Friday, April 27, 2012

The Joy of Beholding our Sin


Psalm 51:12 "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation"

King David writes Psalm 51 as a repenting response to the sins he committed against the Lord during his infamous incident with Bathsheba. The context for this Psalm is found in 2 Samuel 11 and 12.
God sends the prophet Nathan to expose David to the sins he has committed and in response David composes this Psalm.

Here is a really hard, but necessary thing to do in order to experience gospel-driven joy: we have to behold our sin.
Beholding your sin & feeling the weight of your sin before a holy God is the catalyst for deep joy.

This is extremely important and yet I don't think it is taught in most churches in a way that leads people to the atoning work of Jesus on the cross, but often simply leaves people feeling helpless or fearful because of their sin.

Sin is basically self-centerdness, it is the elevation of you over other people. The Scriptures teach that all people have failed to live under the authority of Jesus Christ for their lives, and have chosen their own way over God's. This is what happens with King David in 2 Samuel and this is what he is repenting of in Psalm 51.

Sin is a gradual numbing to the holiness of God. And this is what has been happening to David in the season leading up to his sins against Bathsheba and her husband Urriah.

David writes in Psalm 51:12 "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation." Let's briefly break this verse down in the context of Psalm 51 in order to get underneath what David is truly saying.

The Scriptures clearly teach that for all of those in God, in Christ your salvation cannot be lost. Christ has secured it forever when He saved you and delivered you, but there are seasons when the joy of God's salvation will wane. We all know this to be true. There are times when we are walking with the Lord, pressing into Him and bearing lots of fruit and feeling deep joy in Him, and there are other times when we can hear the words "God loves you" and it not move us an inch.

I believe that David wants the joy of God's presence, of God's salvation to return to him. And I believe that in order for joy to be experienced we have to confront our inner brokenness before the Lord. "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation." In order to understand how to experience this joy we have to unpack God's salvation.

David writes in Psalm 51:3-4 "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment."
We must always return to this. We must own our sin and continue to be honest with ourselves that we have failed to live as God has commanded us to live and have rebelled against him.

David is owning his sin, and and he is declaring the truth that God would be fully justified to do whatever He seems fit to do with him. God, fully holy and glorious, is blameless and justified to condemn us forever for our sins. This is the hard truth. But it is the truth. Yes, God is love, but his love does not compromise His holiness. And owning our sin starts with owning the fact that we are the problem. And we are in need of new hearts (not just all those 'other' people out there!). You know what I mean...how easy is it to shift the blame for our sins onto others, this is what Adam and Eve do in the Garden and it is something I continually do. But this is not a mark of maturity, but immaturity in the gospel and it has to be stopped in order to be healed.

David writes in Psalm 51:7 "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." David has confronted and owned his sins and now he moves towards his need for purging and washing. God must act to save him, and God must act to save us. We can't purge ourselves and we can't clean ourselves fully.

God can. We can't.

As a Christian, we have been purged and washed by the blood of Jesus. God has purged us and cleaned us, but at an extremely high price--the price of His son. God sends Jesus Christ to not only remove our sins, but to bear them and to die as a substitute in our place. This is great news!

When you begin to understand the depth of your rebellion before God then you will begin to experience the joy found in His rescue of you as well. God has not rescued from something small, but from condemnation, judgment, and eternal separation. He has rescued us from His wrath so that He can save us by His Son.

This is salvation. This is joy. This is the gospel.

Let me encourage you to behold your sin! BUT...Don't stop there. Don't just think about your sin and start chanting "woe is me" all the time, that's not the point. The point is that if you don't begin with your sin, with your need for a Savior then you will never be restored to joy when you experience the Savior's grace towards you. You have to do both--behold your sin and then move to beholding your Savior who fully cleanses you from all of your sins.

Are you beholding your sin?
Where are you running from the presence and purpose of God for your life right now?
Are you experiencing real joy in Jesus or are you just getting by as a Christian?

There is joy to be found in beholding your sin. But only if it leads to gospel-centered repentance that cries out to God to be merciful and then rest in the glorious truth that He has been.

"The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believed, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope." - Tim Keller

Friday, April 6, 2012

SAVED BY WORK: Good Friday Reflection


On Good Friday--Jesus truly becomes the true & greater Savior...

Jesus is the true & greater Adam who doesn't falter in his Garden, but is fully obedient to God unto the point of death.
Jesus is the true & greater Seth who doesn't just provide a way for Adam's family to be redeemed, but for all families of the earth of to be saved.
Jesus is the true & greater Noah who doesn't just provide a way out of God's wrath for a moment, but for all time through the Cross.
Jesus is the true & greater Ark of Noah who truly delivers people from death to life in the ultimate sense.
Jesus is the true & greater Abram who doesn't just rescue us physically from captivity as Abram does Lot, but who rescues & delivers us ultimately from a greater captivity.
Jesus is the true & greater Isaac who willingly lays down his life before his Father in order to show us the great love of his Father.
Jesus is the true & greater Moses who stands in the ultimate breach between man and God and intercedes for his people before the Father.
Jesus is the true & greater Joshua who doesn't just lead his people into the promised land, but becomes the promised land through his death & resurrection.
Jesus is the true & greater David, a King who will establish his eternal Kingdom through death & resurrection by perfect obedience to the Father.
Jesus is the true & greater Hosea who pursues his faithless people with steadfast faithfulness to bring them back to Him.
Jesus is the true & greater Jonah who is sent to another city in order to become peace for them and save from the wrath of God.
Jesus is the true & greater High Priest who enters into the holy of holies once and for all to perfect us through his death on the cross.
Jesus is the true & greater Perfect Tent that is not made with human hands, but with the hands of God to fully atone for sin through his death on the cross.
Jesus is the true & greater Mercy Seat that is not merely sprinkled with the blood of animals, but is drenched with his blood for our sake.
Jesus is the true & greater Lamb who is truly without spot, without blemish, and is slain on our behalf to make us spotless before him.
Jesus is the true & greater Covenant whose death on the cross for our sins covers up all of our iniquities and brings us boldly into His presence.
Jesus is the true & greater Sacrifice whose death on the cross satisfies the wrath of God towards sin and allows us complete access to the Father.

Jesus thirsts that we never would.
Jesus suffers God's wrath that we never would.
Jesus is cut off from the Father so we never would be.
Jesus is killed outside the gate, so that we could be brought in the gate.
Jesus doesn't save himself on the cross so that he can save us by the cross.
Jesus tears the veil in two to give us complete access to the Father.
Jesus is overwhelmed by sorrow that we never would be.
Jesus is condemned so that we never would be.
Jesus becomes guilty so that we never would be.
Jesus becomes unclean to make us clean.
Jesus bears judgement that we never would.
Jesus becomes sin to forgive us all our sin.

The Cross says...

You can't be...
too broken
too dirty
too ashamed
too guilty
too sinful
too filthy
too selfish
too enslaved
too unclean
too untouchable
too hopeless
too unworthy
too defiled
too unlovely
too unwell
too unrighteous
too decadent
too unpardonable
too undeserving
too captive
too evil
too far gone

Never. Ever.

The Cross demonstrates the outrageous love and mercy of God in Jesus Christ--to bring you back to Him, no matter what.

WE ARE SAVED BY WORK.

THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST ON THE CROSS.

It.
Is.
Finished.

Glory to Jesus Christ, the true & greater Savior who brings us all the way home by his LIFE, DEATH, AND RESURRECTION.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

When Jesus Fell


This is a tale of two Gardens.

In the first Garden, the Garden of Eden Adam fell into sin. Adam stumbled, Adam disobeyed.
It was God who created this Garden and gave it to Adam and his wife, but Adam ran way from God. Adam chose his will over the will of God, his way over the way of God. And because of this rebellion, this rejection of God Adam and Eve fall into sin and become separated from their Father--their God.

This was the first Garden. Where sin triumphed over man.

Enter Matthew 26, and the final Thursday of Jesus' life before his death.

Jesus goes up to a second garden--the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives.
Matthew writes in verses 36-38

"Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”


Jesus is sorrowful and troubled. Why?
Why is Jesus so sorrowful and troubled? Luke writes, in his account, that Jesus is sweating drops of blood he is in so much agony.
Sweating drops of blood.

We could look to many Christian martyrs, men and women who faced equally brutal deaths for their faith in Christ that do not seem as troubled or sorrowful about their impending death. None of them will be sweating drops of blood before their execution like Jesus is. And yet they are merely men, and at first blush seem more bold and less scared than Jesus is in the Garden.

Why?

Matthew 26:39 holds the answer, and it is staggering.
Matthew writes

"And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."

Jesus fell.

He fell on his face as he cried to His father for deliverance, to not have to drink the cup.

This cup that Jesus is going to have to drink, this is the cup of God's wrath. This is the cup that began to be filled up in the first Garden, when Adam ran away from God and choose himself over God. This is the cup of God's fury towards sin, towards every single person who has turned away from God and run from Him.

Towards you. And me.

And God tells Jesus that he is going to have to drink from this cup, and Jesus staggers. But, unlike Adam in the first Garden, Jesus obeys the will of God. He falls, but gets back up in order to head to the cross to make peace between man and God. God will now pour out all of His wrath, His righteous anger on Jesus Christ so that He won't have to pour it all out on us.

Tim Keller writes "Jesus doesn't come to bring judgement, He comes to bear it."

Gethsemane triumphs over Eden.
Jesus triumphs over Adam.
God triumphs over sin.

Remember both gardens. Remember the first garden, the garden that we all have lived in and the garden we still sometimes choose. The garden that shows us we are really broken, and really sinful. This is the garden that shows us our great need--our need for a second garden.

Jesus doesn't leave us in the first garden--He brings us into a second Garden, but only because Jesus has first entered into this Garden for us. Only because He has made peace for us, and He has become sin for us.

Jesus sweats drops of blood, blood that will be poured out the next day on our behalf, so that we could be brought near. That we could one day be brought before Him without blemish, without fault, without sin.

Redeemed. Restored. Reconciled.

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."
-Ephesians 2:13