IN THE BUSINESS OF REDEMPTION

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.”  (Galatians 4:4-5 NRSV)

With endless patience, at infinite cost to Himself, God had been waiting since the beginning of history -- watching, suffering, loving -- until in the fullness of time He sent His only begotten Son to a redemption center on a hill called Calvary. What does He want to redeem? Everything. All creation is groaning for redemption, Paul says. God wants to redeem you.

When circumstances look bleak, when the stock market is down, or when your morale is sinking or your assets are shrinking or your health is collapsing, you may wonder, Is anything going up? Yes.

The chance to trust God when trusting isn’t easy is wide open. The prospect for modeling hope for a hope-needy world is trending upward. And the possibility of cultivating a storm-proof faith is always going up. This is so because certain truths remain unchanged: God remains sovereign, grace beats sin, prayers get heard, the Bible endures, heaven’s mercies spring up new every morning, the cross still testifies to the power of sacrificial love, the tomb is still empty, and the kingdom that Jesus announced is still expanding without needing to be bailed out by human efforts.

God is still in the business of redemption, specializing in bringing something very, very good out of something very, very bad.

-- John Ortberg in “The Me I Want to Be” 

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THE SUFFERING AND SACRIFICE OF CHRIST

“[Jesus] personally carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By His wounds you are healed.”  (1 Peter 2:24 NLT)

Slowly we have drifted away from the biblical truth: “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). Mankind would like to make the cross a thing of sentiment -- a trinket to be worn around the neck, an ornament on a church steeple or an emblem stamped in gold on our Bibles. A certain romantic interest has gathered around the story of the cross. But it is the suffering and sacrifice of Christ on Calvary that symbolize our utter helplessness to save ourselves. The cross as the supreme symbol of suffering reveals two basic facts that cannot be denied: the depth of man’s depravity and the immensity of God’s love. 

-- Billy Graham in “Who’s in Charge of a World that Suffers?”

#5201

THE GIFT OF CHOICE

In every age of history, on every page of Scripture, the truth is revealed: God allows us to make our own choices.

And no one delineates that more clearly than Jesus. According to Him, we can choose “a narrow gate or a wide gate… a narrow road or a wide road… the big crowd or the small crowd” (Matthew 7:13-14). We can choose to “build on rock or sand” (Matthew 7:24-27), “serve God or riches” (Matthew 6:24), “be numbered among the sheep or goats” (Matthew 25:32-33).

God gives eternal choices, and these choices have eternal consequences. “Then they [who rejected God] will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matthew 25:46 NIV).

Isn’t this the reminder of Calvary’s trio? Ever wonder why there were two crosses next to Christ? Why not six or ten? Ever wonder why Jesus was in the center? Why not on the far right or far left? Could it be that the two other crosses on the hill symbolize one of God’s greatest gifts? The gift of choice. 

-- Adapted from Max Lucado in “He Chose the Nails”

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TRUSTING IN THE SAVIOR

“Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His love.”   (1 John 4:14-16 NLT)

If we could save ourselves -- why would we need a Savior?  Jesus didn’t enter the world to help us save ourselves.  He entered the world to save us from ourselves.

As a Boy Scout, I earned a lifesaving merit badge.  The fact is, the only people I saved were other Boy Scouts who didn’t need to be saved.  During training I would rescue other trainees.  We took turns saving each other.  But since we weren’t really drowning, we resisted being rescued.  “Stop kicking and let me save you,” I’d say.

It’s impossible to save those who are trying to save themselves.  You might save yourself from a broken heart or going broke or running out of gas.  But you’re not good enough to save yourself from sin.  You are not strong enough to save yourself from death.  You need a Savior…and because of [Calvary], you have one!

-- Max Lucado

#4567

THE JADE CARVER

A Chinese jade carver finds a  priceless piece of jade -- with a major flaw. He could try to hide the flaw. Instead he carefully studies the jade and its flaw and plans an exquisite carving, making the defect the central part of a perfect design.

God did this for Joseph’s brothers in Genesis. In bitter hatred they sold their brother into a life of slavery in a distant land. They almost caused their father’s death by lying about it. Through much suffering God made them willing to repent. But He did more. He used their sinful failure to save multitudes of people, including themselves, from death through famine. He took the blackest fragment from their lives and made it central in a beautiful picture of salvation for themselves, for Joseph, and for their entire family.

This is also what God did at Calvary. He took man’s greatest failure, his most shameful atrocity -- killing the Son of God -- and made it central in a perfect picture of salvation, available to all people for all time. He can do this today with the black events of your past. He’s not pleased when we waste our lives by endlessly focusing on our terrible backgrounds, our wounds, our handicaps, or our sins and failures. He wants you to rely on Him to forgive, to overrule, and to bring about beautiful results.

-- Warren and Ruth Myers in Discovering God’s Will: Experiencing Afresh How Good God Is


#4016

HELD TO THE CROSS

"God made Christ who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."  (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV)


It wasn't the Romans who nailed Jesus to the cross.  It wasn't the Jewish religion that took Him up the hill of Calvary.  It wasn't spikes that held Jesus to the cross.  What held Him to that cross was His conviction that it was necessary that He become sin -- that He who is pure become sin and that the wrath of God be poured down, not upon the creation, but upon the Creator.


-- Max Lucado




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