FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Hebrews 9:22

What is the crucifixion of the Son of God on the cross? What happened on Golgotha, on Calvary? Is this a dramatic play like the tragedy of Shakespeare’s Macbeth or King Lear? What is this that is happening on Calvary? Is it a historical tragedy like Socrates drinking the hemlock or Julius Caesar murdered at the foot of the statue of Pompey? Is it like the assassination of President Lincoln in Ford’s Theater or like the tragedy that brought a cloud over Dallas in the assassination of President John Kennedy? What is this that happened on Calvary?

The Crucifixion Is the Judgment of God Upon Our Sin

The death of Christ on the cross is the fruit and the result of our sins. Who killed the Lord Jesus? Who executed the Prince of Glory? Who nailed Him to the cross where He suffered until He died? Whose fault is that?

So many would answer, “God did it.” Like Job’s wife said to him when he fell into abject suffering, “Curse God and commit suicide.” It is God’s fault. He did it.

There are others who would say: “It is His own fault. He should have been a better manager. Had He been smart, He would not have been nailed to that tree. It is His own fault.”

There are those who would say: “It is Judas’ fault. He sold Him for thirty pieces of silver. He betrayed Him. It is Judas’ fault. He did it.”

There are those who say to this very day: “It is the Jews’ fault. They delivered Him. They accused Him. They encompassed His execution. It is their fault. They did it.”

There are those who would say: “It is the Roman soldiers’ fault. They are guilty of the death of the Lord. They did it. Who drove those nails through His hands? They did it. Who thrust the spear into His side? They did it. Who raised Him up between the earth and the sky? The Roman soldiers did it. They killed Him.”

It is remarkable that each one disavows the guilt of the Lord’s crucifixion. According to one tradition, when Pilate was recalled, he committed suicide, and they flung his body into Lake Lucerne. That is why just beyond the city of Lucerne there is a tall, towering mountain called Mt. Pilatus, Mt. Pilate. Legend says that in the mist of the twilight of every evening, the peasants see Pontius Pilate rise from the depths of the sea and wash his hands in the clear blue water of Lake Lucerne. “I am guiltless of the blood of this just man. I did not do it.”

Then the Jews did it. They are Christ-killers. They crucified Him. Without exception, the Jew cries, “Would you bring the blood of this man upon us and upon our children? We did not do it.”

Then surely it was the Roman soldiers. They executed Him. But the Roman soldiers would stand in attention before you and say: “We are men under authority, and we but carried out the mandates and the commandments of the Roman government. We are soldiers obeying orders. We did not do it.”

Then who did? Who is responsible for the crucifixion of the Son of God? Who ultimately must stand at the judgment bar accused?

It must be that we all had a part. My sins pressed upon His brow that crown of thorns. My sins drove through His hand those jagged nails. My sins thrust that spear into His heart. My sins nailed the Lord Jesus to the tree. That is the first meaning of the death of our Lord. It is the fruit and the judgment upon my/our sins.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Hebrews 9:22

The secular and material world is bold and blatant in its rejection of the gospel of atoning blood. They refuse and repudiate the whole message of redemption, stating their opposition bluntly, rudely, and brutally. They say if we have tractors to move mountains, we do not need faith. If we have penicillin, we do not need prayer. If we have positive thinking, we do not need salvation. If we have the state, we do not need the church. If we have manuals on science, we do not need the Bible. If we have an Edison or an Einstein, we do not need Jesus. They define life altogether in secular and material nomenclature.

The Christian Religion Is a Message of Redemption

The gospel of the Son of God addresses itself to a far deeper need of humanity than penicillin, government, or manuals of science. The Christian faith addresses itself to the need for regeneration, the forgiveness of sins, a new life, a new heart, a new way, and a new day. The religion of Jesus Christ is one of deliverance and redemption from the judgment of sin. You see that in the very definition and description of the faith itself. The Christian faith is not, in the first place, an ethic, although it is ethical. It is not in the first place a theology, although it is theological. It is not in the first place reformational, although it has social, cultural, and political overtones. The religion of Jesus Christ is first, foremost, and always redemptive. He was delivered for our offenses, and He was raised for our justification (Romans 4:25). You can see that in the advocacy, the sign, and the symbol of the Christian religion.

The sign of the Christian faith is not a burning bush. It is not two tables of stone bearing the Ten Commandments. It is not a seven-branched lampstand. It is not a halo above a submissive head. It is not even a golden crown. The sign and the banner of the Christian faith is always a cross, a cross in all of its naked hideousness, as the Romans would have it; the cross in all of its philosophical irrationality, as the Greeks would have it; but the cross in all of its saving power and potency, as Paul would have it. “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . .” (Galatians 6:14). This is the very epitome and summation of the redemptive message of Christ.

The Descent and Sufferings of Our Lord

Our minds can hardly enter into the most significant and dramatic of all of the events in human history, the descent of our Lord from the highest glory to the lowest humiliation, the immeasurable distance between His throne in heaven and the ignominy of His cross in the earth. Down and down and down did the Lord descend until He was made in the likeness of a man, made out of the dust of the ground, a slave, poor even among the poor. He was finally executed in a manner reserved for the criminal, raised between heaven and earth, as though He were rejected by men and scorned by God, reviled and abused. As though abuse were not vile enough, they covered Him with spittle. As though spittle were not contemptuous enough, they crowned Him in the mockery of thorns. As though the thorns were not sharp enough, they drove great nails through His hands and His feet. As though the nails did not pierce deeply enough, they thrust Him through with a Roman spear, and the red, crimson flow of His life poured out. Even the sun in the sky refused to look upon such shame and suffering.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Malachi 1:2-5

From Last Lesson: Have you noticed how quick we are to blame God for things He has nothing to do with?

But what about the crack addict himself? Can’t we blame him? Some will be quick to say that he isn’t to blame for his actions, after all, he has a disease. His addiction is a medical problem, not a moral one. But wasn’t the first time he took crack a moral choice, not as a result of an addiction?

What about Satan? Shouldn’t he deserve some of the blame? The Word tells us, “You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God” (Ephesians 2:2 NLT).

Satan is active, working in the hearts of those who are disobedient to God. His intent is evil and destructive.

God has chosen to allow evil and good to grow next to one another. People choose which path they take, either they follow God, or they follow Satan. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus tells the parable of the “wheat and the tares,” in which He told the disciples, “but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn” ’ ” (Matthew 13:25-30). In this world, good and evil will co-exist.

So where was God’s love in the examples I gave?

God’s love was in the prayers and the presence of the Chaplain. His love was in the arms of the nurse. His love is in the girl’s ability to forgive and to heal. God’s love is in the likelihood that this little girl will one day be a “wounded healer” and help others.

According to the story, this wasn’t the first wounded child Jeannie, the nurse supervisor had taken in her arms. A year before this incident it was her own son. Chaplain Burkes said, “She placed her arms around that child in much the same way I’d seen her place her arms around her own son who was paralyzed in an auto accident the year before.”

You can ask, you have a right to ask, where is God’s love? However, the answer is no, He doesn’t keep evil from happening, but He makes sure that evil doesn’t stand alone, it doesn’t get the final say. He sends His people, and His Spirit to comfort the afflicted and heal the wounded.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Malachi 1:2-5

Where was God’s love for the little girl from yesterday’s story?

Shouldn’t His love have stopped this man from ravaging her family? Shouldn’t His love have stopped this man from becoming addicted to crack? Shouldn’t His love have stopped the drug pushers from selling drugs to this man?

But you see, that’s the rub. When we analyze what we expect of God’s love, have you noticed that it always goes back to limiting man’s choice or to negating the consequences for choices? Because of man’s free will, the man had a choice to kill or not to kill, to buy drugs or not buy drugs, to use drugs or not use drugs. Is it God’s fault that he chose to sin? Is it God’s fault that the man’s sin carried consequences?

Can a just God negate the consequences for man’s choices? Do you think God is obligated by love to give you the answers at a test that you didn’t study for? Is God constrained by His love to keep a person healthy and strong that never exercises? If God loves you, will He place an umbrella of protection over you and keep bad things from happening to you, but not everyone else? Does it word tell us that Jesus Himself said, “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).

To describe God as a loving God and stop at that description is a great injustice to our understanding of who He is. Not only is He loving, but His love causes Him to also be just. He must punish sin and He must allow society to suffer the consequences of sin.

Your personal sin doesn’t just affect you, it affects the people all around you also. Robin Reid, the father of Richard Reid, the alleged “shoe bomber” admitted his personal culpability in his son’s crime in a 2002, Newsweek magazine article. He said:

“Look at the terrible childhood he had . . . Look at the father he had. I have spent 18 years in total behind bars. That can’t have helped him, can it? Every time he needed me I was nowhere to be found.”

Think of the domino effect of Robin Reid’s sin and the impact it could have had on the American psyche if his son had been successful in blowing up that plane.

Here is another question we need to consider: would God be a loving God if He didn’t allow us to exercise our free will? Wouldn’t that make Him a tyrant-controlling, overbearing God, in essence, a dictator, instead of a loving God?

Besides, it wasn’t God that got the man hooked on crack and it wasn’t God that stabbed the family members in the story above. Have you noticed how quick we are to blame God for things He has nothing to do with?

Some will blame God. Some will blame the knife maker, and others will blame society as a whole.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Malachi 1:2-5

It is remarkable, in view of Israel’s sin, that God’s first message to them in this book is that He loves them. His love is a historical love that goes back to their ancestor Jacob, who received his father’s and God’s blessing rather than his older brother Esau.

They may have felt unloved because of the suffering of the captivity, the shape of Jerusalem when they returned, the drought and economic instability, but God reminds them that they will recover. If He was against them, they wouldn’t be able to bounce back. Edom may rebuild, God said, but He will destroy what they rebuild. His activity will cause all who see to say, “Great is the Lord!”

Israel’s situation is far different from Edom’s, for Israel will bounce back. They will rebuild. God didn’t stop bad things from happening to them, but He did give them the opportunity to improve their lives.

The objection of Israel in this text causes us to ask a universal question: How can a loving God allow bad things to happen? Since He is all powerful, can’t He stop evil’s reign?

The following is a story I once read and kept:

Hospital Chaplain Norris Burkes went on full alert when he heard that a family of stab victims would arrive at the emergency room in a few minutes. Chaplains deal with tragedy and death on a daily basis, but it never becomes routine. They are a special breed of minister who prefer to spend their time immersed in the suffering of others, and representing God and His people to hurting traumatized people. They extend grace & hope in hopeless situations every day of their life-this was one of those occasions.

The family was entertaining a friend in their home who had a dark secret-he was a crack addict. The tranquil visit turned into a nightmare when he ran out of crack and lost his sanity. He demanded money from his hosts, and when they wouldn’t comply with his request, he began stabbing them.

It was horrible. Blood was everywhere.

The father died. The baby was critical. Mom was stable.

Big sister was in the best shape physically, but emotionally she’d entered the twilight zone. As the doctors worked with those needing medical attention, Chaplain Burkes took the ten year old girl into the chapel to pray.

Her prayers began very innocent, like you’d expect to hear from a little girl. She asked God to help her family recover and that everything would be OK. Then her prayers lost their innocence, as she had that night, and became brutally honest. “She demanded to know why God let her father die,” Chaplain Burkes said, and “she had a few choice words for her houseguest as well.”

Rage got the best of her, she swept the candles off of the altar and began overturning chairs in the chapel. The Chaplain called for Jeannie, the nurse supervisor, who held the child in her arms and took her back into the ER to give her a sedative.

Where was God’s love for this little girl?

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.