Yesterday I preached at Jubilee and thought, as usual, that I would share my notes and the audio here. But before I get to that, since it's Monday and my habit in "normal" times is to share a quote with you from Doctor Martyn Lloyd-Jones, this quote is a good one to begin with as, in many ways, it sets the scene for what I was preaching on.

"What should we be seeking? We should always be seeking the Lord Jesus Christ himself, to know him, and know his love and to be witnesses for him and to minister to his glory . . . The Apostle Paul says that the height of his ambition is 'that I might know him'. Not that he might have experiences, but that he 'might know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings' etc.... We should seek to know him and his love. You see, we are told of the Spirit, 'The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us.'

Now take that great term again, 'shed abroad'. Do not put your little limit to it and say, 'Oh yes, I love God'. Paul says that the love of God is 'shed abroad' in great profusion, overwhelmingly, in our hearts. Now that is what we should seek. We believe in God, in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the doctrines of salvation. All right! But the question that confronts us at this particular point is not that of believing, but love! A belief that does not lead to love is a very doubtful belief, it may be nothing but intellectual assent. The emphasis of the Bible is always upon love .... 'What is the first and the chiefest commandment?' Not that 'thou shalt believe in the Lord thy God', but that 'thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all thy mind, and all thy strength' ....

There is nothing that will enable a man to do that but the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You can believe and in a sense have a measure of love; but the thing put before us is not just a measure of love, it is an abounding love .....

Here, then, is the question—to what extent do we know this love of God to us and how do we love God? We are meant to love him with the whole of our being and there is nothing that can make us do so but the love of God shed abroad in our hearts ....

This is New Testament Christianity! New Testament Christianity is not just a formal, polite, correct, and orthodox kind of faith and belief. No! What characterizes it is this element of love and passion, this pneumatic element, this life, this vigour, this abandon, this exuberance—and, as I say, it has ever characterized the life of the church in all periods of revival and of reawakening. That is what we must seek—not experiences, not power, not gifts. If he chooses to give them to us, thank God for them and exercise them to his glory, but the only safe way of receiving gifts is that you love him and that you know him."

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Joy Unspeakable, The Baptism and Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Ed. Christopher Catherwood, Kingsway Publications: Eastbourne, 1995, pp. 360-361.

You can download my sermon or listen to it right here:


Philippians 3 is a great passage. In some ways, it's one of my favorite passages, one God has kept bringing me back to over the years.

The Apostle starts this passage with the phrase, “Finally, REJOICE in the LORD” — and he is going to come back to that, but as he says that, he almost gets excited and goes off into a bit of a tangent, a diversion that will be our subject today. It's almost as if that word "Lord" triggers something in him, because for him the Lord is, of course, Jesus. It excites him and he starts to think about our subject today. He starts off by saying, "Look, it's good for me to remind you of these things." And sometimes I think when we hear God's Word, especially if we've been Christians a long time, we think, "Oh, yeah, I know it all" — and, in a sense, there will be nothing new today. So why does he say these things?

Paul gets angry. Preachers get angry. Why? Because TRUTH MATTERS. He has strong opposition to false teaching. Urges them STRONGLY to avoid DOGS—not talking about pets here! Talking about "street dogs," dangerous dogs, potential killers. But can be disguised to look like sheep. Watch out for those who mutilate flesh. Outwardly appear on God's side. Wolves in sheep's clothing. So Paul then asks what are the marks of living as a true Christian?

MARKS OF LIVING AS A CHRISTIAN

• Christians have the "real circumcision" i.e. HEARTS cut out, new heart, regenerated, devoted to Jesus. It's not about externals— circumcision, clothing, hair styles, etc. (verse 3).
  
  
• Christians are worshippers, every moment of every day, looking for opportunity to give God glory (verse 3).
  
  
• Christians worship by the Spirit of God — no confidence in the flesh, not man-empowered. Christians are Spirit-empowered (verse 3).
  
  
• Christians glory in Jesus—the one we honor, delight in. Paul could have written our church motto “It's all about Jesus.”
  
  
• Christians have no confidence in human ability/qualifications (verse 3ff) Paul was the Jew of Jews. Thought killing Christians was serving God. You can be sincerely WRONG! He was religiously blameless, but a murderer!! Hypocrisy of religion knows no bounds. But we are not looking for holy people here, rather people who know they need God. Jesus didn't come for the righteous, but for sinners.
  
  
• BIGGEST mark of living as a Christian is simply this: LIVING TO KNOW JESUS

WHAT DOES "LIVING TO KNOW JESUS" LOOK LIKE? WHAT ARE THE RESULTS?

A DECISION — everything is DUNG compared to the SURPASSING WORTH of knowing him, the risen, ascended, glorious, loving King. COUNTS everything unimportant. Do the math! (verses 7-8).

A LOSS — of everything! “I have suffered the loss of all things ...” (verse 8).

A GAIN — “... that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (verse 8).

A HIDING PLACE — from the world “in Christ” and from God's wrath (verse 9).

AN ALIEN RIGHTEOUSNESS — a righteousness that comes from outside of ourself, a goodness. But it's only those who know Christ. “Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (verse 9).

But notice this! It doesn't stop there! There's a goal, not just that your sins will be forgiven, as glorious as that is. Not just that I might feel better, or not feel guilty anymore. Danger of turning gospel into merely something that deals with our felt needs. Rather, A PRECIOUS RELATIONSHIP — THAT I MAY KNOW HIM!!!! We were made to have a relationship with Jesus. He wants us to know him. That's the goal! It's not merely about being religious!

A POWERFUL FORCE — the power of his resurrection (verse 10). Christians should be conscious of the glorious power of the resurrection pulsating through their bodies. This is the heritage of the Christian. [Jonathan Edwards' quote—See below.]

A COMMUNITY OF SUFFERING — Not all glorious, however. Don't want to deceive. We share also with him in his suffering Become like him in his death (verse 10).

A GLORIOUS RESURRECTION — But also become like him in his resurrection. A glorious resurrection to come, but also experienced even in the here and now. (verse 11). “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” — a perfect relationship with Jesus in heaven. But God says in this passage you don't have to wait until heaven for "pie in the sky" when you die. There is cake on your plate while you wait! There is an obtaining, even in the here and now. Live the resurrection empowered life—know the power of God at work in me, experientially today to foretaste what will be mine in perfection in glory (verse 12ff).

Paul finishes the chapter by talking about an example for others to follow — “Imitate me, follow me, keep your eyes on people who are walking this way, copy them.”

Example not to follow: those who are enemies of the cross. But Christians don't glory in the damnation of anyone. Don't have enemies we are angry with, but have enemies for whom we weep. The belly is their god (their desires), running after flesh, whether food, sex, new clothes, etc. But for us, our bodies will be transformed, become like Jesus. They glory in their shame; we glory in our Saviour. Their end is destruction; our citizenship is in heaven. Not of this world (verse 17ff).

Background Quote

"Once, as I rode out into the woods for my health in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly has been, to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God as Mediator between God and man, and His wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet, appeared also great above the heavens. The Person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent, with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception, which continued, as near as I can judge, about an hour, which kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud . . . I felt an ardency of soul to be, what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated; to lie in the dust and to be full of Christ alone; to love Him with a holy and pure love; to trust in Him; to live upon Him; to serve and follow Him and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure with a divine and heavenly purity.” (Jonathan Edwards, cited by Martyn Lloyd-Jones in An Exposition of Ephesians 1, God's Ultimate Purpose, p. 275)

I have just been watching the following sermon by C.J. It is a great message to watch this Easter Saturday.

I wanted to share a brief video greeting with you this Easter, and to point you to three sermons I have preached that you might find interesting at this time of year. The first two are my Easter Sunday sermons preached the last two years. The third is not an Easter sermon, but it is about the resurrection.

Have a great Easter, I will be back on Monday!

• Resurrection Hope—An Easter Sermon
  
  
• An Easter Message—The Jesus Who Polarizes People
  
  
• The Risen Jesus (Revelation 1)

May was not as controversial a month as I reported yesterday that April had been. I continued with the following posts on the atonement and the resurrection throughout May and also into June. In fact, there were a few posts on the atonement which spilled into July, and I have listed them here also. If that's not enough for you on this vital subject, remember to look at my April review which lists a lot more!

• John Stott on the Atonement—The Conclusion
• Terry Virgo On the Results of the Cross
• C. J. Mahaney on the Cross
• Tom Schreiner on the Atonement
• Spurgeon on the Atonement
• Wayne Grudem on the Atonement
• A Limited Atonement? Did Jesus Die For All?
• J. I. Packer on the Atonement
• The Atonement—A Quiz
• Penal Substitutionary Atonement—Precious Gospel or Divine Child Abuse?
• Brian McLaren Supports Steve Chalke About the Cross
• The Atonement and the Resurrection—It's All About Jesus
• The Atonement—Jesus' Death Is Not Repeated at Communion
• The Atonement—Don't Forget the Blood of Christ
• Are You Still A Sinner?
• Is the Cross a Legal Fiction? No, Because the Resurrection Changes Us
• The Atonement—Is Penal Substitution the Only Thing That Happened at the Cross?
• Christianity Magazine Reviews Pierced For Our Transgressions
• The Atonement—Is Jesus the Good Cop?
• The Atonement—What Does Imputation Mean?
• Jonathan Edwards on the Resurrection
• The Atonement—What Did Jesus Die From?
• The Atonement—2 Corinthians 5
• Atonement—Jesus Thought He Was Fulfilling Isaiah 53
• The Atonement—Isaiah 53
• Resurrection Sunday—The Commission of the Risen Christ
• Sam Storms Reviews Pierced For Our Transgressions
• Atonement—Who is Preaching Another Gospel?
• The Atonement—What Happened to Jesus on the Cross?
• Resurrection Empowered Life—The Deposit Guaranteeing Our Inheritance
• Penal Substitutionary Atonement Summarized in Romans 15
• The Atonement in Romans 12-14
• Resurrection Empowered Life—Dying to Live
• John Piper Friday—Christ's Obedient Life and Death Entwined
• The Atonement in Romans 9-11
• The Atonement in Romans 8
• Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Separating Over the Atonement
• Resurrection Empowered Life—Raised With Christ
• John Piper Friday—Romans and the Reason for the Atonement
• The Atonement—Romans 6-7 and Penal Substitutionary Atonement
• The Atonement—Romans 4-5 on Penal Substitutionary Atonement
• The Atonement—Romans 1-3 and Penal Substitutionary Atonement
• Atonement—The Angry God of the Bible
• N. T. Wright on Paul and the Resurrection Empowered Life

May and June were also the months I began to introduce my readers to the leader of the family of churches of which I am a part. I did a multi-part inteview with Terry Virgo, shared two of his sermons, and introduced his blog in these posts:

• Terry Virgo Preaches on Ephesians 4
• Terry Virgo Preaches on Jesus' First Miracle
• Terry Virgo Starts a Blog
• Terry Virgo On Healings, Driscoll, and Theology
• Amazing Grace on a Wedding Day

I highlighted a post on a subject that would later in the year lead to the first full-scale blog debate between some of my heroes of the faith. It was slightly cheeky, and I suppose the possibility of a challenge by others was implicit in Mark Dever and Ancient Baptistries. I was also very provoked by a post I quoted from Gandalf's blog, Why Do We All Like Jesus?

I very much enjoyed talking with Liam Goligher, in a wide-ranging multi-part interview, as well as The Authors of Pierced for Our Transgressions.

I also put out a plea which remains out there for anyone with old messages from Downs Bible Week, C. J. Mahaney, and Others to contact me. In particular, I am interested in messages by my old mentor, Henry Tyler.

Also in May I was fascinated to come across a sound bite that has lived with me since—"We need to show the people we understand what it's like to be unbelievers."

This morning I preached a sermon at Jubilee. The following are almost exactly the notes I used to preach from. In the meantime you can download the audio or listen to it right here.

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Imagine Jesus . . .

Baby Jesus—weakness, stooping down, becoming one of us, close to us. OR, Jesus on the cross; suffering the wrath of God for us. Closest description of Jesus did NOT look like the cross, or a “gentle Galilean peasant,” or the baby Jesus.

Consider the scene . . .

The aging John—an island prisoner who has NOT recanted. He has not said, “We all made it up.” Perhaps they would have let him go. But how could he deny his friend? He was no Judas. ?the only one of Jesus' disciples left. There had always been speculation that he would not die his gospel denied. Soon he would be with Jesus again. O how he had missed him.

Jesus' best friend on earth . . .

“The twelve”—the inner circle of three. Only one who leaned his head on Jesus. Others understood most of the time! And Jesus was kind about it. If anyone had known Jesus, he had. NO flaws, perfect. Being with Jesus had been the most amazing experience of his life.

The change in John . . .

Sons of thunder plus wanting position. Now oozed the love of God. People said they could tell he had been with Jesus. It’s still true today—those who have truly been with Jesus are changed. NB Jesus is with us through his Spirit.

Perhaps he thought about possibly the strangest words he had ever heard Jesus say. Back then, must have struggled to believe that Jesus' leaving would be better for him, BUT he had known the Spirit of Jesus living inside him, working through him, assuring him that he had been saved. These past years he had not been alone. But, there was a part of him that missed being able to see Jesus, to hug Jesus.

Suddenly he was caught up into heaven. He had seen Jesus look a bit like this once before. The risen, ascended glorious Jesus.

READ Revelation 1:9-18

Immediately this Jew who had been schooled in worshipping only the one God fell on his face as though dead in order to worship his best friend. Who could stand before him?

Before he fell John managed to see enough of Jesus to give us this wonderful description. Have you ever thought about this image of Jesus? Have you let it fill your mind? Have you gazed on him? As we gaze on Jesus we will become like him says Paul in 2 Corinthians 3.

“Seeing is becoming.” (John Piper)

No full image, no statues, no worship.

“One like a son of man.” Earth, a few pounds lighter, new creation—a physical body.

God has incorporated human flesh into the divinity. Not only did God become man, a Man was now ruling in heaven as God. Everything about him was glorious.

Even his hair seemed to gleam. Reminds us of Daniel on the 'ancient of days.' Jesus who always has been and always will be. Another figure in Daniel—Jesus is mediator between man and God—he is both the Son of Man and the Ancient of Days! White hair could also symbolize his wisdom and judgment.

He was wearing a robe—like Christians in heaven. Jesus was dressed in his own righteousness—that he had also given his people to wear. A golden sash speaks of his authority. Like the high priests’ garments or those of a king.

His eyes flash like fire. One glance of some people’s eyes can make your knees go to jelly—teenage boy when the hottest girl in the school looks at him. Authoritative look of judge, parent. Jesus’ eye is watching you. He can see everything. He can look through walls and into hearts. Those eyes say, “I love you, but you don't want to mess with me.”

His eyes were confident, authoritative, but also gentle and full of love. Often we are over-familiar with Jesus and see him as a figure as it were in soft-focus—an English gentleman, perhaps Mr. Darcy. We need to see his majesty, glory, authority, power, and wrath against sin. O beloved, just one glance of his eye would be enough for our weak, timid, overly-gentle, soft caricatures of Jesus to disappear in an instant.

Even Jesus’ feet exuded strength and authority. For such an important part of our bodies, our feet can be pretty weak and pretty ugly at times. They are also incredibly vulnerable—e.g. a small stone in your shoe. Jesus' feet were solid bronze and symbolized God's glory in OT writings.

But the thing that would probably both terrify you and thrill you most about this figure was his voice. Like thunder, waves, Niagara falls.

When this Jesus speaks the world shakes. “Let there be light!” “A new heaven and a new earth.” When he says “NO!” to Satan, the devil just melts away. What this voice says goes. No one can challenge him. Just be quiet and obey. Do as he tells you before he deafens you.

When he says “This one is forgiven,” you are forgiven. When he says, “This one is righteous!” your sins evaporate and righteousness is credited to your account—something really does change inside so you will become what you are. If he says, “Be free!” you will be free indeed. If he says “Be healed” your sickness will go. If he says “It’s not good for them to be alone!” your perfectly designed by God marriage partner will be just around the corner. I hear you say “Where?!?!” Maybe you have met them already! Maybe they are right here in this room. Perhaps you need God to speak: “Open those eyes and look!”

Brothers, it is not for nothing that the ancient hymn says:

“He speaks, and listening to His voice, new life the dead receive.
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice; the humble poor believe.
Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ.
Ye blind, behold your Saviour come; and leap, ye lame, for joy.”
Out of his mouth came a sword. Some say this is justice. But, even if it is, with what does Jesus judge the world? By his Word – his living, active, sharp Word which pierces us. (Hebrews 4:12) For me, I think the sword here is indeed the Word of God, as we saw when we spoke about Ephesians 6. It is encouraging to realize that Jesus himself is fighting. In fact it’s his battle.

Then there was his face. What a wonderful face. What a shining face. What a gentle, but powerful face. Can’t see his face for intense brightness. But drawn anyway.

What is the appropriate response to this Jesus? That of Jesus’ best friend, the only appropriate one. Shock, reverence, awe—look it was FEAR! Like Isaiah who said, “Woe to me,” he FELL as though DEAD. WE MUST TOO! We were dead in our trespasses and sins, nothing to give, helpless and in need his help. OUR weakness, his superiority. Are you angry with God, saying “When I get to heaven I will have a few questions for him to answer!” You fool! If Jesus was to walk into this room today, you would not be able to remain in your seats. God could not be seen or else death would result. His nuclear-hot holiness burns up every trace of sin.

We are right to fear him. We would be fools not to. And, when the Bible says, Fear him,” it means simply that. FEAR HIM! Sometimes people come to us and say they are afraid of God. We would do well to tell them you are probably not frightened enough.

But the passage doesn't end there. Instead we see—wonder of wonders—that amazing word BUT. There are few words more welcome than that word in the right place. John is terrified in the presence of the fearsome risen Christ. He is there on his face. He thinks that’s it, I am undone. At that very moment, the passage tells us, “BUT JESUS reached out his hand, his right hand no less, and touches him” O, what is he going to do? Is he going to kill him? Is he going to beat him up a bit? Is he angry with him? Is he going to scold him for not being good enough?

What does he say? Does he say, “Be afraid, be very afraid!” No—he says “Fear Not!” Oddly enough, the Bible is full of commands to fear God. But when God turns up on the scene he always seems to say “Don't be afraid!” The reason for this is that God both wants us to fear him, and doesn't want us to be terrified of him!

Why doesn't John need to, in that sense, fear Jesus? Because of what Jesus has just done for him—he has reached out and touched him. Because of who Jesus is- the great eternal one who never had a beginning and never had an ending. Because his best friend, Jesus, is now revealed for all to see as the eternal God—“The First and Last” Because he is also the one who is the living active one—the God who still delights in doing things. He is the one who died, FOR YOU, John. He is the one who was RAISED for you, John. And he is the one who holds the keys of death and hell in his hands. If he says you are one of mine, then the devil can't touch you, and the door of hell is locked to you and heaven is open wide!

This is the Jesus we come to today, beloved. The living one. The terrifying one. And yet the loving one, who delights in reaching his hand out and touching you. And when he touches you, amazing things can happen. Do you need Jesus to touch you? Do you need a healing? He is the healer. Do you need your guilt removed? He died so that you could be forgiven. Do you feel dirty because of your own sin or the sin someone else committed against you? His blood cleanses you from all shame and all uncleanness. Do you need a victory in your personal life? Your relationships? Your work? This Jesus is the triumphant one, and nothing, but nothing can stand in his way when he chooses to act on your behalf.

Let’s fall on our faces. Let’s worship him. Let’s feel his touch. Let’s get right with him. Become a Christian, or get so close to Jesus once more that it almost feels as if we are born again again! Then let’s stand up, and go from this place a people who are changed by him. Let’s go full of joy. Full of faith. Full of the boldness that comes from being with Jesus. Let’s invite people to our Christmas event to meet this wonderful Jesus so they, too, can feel his touch. Amen.

My buddy, Jesse, has recently completed a nine-part series of posts on Signs of the Spirit, in which Sam Storms interprets Jonathan Edwards' classic work on experiential Christianity, The Religious Affections. Here are the links:

1. True spirituality is a hunger for God

2. Public gathering, prayer, preaching, and singing

3. You're not a Christian just because you...

4. Sign 1) A new spiritual 'sense'

5. Sign 2) A love for the things of God

6. Experience, emotion, Edwards and public worship

7. Signs 3-5) Moral excellency, right understanding, conviction.

8. Sign 6) Genuine, evangelical humility

9. Remaining 6 signs of genuine religious affections

Book photo courtesy of Tony S. Reinke, The Shepherd's Scrapbook. Used by permission.

The following passage from the Doctor is a bit reminiscent of an old post of mine entitled, "I Want It All!"

". . . the trouble has generally been . . . that people have emphasised either experience or doctrine at the expense of the other . . . This is something that has been happening in the church from almost the very beginning . . .

When the whole emphasis is placed upon one or the other, you either have a tendency to fanaticism and excess or a tendency toward a barren intellectualism and a mechanical and a dead kind of orthodoxy . . .

As you read the stories of Luther and Calvin and other reformation fathers you will find that they began to fight this war on two fronts. They were fighting a dead, mechanical intellectualism on one hand, and they had to fight these other people who were running to excess and riot on the other.

Then in the seventeenth century you find the same kind of thing in connection with the Puritan movement . . . There were three main sections . . . in the middle you had people like the great John Owen and Thomas Goodwin in London, who constantly emphasised what they regarded as the only true scriptural position . . . which emphasises Spirit and doctrine, experience and definition. You must not say it is either/or; it is both. These, too, had to wage a warfare constantly on the two fronts. They had to fight the dead, barren intellectualism of many in Anglicanism and in the ranks of Puritanism, and the wild excesses of the early Quakers and various others . . .

As Evangelicals we find ourselves fighting on two fronts. We are obviously critical of a pure intellectualism and of a dead mechanical church which lacks any life . . . the gospel of Jesus Christ is a life-giving gospel. That is one side; but on the other side we see certain tendencies and we see certain excesses and we say "believe not every spirit, but try the spirits to see whether they are of God." And thus we seem to be opposing everything, and so we receive criticism from all sides . . .

For myself, as long as I am charged by certain people with being nothing but a Pentecostalist ,and on the other hand charged by others with being an intellectual, a man who is always preaching doctrine, as long as the two criticisms come, I am very happy. But if one or the other of the two criticisms should ever cease, then, I say, is the time to be careful and to begin to examine the very foundations.

The position of Scripture . . . is one which is facing two extremes. The Spirit is essential, and experience is vital. However, truth and definition and doctrine and dogma are equally vital and essential. And our whole position is one which proclaims that experience which is not based solidly upon truth and doctrine is dangerous."

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in Christ: Studies in 1 John, pp. 400-403.

UPDATE
My new pal, Chris, has published the following two quotes on this subject:

“Because some wings of the church have appealed to experience over against revelation, or have talked glibly about ill-defined ‘spirituality’ that is fundamentally divorced from the gospel, some of us have overreacted and begin to view all mention of experience as suspicious at best, perverse at worst. This overreaction must cease. The Scriptures themselves demand that we allow more place for experience than that. . .”

D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities From Paul and His Prayers, Grand Rapids (Baker, 1992), p. 191.

Relative to Romans 5:5, Moo writes:

“The confidence we have for the day of judgment is not based only on our intellectual recognition of the fact of God’s love, or even only on the demonstration of God’s love on the cross . . . but on the inner, subjective certainty that God does love us . . . and it is this internal, subjective, yes, even emotional, sensation within the believer that God does indeed love us - - love expressed and made vital in real, concrete actions on our behalf - - that gives to us the assurance that ‘hope will no disappoint us.’”

Douglas Moo, Commentary on Romans, pp. 312-313.

Many of the opponents of the doctrine of justification and penal substitution criticize us for not being as interested in the resurrection as the cross. I increasingly think that it is not so fair to accuse most evangelical theologians of not having a place for the resurrection in our system of beliefs. I do feel, however, that we perhaps under-emphasize the resurrection at times.

As I was reading this book, I was aware that, of course, Piper was interacting with Wright's views of the cross, so it was perhaps no wonder that the resurrection was featured less. Indeed, Wright's massive work on the resurrection did not feature in the bibliography.

As I was pondering this new obsession of mine with the place of the resurrection, I found myself asking—was Piper wrong not to look at it in more detail in this book? I concluded that probably this was influenced by the constraints of the length of the book. Perhaps an interaction with Wright on the resurrection should be the subject of another book.

I was surprised, however, to note that on two different occasions within the book Piper fell into an all-too-common evangelical trap. On both pages—89 and 212—he cites 1 Corinthians 15:3, omitting to continue the verse to include the resurrection. The Piper quotations omit the bolded phrase below:

"Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

Now, I suppose I shouldn't get overly legalistic about this, but I wish that we would all learn not to do that with that particular verse. Paul goes on to make the point that without the resurrection we would, in fact, still be in our sins, something that surely undermines any system of theology that does not require the resurrection to perform anything for us, altering our position in any way.

But I should not be unfair to Piper, for as we saw in an earlier post, when he summarizes his position on justification he states the following propositions:

(1) a person is in union with Christ by faith alone. In this union, (2) the believer is identified with Christ in his (a) wrath-absorbing death, (b) his perfect obedience to the Father, and (c) his vindication-securing resurrection. All of these are reckoned—that is, imputed—to the believer in Christ. On this basis, (3) the "dead," "righteous," "raised" believer is accepted and assured of final vindication and eternal fellowship with God.

So Piper, it seems, is NOT guilty of the charge of neglect of the resurrection. I wonder, though, how often do my own presentations of the gospel include the concept of Jesus' resurrection being credited to our account? Do I sometimes forget to even mention the resurrection of Jesus? The samples of Billy Graham's preaching I listened to at the Billy Graham Center certainly did speak of the resurrection of Jesus as part of what he had done for us. The phrase that keeps recurring in my mind from those sermons was simply "He is a living Jesus." Could it be that the preaching of the cross AND the resurrection is more spiritually potent for producing salvation than simply preaching on the cross?

So far in this series we have looked at the following:

• John Piper, N. T. Wright, and Gracious Discernment
  
  
• John Piper Challenges N. T. Wright on Justification
  
  
• Piper Explains the Classic View of Justification Versus N. T. Wright's View

Today I want to share a quote from The Future of Justification in which Piper responds to another of Wright's main criticisms of traditional views of justification. Wright has argued that the Gospel is not a way of getting people saved, and that we are not saved by holding a certain doctrine, but by faith in the person of Jesus and his resurrection.

“. . . there is a misleading ambiguity in Wright’s statement that we are saved not by believing in justification by faith but by believing in Jesus’ death and resurrection. The ambiguity is that it leaves undefined what we believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection for. It is not saving faith to believe in Jesus merely for prosperity or health or a better marriage. In Wright’s passion to liberate the gospel from mere individualism and to make it historical and global, he leaves it vague for individual sinners.

The summons, “Believe the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection” has no content that is yet clearly good news. Not until the gospel preacher tells the listener what Jesus offers him personally and freely does this proclamation have the quality of good news. My point here has simply been that from Acts 13:39 it is evident that one way Paul preached the gospel was by saying, “By him [namely, Jesus] everyone who believes is justified from everything from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.” Of course, it is Jesus who saves, not the doctrine. And so our faith rests decisively on Jesus. But the doctrine tells us what sort of Jesus we are resting on and what we are resting on him for. Without this, the word Jesus has no content that could be good news. . . .

If the gospel has no answer for this sinner, the mere facts of the death and resurrection of Jesus are not good news. But if the gospel has an answer, it would have to be a message about how the rebel against God can be saved—indeed, how he can be right with God and become part of the covenant people. I do not think Wright needs to marginalize these essential and glorious aspects of the gospel in order to strengthen his case that the gospel has larger global implications.” (pp. 86-89)

Book photo courtesy of Tony S. Reinke, The Shepherd's Scrapbook. Used by permission.

Over at Unashamed Workmen, there are a number of great quotes on the vital place of prayer in preaching. The one that really stood out was in the comments section. I think this quote expresses perfectly why we need to plead with the resurrected Jesus to pour out his Spirit on us before we dare think of preaching:

“This divine unction is the one distinguishing feature that separates true gospel preaching from all other methods of presenting truth. It backs and interpenetrates the revealed truth with all the force of God. It illumines the Word and broadens and enrichens [sic] the intellect and empowers it to grasp and apprehend the Word. It qualifies the preacher’s heart, and brings it to that condition of tenderness, of purity, of force and light that are necessary to secure the highest results. This unction gives to the preacher liberty and enlargement of thought and soul—a freedom, fullness, and directness of utterance that can be secured by no other process.”

—Power Through Prayer by E. M. Bounds

During a brief trip to the USA this past week, I had a layover in the Chicago area. I had an amazing few hours. I ate lunch with two great friends who I had never met in the flesh before. It struck me that the impression I had of them when finally meeting face-to-face was almost identical to the one I already had through our electronic communications. I thank God for the people I have been privileged to meet through this blog.

What I want to focus on in this post is what happened next. I hadn't even realized that there was a connection between Billy Graham and the town I was visiting. At my friends' suggestion, I headed to the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.

I am well aware that there are at least two different perceptions of Billy Graham among evangelicals. You can read about both perspectives in a 2006 MSNBC interview and the Wikipedia page about Billy Graham. There are many evangelicals who, although they might have some concerns, greatly rejoice in what God has accomplished through his preaching of the Gospel. In Philippians 1, Paul rejoices that Christ was preached even by those who had bad motives. Surely all Christians can rejoice at the preaching career of a man who has been in the media spotlight for five decades and yet has never been accused of a lack of integrity.

Wikipedia believes that 2 billion people have heard Billy Graham preach the Gospel and that 2.5 million of them made a public declaration of faith in response. There is no doubt that Billy has preached to more people than any other Christian minister in the last 2000 years. If there have been some weaknesses about Billy over the years (and certainly Billy himself believes that there are) then surely the fact that God chose to use someone weak in such a dramatic way only underlines the glory of his grace.

The Billy Graham Center moved me profoundly. An overview of evangelical history in America led into a more detailed report of the life of the man often called "America's pastor." The focus was not on his role as personal counselor to every president since Harry Truman. Rather it was his preaching and crusades that were reported in most detail. Walking past photographs of massive crowds while listening to clips of his preaching brought tears to my eyes. It seemed that in every era the extracts of the messages they had playing said almost the same thing, which I have paraphrased as follows:

Christ died, took the guilt for you, became sin for you, and rose again. He's a living Christ. He's here right now. He wants you to repent, trust him, and ask him to be Lord of your life, to come into your life so you can then follow him as Lord and Saviour.

The focus was not just on the death, but also on the resurrection. It was not just on sin and wrath, but also forgiveness and love. He was not content to speak only of God in heaven, but also of Jesus living in our hearts. I stood behind Billy's traveling pulpit and listened to his voice and wept that God would raise up more preachers of Christ in our day who can fill stadiums with the Gospel.

As the exhibition closes, if visitors are in any doubt about who the organizers really want to glorify, you are led through a passageway to the foot of an enormous cross. Then you are taken into a dark passageway clearly intended to be the grave. As you round the corner, a simple inscription is written on the wall "He is not here, but risen!" The passageway then opens into a light room clearly intended to reflect glory. I was quite simply undone by this and had tears welling in my eyes.

I was left with a strong impression of the need for us to preach the simple Gospel of Jesus' death AND resurrection. I also remember reading these words of Billy Graham there (which sadly I did not write down in a notebook, so they may not be 100 per cent accurate, although the sense is definitely there):

I find that when I preach the simple Gospel with authority, quoting the very words of the Bible, the Holy Spirit drives it home into the hearts of people.

The Holy Spirit was a major focus of the exhibition in several quotes. Oh, for a return to such an emphasis on the living Jesus sending his Spirit to convict the world and bring them salvation. Deliver us from an overly intellectual Christianity, oh God. Remind us that the Gospel is indeed simple enough that a farm boy with no theological degrees can become its most prolific ambassador!

The impression left on me was striking indeed. So much so that, somewhat surprisingly for such a fan as I am, seeing the writing desks of C. S. Lewis and J. R. Tolkein, not to mention the wardrobe which inspired The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, was frankly an anticlimax!

In this extract from the forthcoming Owen book, John Owen reveals just how distant he is from many modern-day Christians. How often do we talk about a conscious relationship with the living Christ? How much do we truly enjoy his presence? How much are we aware of how precious he is? Is our failure to truly pursue a conscious experience of Jesus part of the reason why we often struggle to fight against sin? Who would eat the moldy crumbs of pleasure that the world would offer us when we have feasted on the delights to be found in knowing Christ? Here are Owen’s words:

"When once the soul of a believer has obtained sweet and real communion with Christ, it looks about him, watches all temptations all ways whereby sin might approach, to disturb him in his enjoyment of his dear Lord and Savior, his rest and desire. How does it charge itself not to omit anything, nor to do anything that may interrupt the communion obtained! And because the common entrance of temptations which tend to the disturbance of that rest and complacency which Christ takes in the soul, is from delightful diversions from actual communion with him; therefore is desire strong and active that the companions of such a soul, those with whom it does converse, would not, by their proposals or allurements, divert it into any such frame as Christ cannot delight nor rest in. A believer that has gotten Christ in his arms is like one that has found great spoils, or a pearl of price. He looks about him every way, and fears everything that may deprive him of it. Riches make men watchful; and the actual sensible possession of him, in whom are all the riches and treasure of God will make men look about them for the keeping of him. The line of choicest communion is a line of the greatest spiritual solicitousness, carelessness in the enjoyment of Christ pretended is a manifest evidence of a false heart." (Communion with the Triune God, pages 238-239)

Yesterday we shared a great definition of the Gospel taken from the Forward to the forthcoming Crossway book, Communion with the Triune God.

Today we will share more words from the introductory portions of that book which will explain this further and show the emphasis Owen placed on an experience of God: “I pray God with all my heart that I may be weary of everything else but converse and communion with him.” (John Owen, letter to Sir John Hartop, cited on page 14.) The editors explain this further:

. . we will begin by considering our relationship with God. To experience communion there needs to be fellowship and communication—e.g., shared affections, response, delight, and satisfaction. In other words, when Owen speaks of our communion with God, he really means active communion, and not merely a state of passivity. “Communion consists in giving and receiving.”

But to appreciate how this informs his view of spirituality, it is important to note that Owen maintains an essential distinction between union and communion. Believers are united to Christ in God by the Spirit. This union is a unilateral action by God in which those who were dead are made alive, those who lived in darkness begin to see the light, and those who were enslaved to sin are set free to be loved and to love. When one speaks of “union,” it must be clear that the human person is merely receptive, being the object of God’s gracious action.

This is the state and condition of all true saints. Communion with God, however, is distinct from union. Those who are united to Christ are called to respond to God’s loving embrace. While union with Christ is something that does not ebb and flow, one’s experience of communion with Christ can fluctuate.” (Page 21)

Some Christians do not appreciate the value of doctrine. They do not understand why we need to learn so much about God. I fear that the reason for this is that we do not always explain the effects that doctrine can have on our lives. The Doctor was not so foolish. Indeed, he is one of the masters of spiritual diagnostics, and of applying spiritual medicine to us. This example from his work on the book of Ephesians stood out to me. He is speaking about the message of Ephesians 1 and 2, and applies it to our cold hearts and our lack of missional thinking.

Are you worried about the coldness of your heart? I am sure you are, as we all ought to be. Is it not appalling that we can come and eat the bread and drink the wine at the communion table and be so unmoved, that our hearts are not overflowing with love to God? Why are they not overflowing with love? It is because we do not realise the greatness of His love. If you want to love God do not try to work up something inside yourself: realise His love, and pray that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened, that you may realise the pit out of which you have been hauled up, the depths to which you had sunk, your former terrible, precarious, perilous position, and what God has done for you, by His grace, in Christ. That is the way to realise it. ‘We love him because he first loved us’, says John, and it is the same argument. The understanding of these things is essential to a sense of wonder, love and praise.

But come to something still more practical. It is because we do not realise these things as we ought that we do not feel the burden of the souls of others as we ought. Christian people are but a handful in the world today. The masses are outside Christ, outside the Church, in godlessness and irreligion, and in a terrible state of sin. Are we concerned about them? Does their condition burden us? Have we a missionary sense with regard to our fellow citizens in this country? Does the condition of the benighted masses in other lands weigh upon us at all? Are we concerned about the missionary enterprise? Do we think about these things, do they burden us, do we pray to God about them? Are we asking, ‘What can I do, how can I help, what contribution can I make?’ If we are not, there is only one explanation—we have never realised the truth about people who are in a state of sin. We are just irritated by them, we are just annoyed. But that is not enough; we must be concerned about souls, we must be concerned about sin. We must see them as they are, the children of wrath, hell-bound, in this degradation, in this pollution that the apostle here describes. If we only saw it, our hearts would go out to them; we would see them as our Lord saw them, and He had a great heart of compassion for them. The poorness of our missionary and evangelistic zeal is entirely due to this. We have not seen the position of those outside truly—what they are, what they might be, and what Christ has done.

The third thing that it brings home to us is that if we but saw these things truly it would also control our evangelism. The trouble with all false evangelism is that it does not start with doctrine, it does not start by realising man’s condition. All fleshly, carnal, man-made evangelism is the result of inadequate understanding of what the apostle teaches us in the first ten verses of this second chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians. If you and I but realised that every man who is yet a sinner is absolutely dominated by ‘the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,’ if we only understood that he is really a child of wrath and dead in trespasses and sins, we would realise that only one power can deal with such an individual, and that is the power of God, the power of the Holy Ghost. And so we would put our confidence, not in man-made organisations, but in the power of God, in the prayer that holds on to God and asks for revival and a descent of the Spirit. We would realise that nothing else can do it. We can change men superficially, we can win men to our side and to our party, we can persuade them to join a church, but we can never raise the spiritually dead; God alone can do that. The realisation of these truths would of necessity determine and control all our evangelism.

Lloyd-Jones, D. M. (1972). God's Way of Reconciliation (Studies in Ephesians, chapter 2) (10). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

As regular readers will already know, this week I am swiftly working through the glorious doctrines of grace—the so-called "TULIP." Today we reach the end of our short series with the doctrine of the persevernace of the saints, which teaches that God will insure that genuine believers in Christ remain faithful to the end. I give the last words to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

". . . the eternal God knows us and is interested in us and has a plan for us. If that is not enough for you, then I despair! The astounding thing I find here is that the eternal and absolute God knows me, that he thought of me before the foundation of the world, not only before I was born, but before he even made the world; that this eternal, absolute Being is interested in me, even me, as an individual and as a person, and that I was in his mind when he conceived this amazing plan that includes the incarnation and the cross, and the resurrection and the ascension, and the reign of his Son at his side that is going on now. What a staggering, yes, but what a glorious thought!

. . . there is therefore nothing uncertain about my acceptance with God, nor about my forgiveness, nor about my sonship. When I realize that I have been brought into God’s plan I know that nothing can frustrate this . . . plan of God which cannot be broken and which cannot fail. It is as absolute as God, himself; he knows the end as well as the beginning. ‘Neither shall any man,’ said Christ, ‘pluck them out of my hand.’ It is unthinkable.

. . . Let me put it like this: God, who is sufficiently concerned about me to send his Son to die on the cross of Calvary for me, is not going to let me down when any difficulty or temptation faces me. My dear friends, there is nothing for you to fear! You belong to One of whom we are told that all power has been given to him over all flesh. You are in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ if you but knew and realised it, and he controls everything. He controls every human being, all the affairs of nature, he is even controlling the devil himself. All power is given unto him, thrones, dominions, principalities and powers are subject unto him, so you need never fear! You and I have but to realize that we are in those mighty hands, that that strong arm is engaged on our behalf, that all flesh under his power, and that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him."

Lloyd-Jones, David Martyn. The Assurance of Our Salvation: Exploring the Depth of Jesus' Prayer for His Own: Studies in John 17. Wheaton, Illinois, Crossway Books, 2000, S. 65.

Sometimes we get so caught up in our doctrine of the cross that we forget the ULTIMATE PURPOSE FOR WHICH CHRIST DIED AND WAS RISEN. It was, in fact, not first and foremost for us, rather it was for Him. It was—like everything God does—for the sake of His own name and His own glory. He died and rose again so that one day everyone would acknowledge His supremacy and His right to rule over the entire universe. The following Scriptures will help us to lift our gaze from the mundane and be filled with the vision of this glorious victorious resurrected Jesus.

• “ . . . he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:8-11)
  
  
• “ . . . according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Ephesians 1:9-10)
  
  
• “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:27-28)

The GOAL OF THE CROSS AND THE RESURRECTION FOR US was that we would be changed, and that we would come to know Him—a knowledge we will know fully on that day, but which is given to us in part now through the Holy Spirit.

• “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” (1 Peter 2:24).
  
  
• “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:13-14)
  
  
• “ . . . that I may know him” (Philippians 3:10)

One of my commentators didn't like my last post when I said that God really does change us when we become a Christian. I am not going to get into the philosophical arguments he does. As O don't think the Bible All I can say is that when God declares someone to be righteous, in some mysterious way he makes us righteous.

I remember well what Terry Virgo who is one of my theological heroes once said in a comment I read in one of his books. He began a sentance as follows - "When I was a sinner..."

Do you still think of yourself as a "sinner"? Or do you think of yourself as a saint - a holy one? I think it is revealing that this concept of us as made righteous is one of the casualties of the denial of Penal Substitutionary Atonement. For without a notion of Jesus bearing our sins away (Is 53) how can we believe that they are no longer ours?

Lets read together a few verses that speak to this issue of us being made righteous--

• Romans 5:19 "For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous."
• Psalm 51 "Have mercy on me, O God,according to your steadfast love;according to your abundant mercyblot out my transgressions.Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,and cleanse me from my sin. . . Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness;let the bones that you have broken rejoice.Hide your face from my sins,and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God,and renew a right spirit within me. . . Then I will teach transgressors your ways,and sinners will return to you."
• Isaiah 6:7 "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."
• John 1:29 "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
• Acts 22:16 "And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name."
• Hebrews 9:26 "..he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."
• 1 John 3 "..Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. . .he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. . .Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous."
• Romans 6 "...can we who died to sin still live in it? . . .our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. . . So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. "
• Psalm 103 ". . .He does not deal with us according to our sins,nor repay us according to our iniquities.For as high as the heavens are above the earth,so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;as far as the east is from the west,so far does he remove our transgressions from us."
• Isaiah 43:25 "I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,and I will not remember your sins."
• 2 Cor 5:21 "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

If God does not remember our sins, and has cleansed our guilt, then they no longer exist. We have a clean slate. We are free. It is "just as if I'd never sinned" but more than that it is "Just as if I'd always been holy"

Praise God for his wonderful mercy and love that he should provide a way that cost him so much to rescue us from the mess we have made of our own lives. We deserve nothing but wrath from him, and he gives us everything. What love. What grace. Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

Many people criticize Penal Subsitutionary Atonement on the basis that it makes justification into a legal fiction. I suppose such a criticism might be valid if a simplistic explanation of PSA was all that happened because of the cross. We have already seen that is not the case. But, more than that we must not think that nothing actually happens to us at conversion. No, we are united with Christ and a real change happens to us — we are born again. This rebirth is explictly linked to the resurrection. Justification is no mere legal fiction, for when God declares something to be the case, He also causes it to become the case. We need to be united with Christ in his death and resurrection. It is only as we become added to Christ that the benefits of His death and resurrection are applied to us.

• “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)
  
  
• “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:19-20)
  
  
• “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:5)
  
  
• “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
  
  
• “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1)
  
  
• “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit ...and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2:38-39)

Today, I thought I would share with you the following quote on the resurrection from Jonathan Edwards.

So Christ, our second surety (in whose justification all whose surety he is, are virtually justified), was not justified till he had done the work the Father had appointed him, and kept the Father's commandments through all trials, and then in his resurrection he was justified. When he had been put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, 1 Pet. 3:18, then he that was manifest in the flesh was justified in the Spirit, 1 Tim. 3:16. But God, when he justified him in raising him from the dead, did not only release him from his humiliation for sin, and acquit him from any further suffering or abasement for it, but admitted him to that eternal and immortal life, and to the beginning of that exaltation that was the reward of what he had done.

And indeed the justification of a believer is no other than his being admitted to communion in the justification of this head and surety of all believers: for as Christ suffered the punishment of sin, not as a private person, but as our surety. So when after this suffering he was raised from the dead, he was therein justified, not as a private person, but as the surety and representative of all that should believe in him. So that he was raised again not only for his own, but also for our justification, according to the apostle, Rom. 4:25, "Who was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification." And therefore it is that the apostle says, as he does in Rom. 8:34, "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again."

But that a believer's justification implies not only remission of sins, or acquittal from the wrath due to it, but also an admittance to a title to that glory which is the reward of righteousness, is more directly taught in the Scriptures, particularly in Rom. 5:1, 2, where the apostle mentions both these as joint benefits implied in justification: "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

So remission of sin, and inheritance among them that are sanctified, are mentioned together as what are jointly obtained by faith in Christ, Acts 26:18, "That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified through faith that is in me." Both these are without doubt implied in that passing from death to life, which Christ speaks of as the fruit of faith, and which he opposes to condemnation, John 5:24, "Verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." - Jonathan Edwards Justification by Faith

When the risen Jesus appeared to His disciples, He had a job for them to do. When someone who has conquered death asks you to do something, you better sit up and take notice. If Jesus was meek and mild during His life, He was strong and victorious in His resurrection. In the following passage, Jesus gave a rallying call that has sounded through the ages. People sometimes ask why some modern Christians are eager to be "missional" — it is quite simply because the one Man who has conquered death and will return one day has left us orders to do just that!

Last week, I reminded us that the risen Christ has not left us alone, but instead sent the Holy Spirit. This passage from Matthew 28 tells us that through the Spirit, it is actually the case that Jesus Himself — the risen One — is with us even today. I want us once again this weekend to ask ourselves how conscious of this are we? I am convinced Jesus wants us to remind Him of this promise, and as we commit ourselves to fulfill His call, why should we think He would not fulfill His side of the bargain and be with us on this mission in a way that we will know He is there and be empowered to accomplish the task He has set before us. The King still has other subjects to gather into His kingdom. Let's labor with all the strength He gives us to speed His return.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in [2] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28)

Two weeks ago we began to look at how Christ’s resurrection has already begun to have an effect on us. Today I would like to highlight the concept of having been sealed by the Spirit, and how this sealing is connected to Jesus’ resurrection.

To Paul, the sealing with the Spirit is a foretaste of our inheritance, which surely includes our resurrection bodies. Thus, both our guarantee and the reality of it are provided for us because Jesus has been raised from the dead. I could write a lot about this concept, but instead let me point you back to some quotes from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

• Sealed with the Spirit — Ephesians 1
  
• Sealed with the Spirit, Part 2
  
• Sealed with the Spirit, Part 3
  
• Sealing with The Spirit
  

I will leave you with this passage from Ephesians 1 which inspired much of what the Doctor has to say about the concept of sealing with the Spirit:

“In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” (Ephesians 1:13-23)

Last week I made the point that to Paul the cross and resurrection of Jesus are so closely entwined that he will often use one or the other of them as shorthand for both. Today I want to point to another passage, this time in Peter, where I believe the same thing occurs.

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed." (1 Peter 2:24)

Notice first of all that this is a strong verse in support of a penal substitutionary view of the atonement. Jesus is hanging there on the cross bearing our sins. Now what is happening to our sins? Our sins are being destroyed, that’s what! Our sins are in the body of Christ and are being destroyed. How are they being destroyed? For a start, it’s on a tree, and as any reader of Galatians 3:13 knows, anyone hung on a tree is cursed. As Paul puts it “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’”

What destroys sin? The fact that it is punished and annihilated at the cross. What else can “By his wounds you have been healed” mean in this context? So a real transfer has occurred where the wounds of Christ deal with our sin. This is another of those verses that, to me, seem hard to read any other way, although my commentators are welcome to try!

Today is Resurrection Sunday, after all, so notice the middle portion of those words. You should notice a parallel with the words we were considering last week. We are told that what happened to Jesus is so that we can die to sin — that makes sense, of course, but also the words "live to righteousness" are added. I would argue that to this writer, the resurrection and the cross are so entwined that he sees no need to mention it here, it is assumed. The parallelism between Jesus’ death and our death to sin and His resurrection and our righteous life is so strong it must be a very early summary of the Gospel. To go back to what I said a few weeks back, it is sad that we often fail to even mention the Resurrection in our preaching of the Gospel.

How do I know for sure that Peter used this abbreviation — not because the resurrection was unimportant to him theologically — but because of his belief that he could trust his readers to understand what he meant? It’s because in the previous chapter he does it the other way and speaks about the resurrection itself as having saved us without any mention of the cross!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:3-9)

Last Resurrection Sunday I ended with a quote from N. T. Wright which stated we were meant to be people of the resurrection. I think that phrase of his hints at what I mean by the resurrection empowered life. It is no accident that Protestant crosses tend to be empty for, like the tomb, the cross of Christ is indeed empty. I have already spoken about how it is clear that God intends us to fill our minds with images of Jesus in His resurrection glory, and that doing so is a major factor in our transformation.

What is perhaps even more staggering than the fact that we are to gaze on the resurrected Christ is that the Bible is clear that we Christians have already benefited directly from the resurrection of Jesus. Earlier this week I blogged about Romans 6, which states we have been raised with Jesus. It is not only in Romans that we find this astonishing idea.

In Ephesians 2, when the Apostle Paul introduces the good news, the striking thing is that he doesn’t even mention Jesus’ death, but moves instead to our own resurrection “together with Christ.” As is commonly the case in Paul, Jesus’ resurrection here presupposes His death. Similarly, when he speaks about Jesus death, he often doesn’t feel the need to state that He has also risen from the dead. Thus, the death and resurrection of Jesus to Paul go together and are inseparable since either one can be used as shorthand for both. This passage is striking as it shows us very clearly how we come to experience the reality in our own lives that Jesus was “delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” (Romans 4:25)

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:1-7)

Thus, becoming a Christian is very literally a revival. We have been resuscitated spiritually. Where once we were separated from God and “dead” to Him, now we are alive to Him. This will reach its fulfillment in the ages to come, but as we shall see as we look further into this, we are benefiting already from this. The Christian is spiritually alive already, and to use a phrase I have often heard growing up “we are not under the circumstances, we are over the circumstances” as we have been raised with Him and seated in heavenly places.

A very similar passage occurs in Colossians 2 which, incidentally, links the whole concept much more explicitly to a very penal substitutionary view of the atonement, and parallels Romans 6, as well as Ephesians 2. It is truly striking that Paul can speak of our record of debt being nailed to the cross — that is penal substitution at its most clear, but once again we see that the biblical perspective of the atonement is entwined, not merely with the death of Jesus, but also with His resurrection.

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:11-14)

At the beginning of this series of “Resurrection Sunday” posts I bemoaned the relative lack of books on the subject. One of my readers was kind enough to remind me that, of course, N. T. Wright has written on the resurrection. I thought the following quote was definitely worth sharing with you:

“For Paul, the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the heart of the gospel (not to the exclusion of the cross, of course, but not least as the event which gives the cross its meaning); it is the object of faith, the ground of justification, the basis for obedient Christian living, the motivation for unity, and, not least, the challenge to the principalities and powers. It is the event that declares that there is ‘another king’, and summons human beings to allegiance, and thereby to a different way of life, in fulfilment of the Jewish scriptures and in expectation of the final new world which began at Easter and which will be completed when the night is finally gone and the day has fully dawned.”

I also found the following pithy quote from N. T. Wright on the resurrection here:

"The work of the church is to implement the resurrection of Jesus and thereby to anticipate the final new creation . . . We are called to be people of new creation now, in the power of the Spirit."

Last Resurrection Sunday, we spoke about Revelation 1. I want to stay in that passage one more week and highlight just one verse. I'm sure that the words “The Resurrection Empowered Life” thrill some of my readers and make others of them nervous. I have noticed that some Christians tend to feel that the Christian life will always be a struggle with limited progress. Others believe that the Christian life is to be lived almost as though we are hovering six feet off the ground — from victory to victory.

The verse that speaks to this issue from our chapter is:

“I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus . . .” (Revelation 1:9).

Remember from the context that when we talk about Jesus we are talking about the risen Jesus. As we mentioned earlier in the week, a key aspect of our Christian faith is that we are united with this Jesus. You might expect that in this glorious passage about the risen Jesus we would hear that we, too, are to experience at all times a remarkable sense of resurrection power that will simply solve all our problems in a flash. Not a bit of it. What is in Jesus?

Well, there is “kingdom” — so there IS a sense of glorious victory for us to share in, even here and now — surely that comes from the risen Christ. But there is also tribulation and suffering. The kind of suffering that the dying Jesus makes us think of. There is also endurance — and I like to think that perhaps the life of Jesus should reveal that to us and show us that we are to expect to share in that with Him, too.

There you have it. We DO experience the power of the resurrection and the breaking in of His kingdom. Because of His resurrection, we can pray let "your kingdom come . . . on earth as it is in heaven.” But there will still be suffering. There will still be difficulties — which is where the whole book of 2 Corinthians comes in so strongly. In the midst of those difficulties and spurred on by the taste of resurrection power that we are experiencing, God wants to teach us to endure and be faithful.

As we consider the resurrection, remember this is not so that we might become unreal — people who never face the facts that hardships will come our way. But we ARE connected to a secret source of power to help us endure, of which the world knows nothing.

As I explained last Sunday, I am determined, at least whilst spending the rest of the week blogging about the atonement, to spend Sundays on a journey exploring the implications of the resurrection of Jesus.

I am writing this post one week before you will read it. These days I like to try and get ahead of myself in my blogging as much as possible. This morning I awoke earlier than usual. The house was quiet, and I felt God drawing me to meet Him in His Word in a similar way to that John Piper described so eloquently. I slipped downstairs whilst the rest of the family slept. I opened my Bible and began reading Revelation 1-3. As I was reading, I realised it had been some time since I had read this last book of the Bible. I got as far as verse 3 before I stopped.

“Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.” (Revelation 1:3)

I hadn’t noticed that line “read aloud” before — it isn’t translated like that in the NIV. I am not a Greek expert, so I am not sure exactly why the ESV scholars translated it in that way. But, I thought to myself, why not obey that injunction? I went back and proceeded to read the whole of those first three chapters aloud to myself. There is definitely a power in listening to the Word read — even if the one reading it is yourself.

I was confronted again with just how Trinitarian the first chapter of Revelation is, but what struck me even more than that was the following words:

“Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.” (Revelation 1:4-7)

We see here once again, as so frequently in the Scriptures, the death of Jesus linked with His resurrection. It struck me that “even those who pierced him” will see Jesus. Then it hit me — how will they see Jesus? How do we see Jesus now? If I say the name Jesus, what image fills my mind? If you are like me, it is probably an image of the cross. Now it is not wrong for us to gaze upon the cross in our mind's eye. But I would put it to you that it is not that image alone that will transform us. For we will not see Jesus again on a cross. Instead, we will see Him in all His glory.

I also turned this morning to the book of 2 Corinthians, which I am more and more convinced is critical for us to read and understand when considering these twin themes of the atonement and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. I cannot encourage you enough to read it through from beginning to end. Consider in particular these four verses carefully:

• “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
  
  
• “. . . the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)
  
  
• “For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6)
  
  
• “For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” (2 Corinthians 4:11)

To me the conclusion of these verses is simple. We are supposed to gaze upon the glory of Jesus, the Risen Lord, and as we do so, we will be transformed into His image and live a resurrection empowered life.

When was the last time you spent time considering the risen Jesus — when was the last time you really gazed upon Him? I asked myself that same question and realized it was too long ago. With the words of 2 Corinthians in mind, I read aloud the best description of Jesus we have. Then it struck me. We do not have any other description of what Jesus looked like in the Bible. There is no description of Him as the teacher who walked in Galilee. There is not even a vivid description of the scene of the cross. Surely there is a message for us here. When we think of Jesus, we need to picture Him in the way He is described by John in this passage, and in the way He describes Himself:

“Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

“. . . him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.”

“. . . the first and the last, who died and came to life.”

“. . . him who has the sharp two-edged sword.”

“. . . the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.”

“. . . him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.”

“. . . the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens."

“. . . the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.”

Revelation 1:12-18; Revelation 2:1,8,12,18; Revelation 3:1,7,14

As I conclude this post, there is one other thought I would like to leave with you. As each message of the risen Jesus to the seven churches begins with a description of Himself, each ends with a description of what He will do for the faithful Christian who perseveres to the end. As I considered this Jesus and gazed upon Him, I also gained much encouragement from contemplating the plans He has for us to share in His resurrection. We already share in His resurrection, but there is coming a day when all the benefits of the resurrection will be ours to share. I would encourage you to read the whole of these three chapters aloud, and to underline the descriptions of Jesus you find there, and also of what He will do for us.

I have been thinking a lot about the resurrection this past week — which might surprise you given my blog’s current focus on the atonement. The sermon I preached on Easter Sunday wasn’t, for me, a “normal” sermon. I felt more conscious than usual of a sense of being specifically commissioned by God to preach on a particular subject — the resurrection. This happened to me in a similar manner to that which Martyn Lloyd-Jones described as happening to him: “. . . one morning while dressing, quite suddenly and in an overwhelming manner, it seemed to me that the spirit of God was urging me to preach a series of sermons on 'spiritual depression'.”

What happened to me was that I woke up earlier than planned one morning and found that the phrase “Adrian, preach on the resurrection” was already strongly in my mind. What was interesting about this was that the day before I had politely declined a request to preach on Easter Sunday. After a morning phone call, it was agreed that I would preach after all, and I began to study the resurrection.

As I did so, it became clear to me how little this subject is spoken about or written about in any detail. This led me to look again at the preaching of the Apostles as recorded in Acts. It was striking that every single recorded sermon in Acts focuses on both the death AND resurrection of Jesus — well, every one except the sermon which was interrupted by the preacher seeing the risen Jesus and telling his hearers about it! I was deeply struck by this — I discovered only yesterday that Spurgeon had also been struck by this near the beginning of his ministry.

“Reflecting the other day upon the sad state of the churches at the present moment, I was led to look back to apostolic times, and to consider wherein the preaching of the present day differed from the preaching of the apostles. I remarked the vast difference in their style from the set and formal oratory of the present age. I remarked that the apostles did not take a text when they preached, nor did they confine themselves to one subject, much less to any place of worship, but I find that they stood up in any place and declared from the fulness of their heart what they knew of Jesus Christ. But the main difference I observed was in the subjects of their preaching. Surprised I was when I discovered that the very staple of the preaching of the apostles was the resurrection of the dead. I found myself to have been preaching the doctrine of the grace of God, to have been upholding free election, to have been leading the people of God as well as I was enabled into the deep things of His word; but I was surprised to find that I had not been copying the apostolic fashion half as nearly as I might have done. The apostles when they preached always testified concerning the resurrection of Jesus, and the consequent resurrection of the dead . . .

The resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of the righteous is a doctrine which we believe, but which we too seldom preach or care to read about. Though I have inquired of several booksellers for a book specially upon the subject of the resurrection, I have not yet been able to purchase one of any sort whatever; and when I turned to Dr. Owen's works, which are a most invaluable storehouse of divine knowledge, containing much that is valuable on almost every subject, I could find, even there, scarcely more than the slightest mention of the resurrection. It has been set down as a well-known truth, and therefore has never been discussed. Heresies have not risen up respecting it; it would almost have been a mercy if there had been, for whenever a truth is contested by heretics, the orthodox fight strongly for it, and the pulpit resounds with it every day. I am persuaded, however, that there is much power in this doctrine; and if I preach it this morning you will see that God will own the apostolic preaching, and there will be conversions. I intend putting it to the test now, to see whether there be not something which we cannot perceive at present in the resurrection of the dead, which is capable of moving the hearts of men and bringing them into subjection to the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”

— Spurgeon Sermon 66

As far as I can think, there is little change on that front today. Aside from some apologetic works, there are few, if any books, available today that look at the implications of the resurrection. Why should it be that we have so neglected this vital subject?

Gaffin (who was one of the sources I consulted during my preparation) believes that we have neglected to talk much about the resurrection since the reformation as an unintended result of our correct focus on the meaning of the cross. I have quoted from him and others at the end of my sermon notes which I posted earlier in the week.

Since I am currently in the midst of an extended series on the cross here on the blog, it has struck me that I, too, might be in danger of such a neglect of the resurrection. It seemed good to me, therefore, to initiate today a new plan on my blog. Every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday — we only began to meet as Christians on Sundays to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. Thus, for at least a season I will be blogging about the resurrection on most Sundays. I know many of you don’t read blogs at the weekend, but the posts will still be here on Monday mornings!

It was great to see that my dear friend, Andrew Fountain, has also been blogging about the resurrection this past week. He also quotes extensively from Gaffin, and his whole post is well worth a read. One point that Gaffin makes rightly is that the resurrection has implications here and now for us as Christians. It is because of the resurrection that the life-giving Spirit is poured into our hearts.

In the quotes that Andrew has shared from Gaffin, he also points out our lamentable neglect of the resurrection. He links it, interestingly, to a lack of emphasis on the work of God in sanctification — i.e. the activity of the Spirit in working in us by the same power with which He rose Jesus from the dead.

He even seems to believe that a lack of an understanding of the resurrection can lead to legalism. He concludes that the resurrection is vital to our understanding the following vital truth that all too often we neglect:

“‘He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 1:6, NASB). Sanctification, no less than justification, is God’s work. In the NT there is no more basic perspective on sanctification and renewal than that expressed in Romans 6: It is a continual ‘living to God’ (v. 11) of those who are ‘alive from the dead’ (v. 13).”

— Gaffin

It is thinking about precisely this notion of the dynamic effects of the resurrection of Christ on our Christian lives that led me today to come up with the title for today’s post— “The Resurrection Empowered Life”. I intend to explain a lot more about what I mean by this on future Sundays, but I think I have expressed some of it in my sermon series on the way that God revives us, and I also touch on this to some extent in my article on learning to love God as a real person.

This sermon was preached at Jubilee Church on Easter Sunday 2007. The audio is available to download (you may need to right click and save the file to your PC) or to listen to online here:

Let’s turn in our Bibles to the book of 1 Corinthians. As you are turning there, you need to know that right now you are in the best place you could possibly be this Easter morning. You are right where God wants you to be. God has made an appointment with each and every one of us this morning. Some of you might be thinking, “Why did I come?” Well, at this moment you have come here to have this book, the Bible, explained to you. You need to know that this is the most important book in the world. If there is one day of the year that is the most important of the Christian year, it is Easter Sunday. You are here on the most important day of the Christian year. If there is one message that is central to this book it is the message of the Gospel. If there is part of the message of the Gospel that is so vital it simply cannot be ignored, it is the good news of the resurrection. We are going to look together today at the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. He is risen indeed!

We celebrate the resurrection every Sunday — for that is the reason why Christians from the earliest times switched to meet on Sundays rather than Saturdays like the Jews. They would gather early every Sunday before the dawn because Christ was risen early on a Sunday morning. Today, this is a meeting WITH Jesus, this is a meeting FOR Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15 — Verses 1-6 and 12-22
There are two groups of people — those who are standing firm in the word of their salvation and those who Paul warns might have “believed in vain.” If I was a “politically correct” preacher, I would begin my message by being inclusive, and perhaps speaking about the brotherhood of man. The trouble is, Paul doesn’t do this. Instead he distinguishes between people, and claims only some of them as his brothers. As a messenger, I have to be true to God’s Word! Paul is clear that there are certain things that are true of those who he can truly call his brothers. You have felt something of the “family feel” of this place, I’m sure, and afterwards you will be most welcome to join us. But I suspect that for some of you right now, you are thinking — what is it about those people — do they have something I don’t? The answer is, “Yes, you are right — we do!”

Some of you right now are thinking, “At least I am a Christian — I might not go to church much, I might not practice my faith much, but I am here today — what more does he want?” The truth is — a recent survey revealed that the majority of adults in the UK still think they are Christians. Paul would have one thing to ask us all this morning, “Are you holding fast to the word preached to you?” For many, sadly, they have not really had the Bible explained or preached to them. Perhaps you are one of them — you go to church for christenings, weddings, and funerals — hatch, match, and dispatch! Perhaps some Christmases and Easter, too.

I want to draw a clear line this morning — not so much between the Christian and the non-Christian, but rather between the Christian who is standing firm in his faith, who is walking with God, who is confident of his salvation — who knows God is pleased with him and he is on his way to heaven. On the other hand, there is everyone else. Paul issues that warning right at the beginning of our passage — “unless you have believed in vain.” Look, as James says, even the devils believe in God. “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” (James 2:19)

I want to give you a chance this morning to cross that divide and make your faith sure. There is one place to do that more surely than anywhere else, and it is the place we are gathering this morning. You might expect me to say we will come to the cross — and we will, of course, speak about the cross — but, in fact, we are coming to the empty tomb. For it is at the empty tomb that we meet Jesus — He is not dead, He is risen!

The good news is the story of Jesus and how the events of his life 2000 years ago still have a major impact on us today. What does Paul say is the most important thing?

What is the “good news” or “gospel” according to Paul?

There are three aspects:

• Christ died
  
• He was buried
  
• He was raised from death.

Historians are very clear about two things about Jesus — He existed, and He was crucified. There are no serious thinkers who doubt those two facts. Indeed, the whole edifice of history comes tumbling down if you claim that they are not true for there are no events of history that are better attested to than those. If we cannot be sure Jesus lived and died, then we cannot be sure of any event in history.

But the fact that there was a man who lived 2000 years ago, then died, is not a “hold the presses” news story. The fact that He was a great teacher is not even a major news story. The fact that He was reported to work miracles is not even as totally unusual as you might think. The fact that He founded a religion does not even make Him unique — although, admittedly, fewer people manage that one! Actually the fact that he hung on a cross and was crucified through no fault of His own is not even unique to Jesus — thousands of people were crucified.

• He really died – a professional executioner saw and confirmed it — the spear demonstrated it . . . THERE WAS NO BACK-UP HEART = “Drat! One has gone, just as well I have got another one spare” — He’s not Doctor Who!

There is, however, one fact about Jesus that makes Him unique. There is only one thing that marks Him out as totally different from every great figure in history. That is the fact of the empty tomb! Again, even secular historians admit that there was an empty tomb. So we have seen, there is no doubt Jesus lived, there is no doubt He died, and we can be sure He was buried. We can also be sure that there was an empty tomb and a movement was born in the months and years after His death that claimed He had been raised from the dead and was now worthy of worship.

Something dramatic happened to transform a timid group of good Jewish boys who knew very well that there was only one God and they must worship Him or go to hell. They became a bold set of preachers who would turn the world upside down and do so with a message that said “this man who you crucified God raised him from the dead, and we are now to worship him.” Not exactly a message that is easy to believe is it? Not something that you would make up.

One thing is for sure. If the Jewish or Roman authorities could have lead us to the body of Jesus, they would have done so. It simply is untenable to believe that explains the empty tomb. So what other options do we have — that the disciples stole the body and knew all along they were lying? That simply doesn’t make sense psychologically — for people lie to gain some kind of benefit; if these guys lied, they got killed for it — not one of them broke ranks and said, “Oops, we were only kidding.” YOU CANT SCARE ME WITH DEATH — Jesus already conquered it! No, Paul could point to 500 people who were willing to say “I saw Him.”

Could it have been a hallucination? No, hallucinations don’t happen to a crowd all at once like that.

We also have to explain the amazing phenomenon that has been the Church of Jesus Christ. No religion ever grew more quickly, and no religion today is as widespread. And the one thing the Church agrees on is this — Jesus rose from the dead. Millions of people have claimed to have met Him. Paul is very clear — if this didn’t happen, every Christian who has ever lived is to be pitied more than anyone. Everyone who has, at a funeral, believed their loved one had gone to be with Jesus is deluded if He is still buried somewhere in Israel. The apostles and every believer has falsely testified about God that He raised Jesus from the dead.

And if He is not risen, every great transforming work of the Jesus is somehow a delusion. Every great social reformer like Wilberforce or Newton who claimed to be driven by a call from Jesus should be locked up rather than revered as a great historical figure.

• Without the resurrection, the Christian religion comes tumbling down — like taking the bottom piece out of jenga.
  
• Christianity is the meanest cruelest HOAX if Jesus is still dead — it is cruel and sadistic. Here we are singing to a dead man, praying to a dead man, preaching about a dead man, worshiping a dead man, trusting in a dead man! If Jesus is dead, everything is changed.
  
• The resurrection is crucial. If it wasn’t for the resurrection, we would still be in our sins. How could Jesus work in us to forgive us and make us like Him if He is still dead?
  
• “BUT,” as Paul simply says here, “IN FACT, CHRIST HAS BEEN RAISED!”
  
• Jesus is NOT dead – He is alive. Every other religious leader is dead — no one else conquered death — only Jesus.

The resurrection was Jesus’ justification — it was God’s stamp of approval that He still loved His Son, and that the work had been done. Jesus had died for our sins; now He was being raised up for our justification (as Romans 4:25 puts it). It is not just that our sins are dealt with and that we are made morally neutral before God. It is not only “just as if I’d never sinned,” but also “just as if I’d lived a perfect life for eternity and was as pure and righteous as Jesus!”

Jesus still had merit left after the cross — it is not as if sin swallowed His merit up — quite the opposite! His goodness and merit swallowed up sin so that, although on the cross God couldn’t look on Him, God simply couldn’t abandon His perfect Son to the grave!

THIS IS THE GOOD NEWS! “All the love and acceptance which perfect obedience could have obtained of God, belong to you because Christ was perfectly obedient on your behalf.” (C. H. Spurgeon).

“Remember God has accepted us. The gospel of grace is a message of breathtaking freedom. It must be embraced with faith and thanksgiving. You are thoroughly accepted just as you are. Jesus Christ is your righteousness, and He is never going to change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When you wake tomorrow, He will still be your righteousness, before you have done anything to enjoy God’s favor. You have to earn nothing. Your spirit needs to bask in the brilliant sunlight of this reality. You need to know it inwardly and celebrate it on a daily basis.” (Terry Virgo).

The resurrection is also the one thing that gives us hope. For if Christ has been raised, then as Paul says here — we, too, shall be raised if we trust Him.

The Bible is not very complementary about us without Jesus — it says we are “without hope and without God in this world.” (Ephesians 2:12).

• We are born spiritually dead.
  
• As we go through life, false hope simply makes us more desperate because every disappointment is like death to hope — “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”
  
• We go through life feeling something is missing. “There must be more to life than this.”
  
• We are so far from truly living life to the full as God intended it that we are effectively dead already — we are dead men walking.
  
• We spend our lives trying not to talk about death, but knowing it is coming.
  
• When we come face-to-face with the man whom death could not hold, we have a hope. For the Christian, what Peter says in chapter 1 of his epistle, verses 3 onwards, is true.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead . . .

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3–5).

Is that true of you this morning? If not, it can be! You can meet Jesus. You can be born again because of the resurrection. Your spiritual death can be swallowed up

• Sin does not win — Jesus does!
  
• Death does not win — Jesus does!
  
• He really did die for our sin and rise for our salvation, and we can sing to Him today, and can confess our sins to Him because He is alive.

He said — I am God. I have come to take away sin. I will die, and three days later come back to life again to prove it. He did prove it!

Solidify your faith this morning — dwell on this resurrection of Jesus, let it give you a firm foundation. Start with this issue when talking to the unbeliever about the message of the Bible — this is the big one!

What is the outcome for us of the resurrection?

• Our sins are dealt with and we are declared righteous.
  
• Born again — a new beginning, with the old behind us, including our fears and our guilt.
  
• A hope for the future that goes beyond the grace.
  
• A hope for now that transforms our lives.
  
• A relationship with Jesus — we can know and love Him even though we don’t see Him with our eyes.

I have come to the end of what I want to say to you, but let me give Jesus an opportunity to speak. This is what he once said, and I believe He would say to us today:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).

Do YOU believe this?

How do we become a Christian? It is a matter of becoming united with Christ — of putting our trust in Him. Of taking a public stand — “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Baptism is the way we publicly demonstrate what has happened — we die with Christ, we are buried with Him, and we are raised back to life. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus — it really is good news. Do you believe it?

BACKGROUND QUOTES

“If the Lord Jesus Christ had not literally risen physically from the grave, we could never be certain that he had ever really finished the work. And what was the work? It was to satisfy the demands of the law. The law of God demands that the punishment for sin shall be death, and if he has died for our sins, we must not only be certain that he has died, but that he has finished dying, and that there is no longer death. He has answered the ultimate demands of the law, and in the same way he has answered all the ultimate demands of God. The argument of the New Testament is that when God raised his Son from the dead, he was proclaiming to the whole world, I am satisfied in him: I am satisfied in the work he has done. He has done everything. He has fulfilled every demand. Here he is risen—therefore I am satisfied with him.

Not only that. The Resurrection proved that he has conquered every enemy that was opposed to him, to God, and to us. He has not only satisfied the law and conquered death and the grave, he has vanquished the devil and all his forces, and hell and all the principalities and powers of evil. He has triumphed over them all, and he proves it in the Resurrection. The devil cannot hold him; death and hell cannot hold him. He has mastered them all; he has emerged on the other side. He is the Son of God, and he has completed the work which the Father had sent him to do.

And all this, of course, is of vital importance to us. It is only in the light of the Resurrection that I finally have an assurance of my sins forgiven. It is only in the light of the Resurrection that I ultimately know that I stand in the presence of God absolved from guilt and shame and every condemnation. I can now say with Paul, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1) because I look at the fact of the Resurrection. It is there that I know it.

You notice how Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 15:17 when he says, ‘If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.’ If it is not a fact that Christ literally rose from the grave, then you are still guilty before God. Your punishment has not been borne, your sins have not been dealt with, you are yet in your sins. It matters that much: without the Resurrection you have no standing at all.”

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Assurance of Our Salvation: Exploring the Depth of Jesus' Prayer for His Own: Studies in John 17 (Originally published separately in four volumes, 1988-89, Wheaton, Illinois, Crossway Books, 2000), p. 492.

“. . . though Scripture, when it treats of our salvation, dwells especially on the death of Christ, yet the Apostle now proceeds farther: for as his purpose was more explicitly to set forth the cause of our salvation, he mentions its two parts; and says, first, that our sins were expiated by the death of Christ, — and secondly, that by his resurrection was obtained our righteousness. But the meaning is, that when we possess the benefit of Christ’s death and resurrection, there is nothing wanting to the completion of perfect righteousness. By separating his death from his resurrection, he no doubt accommodates what he says to our ignorance; for it is also true that righteousness has been obtained for us by that obedience of Christ, which he exhibited in his death, as the Apostle himself teaches us in the following chapter. But as Christ, by rising from the dead, made known how much he had effected by his death, this distinction is calculated to teach us that our salvation was begun by the sacrifice, by which our sins were expiated, and was at length completed by his resurrection: for the beginning of righteousness is to be reconciled to God, and its completion is to attain life by having death abolished. Paul then means, that satisfaction for our sins was given on the cross: for it was necessary, in order that Christ might restore us to the Father’s favor, that our sins should be abolished by him; which could not have been done had he not on their account suffered the punishment, which we were not equal to endure. Hence Isaiah says, that the chastisement of our peace was upon him. ( Isaiah 53:5 .) But he says that he was delivered, and not, that he died; for expiation depended on the eternal goodwill of God, who purposed to be in this way pacified.

And was raised again for our justification. As it would not have been enough for Christ to undergo the wrath and judgment of God, and to endure the curse due to our sins, without his coming forth a conqueror, and without being received into celestial glory, that by his intercession he might reconcile God to us, the efficacy of justification is ascribed to his resurrection, by which death was overcome; not that the sacrifice of the cross, by which we are reconciled to God, contributes nothing towards our justification, but that the completeness of his favor appears more clear by his coming to life again.

— John Calvin, Commentary on Romans, chapter 4

Beloved, the dying Christ has purchased for us our justification, but the risen Christ will see that we get it. The risen Christ has come to bring it to us, and herein we rest. Oh, that you would all rest in the finished work of Jesus on the cross, which is set forth to you in all its brightness by his rising again from the dead! Put the two parts of our text together, “Who was delivered for our offenses,” “and was raised again for our justification.” You need them both, trust in them both; trust in the Savior who died upon the cross, and trust in the Christ who rose again, and is now the living Christ; trust, in fact, in Christ as he revealed himself to John in Patmos: “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” Lord Jesus, as such we trust thee, as such we trust thee now, and we are saved!

— C. H. Spurgeon, Sermon 235

“Our reflections here on the Resurrection need to be set against a broad historical background. As a generalization - no doubt subject to qualification but still fair as a generalization - we may say that in the history of doctrine, especially in soteriology, Christ's resurrection has been relatively eclipsed. In Eastern Orthodoxy, if I rightly understand, the accent has been on his incarnation (with a view to salvation understood as theosis or deification). In Western Christianity (both Roman Catholic and Protestant), especially since Anselm (eleventh century) and the ensuing debate triggered, say, by the views of Abelard, attention has been focused heavily and at times almost exclusively on Christ's death and its significance. The overriding concern, especially since the Reformation, has been to keep clear that the Cross is not simply an ennobling and challenging example but a real atonement - a substitutionary, expiatory sacrifice that reconciles God to sinners and propitiates his judicial wrath. In short, the salvation accomplished by Christ and the atonement have been virtually synonymous.

My point is not to challenge the validity or even the necessity of this development, far less the conclusions reached. But in this dominating preoccupation with the death of Christ, the doctrinal or soteriological significance of his resurrection has been largely overlooked. Not that the Resurrection has been deemed unimportant, but all too frequently it has been considered exclusively as a stimulus and support for Christian faith (which it undoubtedly is) and in terms of its apologetic value, as the crowning evidence for Christ's deity and the truth of Christianity in general . . .

An unbreakable bond or unity exists between Christ and Christians in the experience of resurrection. That bond is such that the latter (the resurrection of Christians) has two components - one that has already taken place, at the inception of Christian life when the sinner is united to Christ by faith; and one that is still future, at Christ's return. From this it will be readily apparent how Paul's teaching on the fundamental event of resurrection reflects the overall already/not-yet structure of eschatological fulfillment in the period between Christ's resurrection and his return.”

Richard B. Gaffin, Redemption and Resurrection: An Exercise in Biblical-Systematic Theology Themelios, volume 27.2, Spring 2002, pp. 16-31. Online here.

Continues with the series "The Resurrection Empowered Life"

In light of the recent controversy over the finding of the so-called "Jesus Family Tomb," I thought I would highlight a recent article from John Piper about the resurrection.

Eight Reasons Why I Believe Jesus Rose From the Dead

1. Jesus himself testified to his coming resurrection from the dead.

2. The tomb was empty on Easter.

3. The disciples were almost immediately transformed from men who were hopeless and fearful after the crucifixion (Luke 24:21, John 20:19) into men who were confident and bold witnesses of the resurrection (Acts 2:24, 3:15, 4:2).

4. Paul claimed that, not only had he seen the risen Christ, but that 500 others had seen him also, and many were still alive when he made this public claim.

5. The sheer existence of a thriving, empire-conquering early Christian church supports the truth of the resurrection claim.

6. The Apostle Paul's conversion supports the truth of the resurrection.

7. The New Testament witnesses do not bear the stamp of dupes or deceivers.

8. There is a self-authenticating glory in the gospel of Christ's death and resurrection as narrated by the biblical witnesses.

Read the entire article here.

(Photo by Lukas Van Dyke - HT Scott)

I will let Tim Challies fill you in on all the excitement about the so-called "Jesus Tomb," as he has a good post with some helpful links. Perhaps the most helpful page I have found comes from Pulpit Magazine on "Jesus’ Tomb," but Ben Witherington on the "Tomb of Jesus" and Michael Spencer’s post which lists lots of resources on the so-called tomb of Jesus are also well worth a look. Justin Taylor as always is great at supplying links and was where I first learnt about the "Jesus Family Tomb". What I want to do is point out what, to me, is a fundamental error in all the discussion about this. In my reading, no one has really raised this in quite these terms.

One of the reasons for the interest in this is that statisticians have "proven" that the chances of a set of names — Jesus, Joseph, Mary, and Jude — occurring together are very low. I'm sure that the calculations will have worked on an estimate of the frequency of the names. Now, if the frequency of a name is as high as 25% of the population, and it is found together with another name that has a frequency of 10%, then — the argument goes — the likelihood of this occurring is 0.25 times 0.1 which is 0.025 or 2.5%. Thus, in this hypothetical example, the chances would be 2.5 in 100.

There is a major flaw in this argument when we apply it to some tombs in Israel, which we presumably cannot date with accuracy greater than say twenty or thirty years. (Interestingly, the reports I have seen do not mention the dates of the caskets.) This is because it assumes that the occurrence of each name is by chance, and that the choice of name is unrelated to each other — or in other words it is an “independent” risk.

Let me illustrate this with a concrete example. I looked at a website to discover the frequency of certain names in the American population. What we can “deduce” using the logic above is very interesting.

The frequency of the name “George” is 0.00927, whilst the surname Bush has a frequency of 0.0036. Put another way, George appears in 9 out of every 1000 people in the USA and Bush in 3 in 1000. The likelihood of these two names being together is 0.0036 times 0.00927. This gives a likely frequency of the name “George Bush” as only 3 in every 100,000. The likelihood of finding two George Bushes together would therefore be only one in one billion (i.e. the likelihood of one GB squared). Do we therefore conclude as future historians reading the Internet archives in 2000 years' time that there cannot possibly have been TWO George Bushes who were both presidents? Of course not. The choice of the name George Bush for George W. was in no way “independent” of that of his father — he was obviously named after his father.

Now, imagine our future historian stumbled across this article stating that there was also a George Bush in Iraq. What are the odds of three George Bushes coexisting according to this flawed logic? Well, it drops to only 3 in 100,000 billion! Now we know, therefore, that the chances of three George Bushes coexisting due to chance is infinitesimally small, but they DO exist and they are not the same person. Why is this? Well, it is because these events are not independent of each other - so our statistics become meaningless. The George Bush in Iraq was named after the president who had toppled Sadaam Hussein.

Names are often chosen because of a family member, or because of a famous person or couple with that name, or because they sound nice together. None of these reasons are by chance. Thus, any number of reasons could apply for why these names all appeared together. Could these be relatives of Mary and Joseph named after them? Could they be early Christians who had taken the names in honor of Jesus and his family? Could there have been another famous “Mary and Joseph” who had inspired both the Nazareth and Jerusalem couple to be called by those names and seek each other out? There are just so many unknowns that to allow this finding — even before it has been validated by other researchers — to be seen as debunking the resurrection is just ludicrous. We are told that there have been several other “Jesus son of Joseph” ossuaries found previously anyway. I suspect these remains may either turn out to be a fake or be an early Christian family.

In the run up to Easter, Marc Driscoll ran a great series on the resurrection over at his blog.   It is well worth a read and can be found by following these links-

• Part One


• Part two


• Part three


• Part four

I know it may sound strange that a qualified doctor would believe someone could come back from the dead after three days. But if you asked me
Can you be Christian and not believe the resurrection literally occurred? I would have to say a straightforward NO. This quote puts it well.

Why would you want to be associated with or follow someone you believed to be a liar? Jesus, himself, said, "The Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die. Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, whipped, and crucified. But on the third day he will be raised from the dead." If you believe Jesus lied about his resurrection, what else would you think he lied about? Christ's life and teaching would be invalid without his resurrection. My hope for help in this life and hope for eternity would be destroyed had Jesus not risen.

Many years ago I asked my dad one Good Friday why it was called Good Friday. His answer remains the bedrock of my life 'Because Jesus Died that day'. Why should such an event give rise to the name Good and not Bad I asked in a rather less sophisticated way as a child. 'Why is it not Bad Friday and Good Sunday?'. I found a great quote over at Blogs4God which reminded me of how I felt all those years ago.

I would add to it though that the primary reason for the cross is our sin (which he does hint at in the first paragraph but does not return to in the rest of his post. We sent Jesus to the cross yes, but he chose to go there to bear the punishment you and I deserved. We go free whilst he is bound and blindfolded. We are let off whilst he is condemned. We are declared righteous, he is made to BE sin. We are healed he is wounded. We are loved, he is rejected. We are reconcilled to God, he is abandoned by him. God looks on us and smiles, and turns out the lights so he doesnt have to look on him. We know peace he receives the full wrath of God. He dies bearing millions of eternities of pain in one moment, and millions of us live for eternity.

O Yes, the Cross is indeed a scandal. , but it is a scandal of unfairness and apparent injustice. The hardest question a Christian can ever attempt to answer is how can a righteous God have come up with such a plan (which would seem to lead to instant defrocking if any modern judge tried it!). Paul spends much of his writings attempting to answer just this (especially Romans) Why not read some of it today?

The Cross is a scandal. We recoil from the horror of it, the shame and humiliation of it. We want the shout of victory, and hear instead the cry of desolation, "My God, My God! Why hast thou forsaken me?" It would be more bearable if the Cross were a result of the actions of the recognisably evil - brigands, outlaws, villains. But we see Jesus brought to his Passion by the respectable ordinary religious folk and those who led them, their cry of "Crucify him!" the result of their zeal. In the shouting crowd we can see ourselves. So we shun the weakness of the Cross, and enquire with the mocking crowd why he cannot save himself and come down from the cross.
Even in the Church we are tempted to think of the Cross as a place of defeat - we can only call it "Good Friday" because we know what is to happen on Sunday. But that is a deep and profound misunderstanding of the Cross.
The Cross is not a defeat, not even a defeat turned to victory by the Resurrection. The Cross of Jesus Christ is a victory in and of itself. At the cross all the powers of evil are dissgraced and disarmed. The love of God is tested to its ultimate by our rejection and yet it refuses to draw back, to come down from the Cross. Here at the Cross God stretches out his arms in an embrace which would envelope the whole world. Only our own perversity can keep us from him.