God Did Tempt Abraham

Reading in Gen 22.1, this morning, where the KJV reads: And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham. The Hebrew word there is better rendered "to test," or "to cause or allow hardship in a situation." So the ESV translates it (better): God tested Abraham.

It was a severe test, no matter how one translates the word, perhaps the most severe apart from Christ going to the cross for our sins. "Take your son and offer him up as a sacrifice! Yes, the one through whom I promised you a multitude of descendants, as numerous as the stars in the heavens."

One struggles to find adequate words to describe Abraham's anguish as he climbed Mt. Moriah with the boy. Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead, so we can assume that Abraham thought that he would have to go through with what the angel of the Lord had commanded. It is a dramatic moment, one of the most dramatic in the Scriptures, and obviously a type of the full and final sacrifice of Christ at the cross.

He Loved Them to the End

In John 13.1 this morning where John says that Christ, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end. The phrase to the end might not be the best way to translate the expression, to the uttermost is perhaps a better way. It is an expression that while Christ fully understood what he was about to suffer and why he was to suffer it, he pressed forward because of his love for his own. He did it for us.

John the Baptist: His Purpose

According to Luke 1.79, his purpose was to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace. When I read this in my devotions this morning, I read it as, and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. I suppose the ESV's punctuation is the way that Zechariah intended his remarks to be taken, but I think that may way is equally as true.

We live, all of us do, in the shadow of death all the time. Who knows what the day will bring. Death lurks around constantly and often strikes when we do not expect it. So to say that John the Baptist's purpose was and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace, we speak truthfully, for that is exactly what he did.

May you realize that you live in the shadow of death and may John the Baptist's life and words still today guide your feet into the way of peace—at the foot of the cross.

Two Men/Two Responses to Christ

In Luke 23.40-42, this morning, where we see two responses to Christ as men stare into eternity, a response we see again and again to the good news in both the Scriptures and history. On the one hand we see a man (a thief) who is interested in nothing more than a miraculous trip off of the cross so he can continue with what he was doing (being a thief). On the other hand, we see one of the greatest examples of faith in history. The second thief who speaks knows that he will die on this day. He knows that Christ is going to die and that the other thief is going to die as well. He rebukes his fellow thief because he understands that both of them are dying justly. They are guilty and deserve it. Even though he has presumably never met Christ, as he watches Christ's response he recognizes that Christ did not deserve to die.

Then come the words of great faith “But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”” (Luke 23:40-42 ESV) They are nailed to three crosses, to all appearances the Roman soldiers and the Jewish rulers have won the day because they will live and the three condemned men will not, and yet he calls for Christ to remember him when you come to your kingdom! Amazing faith. Faith that Christ acknowledges because he promises that Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.

The thief emphasizes the word we, when he says we indeed justly, and he also emphasizes worthy when he says (my translation) worthy we are to receive (death). He makes a contrast between he and the other thief, and Christ. They deserve death. Christ does not. For Christ do die is as he puts it out of place or absurd is the meaning of the word that he uses. For them to die is acceptable; for Christ to die is absurd.

Calvin: I know not that, since the creation of the world, there ever was a more remarkable and striking example of faith; and so much the greater admiration is due to the grace of the Holy Spirit, of which it affords so magnificent a display.

The Folly of Anything but the Cross

Legalists boast in their adherence to the law because they believe that God is happier with them when they keep the law. They've got it all wrong, says Paul (Gal 6.14). Whatever boasting a follower of Christ does must be in the cross because that is the only thing that saves him; therefore, it is the only thing in which to boast. As Prosper of Aquitaine wrote: Grace is the glory of God, not the merit of him who has been freed. This is why we only boast in the cross.

Preaching the Cross

I am struck reading through 1 Corinthians 1.17-25, that what stands out as clearly as a bell tower is that what Paul preached above everything else was Christ crucified. Sure he spoke about love, and faithfulness, about God's judgment and justice. He taught about the second coming of Christ. He taught about the law in relation to the gospel. However, he taught as most important Jesus Christ and him crucified.

If our preaching and teaching are not saturated with the cross of Christ; if we don't, as Spurgeon once said, "wherever I start in the Scriptures, I make a beeline for the cross, then we are not preaching the gospel as Paul preached it. Let us proclaim to the world until our last breath that the only answer to the question of who we are, and why we are here, and what is our purpose, lies at the foot of the cross.