Christ our Mighty Champion

Don’t blame the president, don’t blame the king
Don’t blame your history for what might have been
we will be free where the grass is green and the lion is tame
if we just hold up the mirror now and share in the blame

That’s what I’m talkin about Caedmons!

Matthew 21:42-46

“Jesus said to them, ‘Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; this came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes?’  Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of god will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it.  And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.’”

To live rightly before our God we must be broken by the stone of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God calls us to be contrite, repentant, and broken people who find our repair in His Grace.  To fail to find repair for brokenness now is to find destruction at the last day.

Here’s a great paragraph written by Dennis Johnson (Academic Dean and Professor of Practical Theology at Westminster Seminary California) in his EXCELLENT book Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ From All the Scriptures…

“Not only does (Jesus’) sacrifice remove the covenant curse from believers and his positive obedience warrant our entrance into the heavenly country and city for which the patriarchs looked and longed in hope, but also his redemptive work produces a people who are, themselves. being transformed subjectively toward holiness.  The blessings of the new covenant are not only forensic, setting us right in terms of the legal outcomes of fidelity or rebellion toward the Lord of the covenant.  They are also dynamic and transformative….The Son leads many sons to glory not only by obeying and suffering in their place as Servant of the covenant (though these are primary) but also by sanctifying many sons in the process of leading them to glory.  His identification with those whom he is not ashamed to call brothers is not only legal but also vital, including the subjective, progressive transformation of their motives, values, words, and deeds.  As Paul would say it, these siblings of Jesus are ‘predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers’ (Rom 8:29).”

Hebrews 2:16 – “For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the seed of Abraham.”

1 Thessalonians 5:16 “Rejoice Always”

What exactly is sin?  A right definition might help us avoid this thing which God says He detests.  The Baptist Catechisms…to quote them again…define sin as “Any want of conformity unto or transgression of the Law of God.”  Certainly sin is that.  Anytime we do what God has commanded us not to do or fail to do what God has commanded us to do we commit sin.  I love the BC’s because they place the emphasis on failing to do what God has commanded of us instead of placing it upon doing what God tells us not to do.  Ultimately this is where we often fail.  For example…are you always, every moment of every day, loving God with all your heart, spirit, mind, and strength like He tells you to?

But what prompts sin?  What is the beauty or better the intrigue of sin that causes us, who claim to love Christ, to fall head first into what Christ hates?  If we are honest, more often than not we dive into sin without fear.  We get angry at our brothers without thinking for one moment about God’s hatred for such a sinful emotion.  We lust without one thought of God’s commands to purity and His hatred of the sexually immoral.   We worry without hesitation and certainly without contemplation on the providence of God and His commands to us to trust Him.  How can we do such a thing?  Better…Why would we do such a thing?

Sin is a lack of faith in God.  A clear pattern seems to be put forth with our first parents.  Adam and Eve failed to trust God that He would give them the dominion He promised them and therefore, in a rebellious action that scarred all of humanity, they put out their hand, they reached out, they grasped for the fruit that would make them wise not trusting God to do so.  This pattern continues.

Cain is grasping for dominion as he reaches out and cuts his brother Abel down.  Abraham is grasping for dominion as he reaches out and takes his concubine.  It’s vivid in the birth of Jacob and Esau as Jacob reaches out grabbing Esau’s heel, grasping for dominion (there’s an example of original sin!).  Jacob again grasps for dominion by tricking his brother Esau out of his birth right, which God had already promised to give Jacob, for a pot of stew.  Joseph’s brothers follow suit as they reach out and throw Joseph down into the pit grasping for dominion.  Must we go on and on?

And this is sin for you and I.  Sin is grasping for dominion which God has promised us outside of His ordained method.  Lust is grasping for sexual pleasure that God promises to fulfill for us in due time and due manner.  Fear is grasping for dominion instead of trusting God to supply all our needs.  Revenge is grasping for dominion instead of trusting God to take the vengeance which is rightly His.  Gossip is reaching out to take dominion instead of trusting God to be our all and all that we need.  Every sin, no matter how small and specific, from not claiming tips as a waiter to cheating on an online quiz is failing to trust God to give us what He has promised.

Sin’s intrigue is that it appeals to our hatred of God.  We are haters of God innately.  We despise His peace, we war against his Holiness, we care not for His plans, and we avoid His instruction because we think we can take dominion better than God can give it to us.  God will give you dominion!  He promised it to Adam, who failed, but He secured it in the second Adam who triumphed.  And now in Christ we have dominion!  And yet we do not see this dominion fully.  But one day we shall see it completely and even today we can see it in part through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as the guarantee, or the down payment, for the payment that is yet to come.

Oh how thankful we must be for that second Adam who, though tempted by the serpent as the first Adam, trusted in God to give Him dominion all the way to a Cross.  Don’t you see the absurdity in this?  Christ suffered so that He could take dominion.  He did not consider equality with God something to “be grasped” but emptied Himself and now reigns with a Name that is above all other names.

Sin is a lie.  Dr. Draper would say it “smells like smoke.”  Why do we believe it?  It’s not even a good lie.  It stinks.  It kills.  It ruins.  Believe God!

And how do we do this?  By growing in our vision of Christ who is the dominion taker.  In Him we have the dominion.  In Him is our rest and our pleasure and our joy.  See Christ as precious and sin will become putrid.  In Christ we have grace and truth but in sin all we can find is cursing and falsehood.

And don’t forget that by sinning you are proving yourself to be acting as an unbeliever acts.  As believers we are to be marked by a trust for God…one that sin does not promote.  There will be no unbelievers in Heaven.

Revelation 21:27 “And nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever enter into it (the new Jerusalem), but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

Reach out and take Christ!

My God why would you shed your blood,

So pure and undefiled,

To make a sinful one like me,

Your precious, chosen child?

Ephesians 1:5-6  “In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace which He lavished on us.”

The last line of my last post stayed with me all night and has been on my mind all day. Jesus was once a sinless, perfect, five month old. What exactly did that look like?

Sinless perfection simply never enters into the realm of reality, in this life, for a person east of Eden. The scriptures are very clear on this issue. Theologically, in accordance with my last post, we always have to deal with original sin and our position under the headship of Adam which solidifies our depravity. Scripturally, one cannot avoid such a passage as Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.” And just to be perfectly clear, the sin which we all commit occurs even before we are born according to Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” We are born in sin, we live in sin, and we will die in sin. Sin is just something we cannot escape entirely in this life.

And if no one ever possess sinless perfection I am left wondering…can we ever fully mentally grasp and have a working understanding of something we never possess and never see in anyone else around us in this physical realm? Certainly by faith we see Jesus as sinless but can we really comprehend what that looked like?

Jesus never uttered an unholy word. He never once mumbled under his breath against his parents. He never once made an off color joke that crossed the line. He never lied, slandered, or hatefully mocked.

Jesus was never prideful, arrogant, or boastful. Jesus never wickedly laughed at others or advanced Himself at the cost of those around Him. Jesus never hated, was never found sinfully angry, never failed to help someone in need.

Jesus never thought an impure thought. Jesus never lusted or envied. He never committed idolatry and He was never jealous.

Apart from all that Jesus didn’t do, consider what he did! Jesus was pure. Jesus was perfect. He was humble, loving, generous, kind, and truthful. He always thought pure thoughts and said pure things. He exemplified love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. He was absolutely perfect.

Pondering this does us good. Chiefly it reminds us that as perfectly sinless Jesus was able to fully bear the sins of His people and pay their penalty. He was not like the high priests who had to first make atonement for their own sins and then the sins of the people. Jesus made a once for all payment not for His own sins but for the sins of His chosen ones on the Cross. Therefore His perfect life is credited to us by faith. We are not naked before God. We have a righteousness to wear, not of our own, but we have the righteousness of Jesus Christ which God applies to us. God sees us as righteous in Jesus Christ! How undeserving we are of such sweet Grace.

This also should remind us of what we will be one glorious day. Consider the astonishing words of the Apostle John in 1 John 3:1-2, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. 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.” What an astonishing thought! One day we too will be perfectly sinless. When that day comes and we see Jesus face to face, all those who long for His appearing shall be changed and we shall be like Him! What a hope!

With such a hope in our hearts we must bear in mind the very next words of the Apostle, “And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.”

Let us strive for purity and ponder the sinless perfection of our mighty champion.

The twentieth Baptist Catechism asks the question “Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?” This is an important question that is still being asked today and yet is seldom answered in our churches, homes, and even in our own minds. (Possibly because we no longer use the Baptist Catechisms to Catechize ourselves, our churches, or our families!)

The BC’s answer the question in this way, “The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.” What exactly does that mean? Well the next two catechisms define that loaded statement. The sinfulness of that estate where into man fell is defined as “the want of original righteousness and the corruption of his whole nature.” The theological term for this is familiar: “original sin.” The misery of that estate where into man fell is defined as a loss of “communion with God,” as being “under His wrath and curse,” and being “made liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself and to the pains of hell forever.” Not exactly a self esteem booster!

Most of you who will read this blog will be familiar with Coach Ford. For those who aren’t, he was a sociology teacher in my high school who thought it was his mandate to make fun of Christianity and ridicule Christians. (Yes he was also a basketball coach…a real intellectual opponent!) The first day of class he would always ask the question: “What do you think of mankind? Is man generally good or generally evil?” That is the question that the catechisms are getting at, and it is a question that must be thoroughly thought through and considered as its answer has a large impact on one’s understanding of soteriology.

You just never know in what sort of venue questions like these, with extensive theological importance, will confront you. This question came to the forefront for me this weekend as my father and I were sitting on his porch talking of my nephew Steven Parker King (affectionately called Stevie). My nephew is only five months old and is already the apple of my father’s eye. Suddenly my salty father asks me the sharp question, “So David, you believe that the Bible says little Parker is evil?”

Now how does one rightly answer that question? I remained in silence for a few moments, fearing that my answer would get me thrown out of my parents house. Eventually, I girded up my loins, considered the reproach of Christ something to take joy in, and avoided pulling a Joel Osteen by confessing, “Yes I do Dad.”

Let’s be clear with each other. Parker, though only five months old, is a little, cute, evil, sinner! And so are you – though you might not be cute or little. Man is not generally good! That is no where in Scripture. There is no light in man. There is no righteousness in man. There is no honor in man. The resounding answer of Holy Scripture is that man is horrible, sinful, wicked, and destitute of any sort of righteousness or anything good. Just a passing glance at such a text of Scripture as Romans 3 reveals this timeless truth. All mankind because of their nature, and because of their location under the headship of Adam, are evil.

What a glorious doctrine! This ought to crush our self esteem. Who needs self esteem anyways? Self esteem is nowhere in the Bible. In fact I vote that self esteem ought to be a curse word among believers. As believers, we are not people who take joy in self esteem. We take joy in Savior esteem. And in the esteem of our Savior Jesus Christ we find our importance as worshipers and servants of the most high God.

Oh what this sort of thinking does for the Christian life! We must stop relying on ourselves – we are evil! And we must start relying on God who is just and the justifier of sinners through our Lord Jesus Christ. Esteem yourself as nothing and Jesus as greater than all other things and your life as a Christian will boom.

This sort of thinking also causes us to recognize Jesus Christ as a Savior. Christ did not come just to give good men an opportunity to come to the Gospel! Christ came to save evil men whom God had elected for Salvation! This is sadly a shocking statement for most today. But this is nothing more or less than the Glorious Gospel of God’s Grace.

So yes dad, Parker is evil – just like me – and he needs a perfect Savior who was once a perfect five month old named Jesus Christ.