his blood. We see the glorious grace of God in Jesus Christ, dying for his enemies, the righteous for the unrighteous. We see our hope, our life, our resources, our joy.

At the cross we find the grace, power, and delight in God we need to overcome sin. If we don’t come to the cross again and again, we’ll feel distant from God, disconnected from his power, and indifferent to his glory — and that is a recipe for sin."

         — Tim Chester,  You Can Change  (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 127

HT: Of First Importance

Destruction of Arrogance

From challies.com

Melting Power

Oh, the power, the melting, conquering, transforming power of the dear Cross of Christ. My brothers, we have but to constantly tell ourselves the matchless story, and we may expect to see the most remarkable results. We need not despair of our hearts now that Christ has died for this sinner.

With such a hammer as the doctrine of the Cross, this most flinty heart will be broken and such a fire as the sweet love of Christ will melt this most mighty iceberg. I need never to despair of my inability or my bad habits if I can but find occasion to bring the doctrine of Christ crucified into contact with my nature. It will yet change me and Christ will be my King. 

                — Charles Spurgeon
HT: Of First Importance

One Place Only

HT: @DailyKeller

Always New

"There is no end to this glorious message of the cross, for there is always something new and fresh and entrancing and moving and uplifting that one has never seen before.”

            — Martyn Lloyd-Jones   The Cross

HT: Of First Importance

Nothing Cheap

"...The one-way love of God is restorative and reconciling because in the mystery of His cross, God has neutralized the effects of sin, forgiven its offense, blotted out its stain, expiated its guilt, and created a new beginning. 'As far as the eat is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.' (Ps. 103:12) Thanks to Jesus's sacrifice on my behalf, the sins I cannot forgive, God cannot remember....There is nothing cheap about the grace he offers repeat offenders. On the contrary - it cost him everything."

    -Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, Page 116

Not An Afterthought

"One of the sweetest statements from the lips of Jesus is this: ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’ (Matt. 25:34b).

There is a plan of God designed for your salvation. It is not an afterthought or an attempt to correct a mistake. Rather, from all eternity, God determined that He would redeem for Himself a people, and that which He determined to do was, in fact, accomplished in the work of Jesus Christ, His atonement on the cross.

Your salvation has been accomplished by a Savior, One who did for you what the Father determined He should do. He is your Surety, your Mediator, your Substitute, your Redeemer. He atoned for your sins on the cross. "

— R. C. Sproul, The Truth of the Cross, (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust Pub., 2007), 152-153

HT: Of First Importance

I Need Jesus- Period.

From Pete Wilson:

I think most of us begin our Christian journey with this simple truth.

I’m broken. I need Jesus. The end.

However as we launch out on this new journey it doesn’t take long before we begin to hear this growing and incessant whisper that says, “Try harder, do more.”

Sing more.
Memorize more.
Journal more.
Preach more.
Pray more.
Evangelize more.
Serve more.

This approach can look quite spiritual to those around us; however, it’s often rooted in a inner conviction that our worth as a Christian is dependent upon our ability to outperform those around us. Behind this spiritual facade is a fragile and insecure heart desperately attempting to get God to love us more. We know God loves us but we’re afraid He may still be disappointed in us.

The cross isn’t something we start with and then move on from. The cross isn’t just the starting line of our faith, it’s the centerpiece. Grace isn’t something we need just for salvation, it’s like air for the believer.

So today when you hear that whisper in your head that says “Try harder, do more,” go back to this.

I’m broken. I need Jesus. The end.

Doing It's Deadly Work

"Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us. It can be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction. We may as well try to instruct leprosy out of our system. There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free. We must invite the cross to do its deadly work within us. We must bring our self-sins to the cross for judgment. "

— A. W. Tozer,  The Pursuit of God (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, Inc., 1993), 43

Delivered Up For Love

"Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy; — but the Father, for love! "

— Octavius Winslow, quoted by John Stott in The Message of Romans (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1994), 255

HT: Of First Importance

Both Fulfilled

"On the cross the wrath and love of God are both vindicated, they are both demonstrated, they are both expressed completely, and they both shine out and are utterly fulfilled. "

— Tim Keller  Gospel Christianity 1 (New York, NY: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2003), 71

HT Of First Importance

Change of Perspective

“Does anyone truly understand the message of the cross apart from brokenness, contrition, repentance, and faith? To repeat rather mechanically the nature of the transaction that Christians think took place at Golgotha is one thing; to look at God and his holiness, and people and their sin, from the perspective of the cross, is life-changing.”

— D. A. Carson The Cross and Christian Ministry 
(Grand Rapids, Mi.: Baker Books, 2003), 64

Hat Tip: Of First Importance

The God Who Knows Despair

“Christianity alone among the world religions claims that God became uniquely and fully human in Jesus Christ and therefore knows firsthand despair, rejection, loneliness, poverty, bereavement, torture, and imprisonment.

On the cross he went beyond even the worst human suffering and experienced cosmic rejection and pain that exceeds ours as infinitely as his knowledge and power exceeds ours. In his death, God suffers in love, identifying with the abandoned and godforsaken.

Why did he do it? The Bible says that Jesus came on a rescue mission for creation. He had to pay for our sins so that someday he can end evil and suffering without ending us.”

        — Tim Keller,   The Reason for God    (New York, NY: Dutton, 2008), 30

Accept No Substitutes

I consider this to be a very important reminder from Kevin DeYoung:

It is possible to transmit the gospel in a way that never really gets to the root of the problem. Sometimes we share Jesus in such a way that we simply invite people to receive more of what they already want.

“Come to Jesus, you’ll feel better about yourself. Come to Jesus, your marriage will improve. Come to Jesus, you’ll be a better student. Come to Jesus, you’ll find friends. Come to Jesus and he’ll bless you with more stuff. Come to Jesus and your life will improve.”

Now there is a way to many of those statements true. But you really haven’t given the gospel until you also tell people: “Come to Jesus and repent. Take up your cross. Follow him as your Lord, no matter the cost.”

It’s tempting to give a gospel which amounts to “Everything you could ever want! Right now!” Come to Jesus, and I’ll throw in this extra ShamWow! There are whole churches built on this type of infomercial-Jesus, this type of methodology, claiming time is running out, so come now!

Yes, you do receive incomparable blessings when you come to Jesus. But we must also hear, to paraphrase Calvin, that true Christian faith is built on denial of ourselves. This is why some folks have such a hard time hearing the gospel. We think, “God is love, and if God is love then he wouldn’t ask me to do something I don’t want to do.” But what good news is this?

The good news is that God is going to give us more than we could ask or imagine. But the reality of Christianity is that it only comes by a cross. Unless a seed falls to the earth and dies, it does not bear fruit.

When Jesus calls a man he bids him come and die.

That he might truly live.