I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through the belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ’s birth with his baptism,
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.
Psalm 16:2 - “I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from You.’”
Ecclesiastes 7:20 - “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”
Romans 7:18, 24-25 - “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out…Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Luke 18:19 - “And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.’”
The Earth has seen everything from men, women, and children being murdered, raped, and enslaved to undeserved thieves being received into paradise. It has seen the greatest injustice to the smallest kindness. It takes in; it remembers. It is as a canvas laid out flat with the doings of humanity painted on it clearly for God to see. The blood of the innocent soaks deep in it’s soil and the voice of the oppressed soars high in it’s atmosphere. To say this simply, what is done (or not done) in this world will not be forgotten. I am not talking about when we get together to remember 9/11 or when we speak of the atrocities of the Holocaust. I am talking about justice, the real kind, that will be experienced at our bodies end. We will all stand before the great Judge. The Lord is God, and He will be the one we answer to in the end. But until that day, we must know how to take all of this in, how to react and how not to react.
In saying that, let me note the Scriptures that I started with. “I have no good apart from You.” - Psalm 16:2, “No one is good except God alone.” - Luke 18:19. This is something we can easily forget. We look at the thief and forget that apart from the Lord he cannot be good. We want him to receive his rightful punishment, and then we want him to learn from his mistakes and act like a moral human being, all the while forgetting the root of the matter, his non-goodness, our non-goodness. So what is the solution to this problem? Should we teach him to help the elderly woman across the street, and not take her purse? Yes, but don’t get the cart before the horse. This would be a worthless thing to teach him if we did not first show him the way to his redemption, the way to the cross and resurrection of the man, Jesus Christ. “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out…Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! - Romans 7:18, 24-25. Paul could not even do what is right, for apart from Jesus Christ our Lord the things we do that seem right are not. Our good works are not good works when they are done outside of Jesus Christ, our life, whom apart from we are dead. Let us continue to show the sinner the only way to Life and Goodness.
Through this the Gospel will spread like a stone growing into a mountain that fills the whole earth. (Daniel 2:35). On the way will still be injustice and grief; there must be. “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” Ecclesiastes 7:20. Not even the righteous in Christ Jesus, who are all perfect in Him, will act perfect, and of course not the world, but we as Christians can look forward to the day when wrongs will be made right and what was done in the dark will be brought to the light. Things will be brought into focus and all will be made beautiful. Justice will be served to the slave’s cruel master, and the unborn child’s murderer, them that did not cast their sin upon Jesus Christ, taking the judgement themselves. We, the murderers, thieves, adulterers, liars, and rebellious that have and will cast our sins upon Jesus and take part in Him, have already been judged two-thousand years ago at the cross and raised to new life in Jesus Christ through His resurrection. Amen
Read this carefully, and I would appreciate your feedback. Please let me know if you agree or if and where you have quibbles. Here it is:
Apart from the work of Christ you are completely helpless to save yourself.
Christ came to save the world and accomplished that when He rose from the grave.
This means, if you will have Him, He is yours. And further, if He has you, you will belong to Him eternally.
So?
Here is a good conversation and a much needed conversation. Doug Wilson interviews Mark Driscoll on the subject of spiritual gifts and cessationism. If you don’t know what cessationism is, don’t worry they’ll cover that in the video. If you don’t know what spiritual gifts are, you probably won’t find this video very helpful or entertaining.
Mark 14:22-25 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
In the passover celebration there are four cups of wine that are to be taken. Jesus takes the bread after the second cup and blesses it and breaks it. He commands His disciples to take and eat because this is His body. At this point the Passover lamb would have been eaten followed by the third cup, which is the cup of blessing. But after Jesus and His disciples drink of the third cup, something strange happens. Jesus refuses the fourth cup of the Passover, the cup that consummates the Passover celebration. He instead announces that from this point until the kingdom of God comes, He’s going to be fasting—refraining from the fruit of the vine (Luke 22:18).
Now think ahead to when Pontius Pilate is questioning Jesus, he asks the Messiah, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And Jesus’ answer is unmistakable, “You have said so.” However, what Pilate failed to realize as Jesus was describing His kingdom, is that this man standing before him was not only the King of the Jews, this Son of Man was so much more. This was the King of the kings. And this King’s kingdom was closer at hand than many even began to realize.
Fast forward again, now to the cross. Of course our Messiah has been fasting the fruit of the vine for a few hours now after refusing the fourth cup that consummates the Passover meal—the meal of shadows. Hanging there on the cross, so many prophecies are being fulfilled by our Messiah at the hands of these clueless, sinful reprobates. The substance is coming into view and the shadows are slowly fading. This is the Christ—the Lamb of God. Finally, the Lamb that is worthy. Finally, the blood that will satisfy the wrath of God once and for all time.
And finally, hanging on the cross after Truth had been put on trial, after the torturous beatings and the scornful mocking; after carrying the instrument of death that would soon exhibit His broken and bleeding body, finally, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, brings His life to a fitting close. To fulfill the scripture in Psalm 69 Jesus utters, “I thirst.” Do you remember what it was they had to offer Him? A jar full of none other than sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge on a hysop branch and held it to His mouth. Jesus’ fast was over, and when He had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished,” and He bowed His head a gave up His spirit (John 19:28-30).
Just like Jesus had said (Luke 17:20), the Kingdom of God wouldn’t come with signs to be observed. This Kingdom that is like a garden or a field, or a vineyard. His Kingdom is like a mustard seed and works like leaven. It came and even most of His disciples didn’t realize what exactly was going on.
Ten years ago today, on American soil, something that was believed to be unthinkable happened. God judged this nation. Many people’s kingdom and idols came crumbling down in moments. As we Christians watched, what did we think? What did we feel? Did we resemble those disciples who were looking at their savior die, who were fearful and confused? Christians, we’re not still waiting for His kingdom to come. He is the King on the throne now, He was the King on the throne September 11, 2001. Our Kingdom and our God cannot be shaken.
It is a time as American’s second to confess and repent of our sin—for our rebellion and hard hearts. Ten years ago today nearly 3,000 people died, Christians and Non-Christians alike. Every day in the United States there are at least that many infants murdered. That means that in the ten years since 9/11 we—America herself, has perpetrated 3,650 9/11’s. Ten years ago today God’s judgement came to our soil in an unmistakable way and as a nation what has been our response? If we are painfully honest with ourselves we’ll see that America’s infanticide is making what those 19 hijackers did on 9/11 look like amateur hour. Be thankful for God’s grace and mercy. The Kingdom that Christ ushered in at the cross cannot be destroyed and we celebrate that at the Lord’s Table. It isn’t a time for Christians to lament as those who have no hope. This is the Lord’s day. It is a time for Christians to give thanks and rejoice and to compel those outside to come in!