Tag Archives: Christ
The Measure of Christ’s Torment
Biblically faithful Christianity does not present itself as a nice religious structure that makes happier parents and well-ordered children and good taxpaying citizens. It may produce better parents and taxpaying citizens, but the issues at stake in biblical Christianity have to do with eternity: heaven and hell, matters of the utmost significance, your relationship to your Maker, what God has provided in Christ, what the cross is about, the resurrection.
At the end of the day, what hell measures is how much Christ paid for those who escape hell. The measure of his torment (in ways I do not pretend to begin to understand) as the God-man is the measure of torment that we deserve and he bore. And if you see that and believe it, you will find it difficult to contemplate the cross for very long without tears.
The Triumph of Divine Love
Divine love triumphed over divine wrath by divine self-sacrifice. The Cross was an act simultaneously of punishment and amnesty, severity and grace, justice and mercy.
We Are All Involved at Calvary
We need to understand that there is a real sense in which our sins nailed Christ to the horrible cross: we dare not stand at Calvary as spectators. We are all involved.
There Is No Rival for the Cross
The cross possesses no rivals. It reckons with no parallels. It acknowledges no equals. It is supreme.
The Essence of the Cross
Christ exposed Himself not only to the unbridled hostility of angry men, but, more significantly, to the unmitigated wrath of God
The Banquet House
Christ is not only a remedy for your weariness and trouble, but he will give you an abundance of the contrary, joy and delight. They who come to Christ, do not only come to a resting-place after they have been wandering in a wilderness, but they come to a banqueting-house where they may rest, and where they may feast. They may cease from their former troubles and toils, and they may enter upon a course of delights and spiritual joys.
More Loved and Accepted in Christ Than We Ever Dared Hope
The gospel of justifying faith means that while Christians are, in themselves still sinful and sinning, yet in Christ, in God’s sight, they are accepted and righteous. So we can say that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope — at the very same time.
This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. It means that the more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God’s grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions and character of your sin.
Tim Keller, Paul’s Letter to the Galatians: Living in Line with the Truth of the Gospel (Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2003), 2.
God Doesn’t Just Hand out Prizes
If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone.
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1952).
Life Is Worship 