Seeing the Cross and Counting It Joy

I just finished reading C.J.Mahaney's "Christ Our Mediator". I have already blogged about two of the chapters called "The Divine Dilemma" and "The Divine Rescue." To read these posts, click here.

Today I would just like to give some quotes about seeing your sin for what it truly is, and then through seeing your sin looking at the cross for the ultimate joy.

"Unless you see yourself standing there with the shrieking crowd, full of hostility and hatred for the holy and innocent Lamb of God, you don;t really understand the nature and depth of your sin or the necessity of the cross."

"In making this point, my ultimate purpose is not to convict you of sin, but to convince you of grace. Unless you're deeply aware of your sin, and of what affront it is to God's holiness, and of how impossible it is for Him to respond to this sin with anything other than furious wrath - you'll never appreciate grace, and it will never be amazing to you. Only those who are truly aware of their sin can truly cherish grace."

"The distractions that turn us away from the cross are so incessant and so numerous. But failing to focus on the right spot has serious consequences. So here's my question for you: In the last week, what was your primary preoccupation in your life? What was your spiritual focus? Was it on that spot where God most reveals His personal love for you - the cross?

Or was it on your own circumstances, your own condition, your own concerns? Was your preoccupation with your personal pursuit of godliness? Growth in godliness must be pursued, but never apart from joyful gratitude for the cross."

"And the inevitable result of preaching the gospel to yourself will be a pronounced joy,an infectious joy, a consistent joy.

Like Nothing else, the gospel creates joy; it's both the source and the object of our joy. The gospel alone allows us to obey the biblical directive to 'serve the Lord with gladness.' Joy is a command. You may be working hard and serving the Lord faithfully, but if you aren't serving with gladness, you aren't serving Him appropriately or representing Him accurately."

"Are you someone who's consistently joyful and continually aware that the joy of the Lord is your strength? Or do you normally appear to others to be someone who's burdened, busy, and easily bothered?"

Lord, we praise you for your Son's sacrifice, and thank you for your continued grace towards us. Lord, as I read these quotes and questions, I see how much glory I take away from you and try to give to myself. There are times where I don't think about the price you paid, or I take for granted your grace, or I diminish your holiness and view of sin.

I pray that you would give me wisdom to understand these things and to be affected by your cross. Lord, through you I know I can do anything. Lord,help me to count all things as joy. Amen

The Divine Rescue

Last week I posted some stuff from C.J. Mahaney’s book “Christ Our Mediator” from the chapter “The Divine Dilemma.” We saw how opposite God and man is and how sin separates us.

This week I’m posting some stuff from the next chapter entitled “The Divine Rescue.” C.J. starts out asking if there was one sentence you could use to best capture the storyline of scripture, what it would be. He said the most common is John 3:16, but that he would go to 1 Timothy 2:5-6:

“For there is one God, and there is one God and mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”

But as a mediator, He has to represent both sides. Here’s what C.J. had to say:

“Only someone both fully divine and truly human can effectively mediate between God and men, and Jesus is exactly that. He is unique – totally unlike anyone else. That’s why Paul insists there is only ‘one mediator’, just as surely as there is ‘one God.’”

C.J. uses a quote from Ron Rhodes on this subject:

“If Christ the redeemer had been only God he could not have died, since God by his very nature cannot die. It was only as a man that Christ could represent humanity and die as a man.

As God, however, Christ’s death had infinite value sufficient to supply redemption for the sins of all mankind. Clearly then Christ had to be both God and man to secure man’s salvation.”

So Christ mediates between us and God and this is the result:

“He paid the price you and I owed to the innocent offended party, God our Creator and Judge.

Therefore the offended party is appeased. His righteous wrath against our sin is satisfied, having been poured out not upon us, but on Christ. God’s holy hostility against us has ended. The divine dilemma is resolved.”

This should cause us to fall on our faces in worship to Christ and God. God’s wrath/hostility/judgment crushed Christ instead of us. We were saved because of Christ sacrifice. Praise him for his death, grace, and love.

Dear Jesus, I don’t understand why you would choose to save me, a continuous sinner and offender of God, but we thank you. Help us to never forget the cross. Help us to never do anything in this life, without thinking of why we are able to do anything. The only reason we are alive now is because of your grace. Your grace on the cross and your continuous grace should overwhelm us and cause us to worship with the most humble hearts, because we did nothing, and you did everything. Thank you, Lord.

Click here to watch an interview with C.J. Mahaney on why we sing songs about the cross.

The Divine Dilemma

Sitting on the floor beside my bed is a stack of about twenty-five books by great Christian authors such as John Piper, C. H. Spurgeon, and others. My goal is to read through as many of these as I can before I leave for college this fall. Right now I'm going through C. J.Mahaney's book "Christ Our Mediator".

The latest chapter I read was called "The Divine Dilemma" and I'm just going to give some excerpts from this chapter. First C. J. describes God:

"Paul conveys this dilemma in the opening chapters of his first letter to Timothy. God is 'the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God,' Paul says. As King of kings, He's the absolute Sovereign one who transcends time...And He's invisible-living in unapproachable light, so that sinful beings cannot see Him and live. Furthermore, He's the only God, with no rivals."

Then describes man:

"In utter contrast to this is the portrait of humanity Paul paints for Timothy: 'lawless and disobedient...ungodly and sinners...unholy and profane...those who strike their fathers and mothers...murders, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.'"

Now C. J. compares the two and shows the dilemma:

"For God, the divine dilemma comes about because He isn't indifferent to any of this sinfulness on mankind's part. He is, in fact, righteously and furiously opposed to every bit of it. He cannot simply overlook or excuse it. In light of His holiness and justice, He has no alternative but to punish sin and punish the sinner."

Man and God are in complete opposition to each other, yet God wanted to save man. But God had to punish man for their sin. So this is the biggest dilemma that has ever existed and no man can do anything to resolve the issue. Next week C. J. will tell us about the Divine Rescue.