The Cost of Forgiveness

Posted on by under Timothy Keller

The Cross is not simply a lovely example of sacrificial love. Throwing your life away needlessly is not admirable — it is wrong. Jesus’ death was only a good example if it was more than an example, if it was something absolutely necessary to rescue us. And it was. Why did Jesus have to die in order to forgive us? There was a debt to be paid — God himself paid it. There was a penalty to be born — God himself bore it. Forgiveness is always a form of costly suffering.

Tim Keller, The Reason for God (New York, NY: Dutton, 2007), 193.

HT: Of First Importance

The Deeply Personal War of Pastoral Ministry

Posted on by under Paul Tripp

Perhaps we have forgotten that pastoral ministry is a war and that you will never live successfully in the pastorate if you live with a peacetime mentality…. The fundamental battle of pastoral ministry is not with the shifting values of the surrounding culture. It is not the struggle with resistant people who don’t seem to esteem the gospel. It is not the fight for the success of the ministries of the church. And it is not the constant struggle of resources and personnel to accomplish the mission. No, the war of the pastorate is a deeply personal war. It is fought on the ground of the pastor’s heart. It is a war of values, allegiances, and motivations. It is about subtle desires and foundational dreams. This war is the greatest threat to every pastor.

Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 98.

Jesus Christ Bore the Sins of the World

Posted on by under Alexander Maclaren

When Christ went to the Cross there was in His heart, in His purposes, in His desires, a separate place for every soul of man whom He embraced, not with the dim vision of some philanthropist, who looks upon the masses of unborn generations as possibly beneficially affected by some of his far reaching plans, but with the individualising and separating knowledge of a divine eye, and the love of a divine heart. Jesus Christ bore the sins of the world because He bore in His sympathies and His purposes the sins of each single soul. Yours and mine and all our fellows’ were there.

FREE E-BOOK DOWNLOAD — Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Second Corinthians, Galatians and Philippians Chapters 1 to End, Colossians, Thessalonians, and First Timothy (New York: George H. Doran Co.). from comments on 1 Thessalonians 5.10.