The Centrality Of The Cross Psalm 32:1-2 (day 8)

For this lent season, I am doing a forty-day study in the Psalms looking for aspects of the atonement that will end around Easter. My hope is to generate a newfound awe of what Christ did on the cross.

Psalm 32:1-2

[32:1] Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. [2] Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

This Psalm hits the centrality of the cross. What is the centrality of the Cross? Sin has been dealt with. The whole point of our great Saviors–death on the cross is the forgiveness of sin. Paul recites this Psalm in Romans 8 and 2 Corinthians 5.

Romans 4:7-8

[7] “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; [8] blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

2 Corinthians 5:17-19

[17] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. [18] All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; [19] that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

We have to understand how huge, immense and vast the cross is and what was actually accomplished through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Saint Anselm was a Benedictine monk and philosopher who wrote a book called “Why God Became Man” and this is Sam Storms interpretation of that book:

What is sin?

Sin is defined as the withholding by the creature from God the honor that is due him. Therefore, sin is debt, or the failure to render to God full and proper obedience.

"One who does not render this honor [i.e., obedience in every act of will] to God takes away from God what belongs to Him, and dishonors God, and to do this is to sin".

"So then, everyone who sins ought to pay back the honor of which he has robbed God; and this is the satisfaction which every sinner owes to God".

Under what obligation does sin place mankind?

Mankind is under a three-fold obligation:

-        - We must immediately render to God full and proper obedience in everything;

-        - We must pay back the honor due unto God of which, by our sin, we deprived him; and

-        -  We must pay back more (reparation) than we have taken away; this is because of the 
  infinite degree of the insult we inflicted on God by dishonoring him. Hence, total
  obedience, repayment, and reparation are required of all humanity.

What are the possible options left to mankind?

There are only two: either we must be punished or we must make the required satisfaction. Punishment is less than desirable for all concerned, for God's plan to bring eternal happiness to his creation would suffer. Satisfaction for sin is the only viable alternative.

Is mankind able to make the required satisfaction for sin?

No, and for two reasons. First, we already owe God complete obedience and thus have nothing to offer to make satisfaction that is not already rightfully his. Second, sin is infinitely heinous because God, against whom it was committed, is infinitely holy. Thus, whatever satisfaction we make would be eternal in duration, for our sin offended an eternally righteous God.

Why cannot God, in love and mercy, simply dismiss the offense and forgive us our sins?

There are two reasons. First, if sin is not punished, it is not subject to any law or regulation. The sinner and saint would thus have equal standing before God, the former being regarded no differently than the latter. Secondly, God could not save anyone and still be a good and just God. What humans deserve is that death from a just God. So God accepted the perfect sacrifice of His Son, our Savior, Jesus, to pay that debt we owed. Therefore, the justice of God has no less a right for expression than do his love and mercy. So the bottom line is that man should have paid for sin, but Jesus is the only one who could have paid for sin.

How, then, can satisfaction be made?

"Satisfaction cannot be made unless there be some One able to pay God for man's sin something greater than all that is beside God. . . . Now nothing is greater than all that is beside God except God Himself. None therefore can make this satisfaction except God. And none ought to make it except man. . . . If, then, it be necessary that the kingdom of heaven be completed by man's admission, and if man cannot be admitted unless the aforesaid satisfaction for sin be first made, and if God only can, and man only ought to make this satisfaction, then necessarily One must make it who is both God and man".

In other words, only we owe the debt, but we cannot pay it. Only God can pay the debt, but he does not owe it. Therefore, only a God-man, i.e., Jesus Christ, can both bear the guilt of human sin and pay the debt incurred by it. This is Cur Deus Homo . . . this is why God became man!

How could the death of Christ honor God and sufficiently outweigh the sins of men?

There are three answers.

1.      Since the God-man offered to God a gift he did not owe, the gift is adequate to pay for our sins. 

2.      The God-man did not deserve to die. His death was entirely voluntary. Thus his death, unlike that of all other men, was meritorious in God's sight.

3.      The assault on Christ is the greatest sin imaginable. Therefore, since he willed to endure this greatest of all injustices, the merit of his death is itself the greatest imaginable and more than suffices to outweigh the sins of mankind. 

Do You Fear God Or Man? Psalm 27:1 (day 7)

For this lent season, I am doing a forty-day study in the Psalms looking for aspects of the atonement that will end around Easter. My hope is to generate a newfound awe of what Christ did on the cross.

Psalm 27:1

[27:1] The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

The Bible is littered with God saying to his people “do not be afraid” in the New Testament Jesus constantly told His disciples “do not be afraid”. It almost seems like a command. What does fear look like for you? What are you consistently afraid of? Can you just turn off your fear? Have you ever considered your fear as sinful?

I believe fear is horizontal thinking, meaning I'm letting my lateral environment dictate my safety. This sin is called “fear of man” which means being overtaken by the approval of man. That man has the power when God really IS the power. We have two positions, our position before man and our position before God. We need to live out of our position before God not man.

When Jesus stood before Pontus Pilate Jesus wasn't begging for His life; although I think Pilate wanted Jesus to beg for his life. Pilate was positioning himself as the power to take Jesus’ life or save his life yet Jesus did not give him that power.  Matter-of-fact Jesus said, “you don't take my life, I freely give it up”. Jesus was more interested in his position before God the Father then Pilate the earthly king. Jesus lived vertical. Even though man was doing the ultimate evil upon Him by crucifying Him Jesus did not let man define what the cross was. He did not humble Himself to man he humbled Himself to God the Father to the point of death. Now because of what Jesus did on the cross we get to live out of our reverence of God not reverence of man. The psalmist says, “the Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is my stronghold of my life; who shall I be afraid of”? God is showing us that He is our strength so we do not have permission to be afraid of man.

Ask God where does your fear lay? What are you afraid of today? Ask God to fulfill this promise in Psalm 27 in your soul. May you rejoice of what Christ did on the cross so you have nothing to be afraid of today and most definitely tomorrow.

A Faithful God Answers The Prayers Of A Crucified Savior, Psalm 22-23 (Day 6)

For this lent season, I am doing a forty-day study in the Psalms looking for aspects of the atonement that will end around Easter. My hope is to generate a newfound awe of what Christ did on the cross.

Psalm 22:1-5

[22:1] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? [2] O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. [3] Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. [4] In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. [5] To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

Psalm 23:1-4

[23:1] The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. [2] He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. [3] He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. [4] Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Psalm 22 and 23 are some of the most profound messianic prophecies in the Psalms about the crucifixion of our great Savior. I could spend days writing about the contrast from these two Psalms that are fulfilled in the New Testament not to mention the huge theological implications in these two Psalms; however, I would like to write on a more personal note on the promises of God from these two Psalms.

For me, the biggest message I see in these two Psalms is answered prayer. We see throughout Scripture God is motivated by our prayer. In James 5 it says, “Prayer gives you great power”. As you can see, in Psalm 22 it seems like God is far off; it seems like God doesn't hear but you see David profess trust in verses 3–5 of Psalm 22 that David remembered that God delivered Israel from Egypt. So even though it doesn't feel like God is close he's going to rest in the promise that God hears his prayers. How is it that David can trust God in a moment of absolute suffering? In the same way how is it that Jesus can trust God in the middle of chaos and man's ultimate evil?  The answer is, a high expectation of God that he answered their prayer. David was asking to be delivered from the clutches of his enemies. Jesus was asking to be delivered from Satan and death.

How often do you feel like God is not close? How often do you feel like God is just not listening to you? How often do you give up praying because you believe God isn't interested? How often do you feel abandoned in your suffering? If you believe that God isn't close, isn't listening to you, isn't interested, or even has abandoned you, that means you have a low expectation of God. That means you don't believe that God is a promise keeping God. It is true that sometimes God doesn't feel close but that means that we need to raise our expectation on God because of His promises. God loves when we raise our expectation of Him because that means we believe in him. Paul says in Romans 14 “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” so God even calls it sin when we don't believe in His promises. It's like we don't have permission to believe that God is not going to show up in our suffering. That's amazing!

In addition, we see in Psalm 23 both Jesus and David say, “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want” that means, “the Lord is my shepherd I don't need anything else”; “the Lord is my shepherd he doesn't leave me wanting”. Even though I walk through the valley shadow of death I don't fear evil. How often have we walked in the Valley of shadow of death and felt like we were consumed by death when God's promises us life? Because of Jesus death burial and resurrection we have the promise of life even when it feels like death! When we suffer, we can walk in the promises of God for life! For comfort! For peace!

What an amazing contrast here; peace in the middle of the valley of shadow of death. It is the valley where we experience our absolute dependence on God so we have to raise our expectations on God and we have to raise our faith for God that’s where we glorify him the most. So don't run from the Valley of shadow of death, Jesus was the first one to go and we follow in his footsteps. He has given us His supernatural heart to face the most impossible dilemmas because through faith we have a high expectation of a God who answers our prayers. 

God's Law Is Love Psalm 19:7-11 (day 5)

For this lent season, I am doing a forty-day study in the Psalms looking for aspects of the atonement that will end around Easter. My hope is to generate a newfound awe of what Christ did on the cross.

Psalm 19:7-11

[7] The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; [8] the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; [9] the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. [10] More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. [11] Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

Let’s breakdown versus 7–9 so we can see what God’s law gives us through Christ.

·      God’s law is perfect—riving our soul. (V.7)

·      God’s word is sure—making God’s wisdom easy for us. (V.7)

·      God’s precepts are Right—making our heart rejoice V. (8)

·      God’s commands are pure—making our eyes open to Him. (V.8)

·      God’s rules are true and Righteous—making in humble awe of God (V.9)

We have followed in the footsteps of our great savior Jesus; through His work on the cross we too have become the law so the world may know the love of God.

Additionally, in this Psalm, God shows us how good and perfect his law is. At the same time, God shows us in Scripture that when people try to do well by the law they are religious. So what exactly is God trying to tell us here in this Psalm? For me, I believe that doing the law and becoming the law are two different things. In Matthew 5, Jesus says, “I did not come to abolish the law but came to fulfill it”; meaning Jesus became the law. We have to understand that the law is love. In Matthew 22, Jesus wraps up the law in two commands: “First, love your God with all your heart and with all your soul with all your mind; and the second is like the first love your neighbor as yourself”. We know that Jesus is the physical representation of the love of God. Jesus embodied the law; he became the law.

So, what does it mean to try to do the law? I would like to answer that in Romans 7:7-12, where it says that the law is good, revealing sin, but the law cannot produce the righteousness it commands. Also, it is not the law that brings death; it is our sin. Paul declares In Romans 7:10 that the very commandment that promised to be life proved to be death to him because of his sin.

The man in Romans 7 is trying to behave his way to Christ, and every time he tries to behave his way to Christ, he ends up doing more evil. He sees that the law is good in his inner being but cannot produce the righteousness of the law through his own works. This is a beautiful picture called “wretched man” (Romans 7:24). Wretched man is not navel gazing, someone feeling sorry for himself, nor is it saying, “poor me.” It is a real place of this man getting to the end of himself and basically saying, “Oh, man that cannot. Oh, man that cannot produce the righteousness of God. Oh, man that cannot do Jesus.” Verse 24 ends with, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” …JESUS.

This is important to your faith because the moment you get to the end of yourself—Christ happens. Like Romans 6:6 says, “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.” This flows right into Romans 8:1, “THEREFORE, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” All this is given because God knows that you cannot follow the law; God knows that you cannot fulfill the law; God knows that you need His righteousness. It has to be a gift from Him and nothing you work for (Eph. 2:1-10)

So, as we look back to some 19:7–11 let's look at the promises of God that come by the way of the law. We see that God says his rules are better than gold, sweeter than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Have you ever thought of God’s law being like honey? We can, if we understand that we have become the law, because we are the image of God. 

God does not give us love he is love he gave us Himself. So now we're the image bearers of God's love, in which it is his law written on our hearts!

Jesus's resurrection prophesied In Psalm 16:8-11 (Day 4)

For this lent season, I am doing a forty-day study in the Psalms looking for aspects of the atonement that will end around Easter. My hope is to generate a newfound awe of what Christ did on the cross.

Psalm 16:8-11

I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your Holy One see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Psalm 16:8–11 is the first actual messianic prophecy of Jesus’s resurrection.  At the day of Pentecost Peter cited this Psalm to show that the promises of God were fulfilled in Jesus.  Rather than me paraphrasing I'll let Peter tell you why this is a messianic prophecy of Jesus's resurrection

Acts 2:22-36

            [22] “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—[23] this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. [24] God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. [25] For David says concerning him,

            “‘I saw the Lord always before me,

                        for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;

            [26] therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;

                        my flesh also will dwell in hope.

            [27] For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,

                        or let your Holy One see corruption.

            [28] You have made known to me the paths of life;

                        you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

            [29] “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. [30] Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, [31] he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. [32] This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. [33] Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. [34] For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

            “‘The Lord said to my Lord,

            “Sit at my right hand,

                        [35] until I make your enemies your footstool.”’

            [36] Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

           

It doesn't stop there; God has given us the same Holy Spirit as Christ and because of what Jesus did on the cross we too can believe like Jesus believed.  If you believe that Jesus is the Lord and has been crucified for your sins you obtain the following promises (given to us by the Holy Spirit) spelled out in Psalm 16:8–11.

If you believe that Jesus is your crucified Christ:

·      You will NOT be shaken (Psalm 16:8)

·      Your heart WILL be glad (Psalm 16:9)

·      Your whole being WILL rejoice (Psalm 16:9)

·      You will NOT be abandoned to hell (Psalm 16:10)

·      Your life will NOT be filled with corruption (Psalm 16:10)

·      You WILL be given the path of LIFE (Psalm 16:11)

·      You WILL have the presence of God and the fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11)

·      WE WILL FOREVER HAVE PLEASURE IN GOD (Psalm 16:11)

Thank you JESUS!