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14 years ago
“Who are his people? We are eager to know who they are, and we are glad to find that his people need to be saved, and will be saved, for it is written, ‘He will save his people.’ It is not said, ‘He will reward his people for their righteousness,’ nor is it promised that he will ‘save them from becoming sinners,’ but ‘He will save his people from their sins.’ . . .
If you are righteous in yourself, you are not one of his people. If you were never sick in soul, you are none of the folk that the Great Physician has come to heal. If you were never guilty of sin, you are none of those whom he has come to deliver from sin. Jesus comes on no needless errand and undertakes no unnecessary work. If you feel yourselves to need saving, then cast yourselves upon him, for such as you are he came to save.”
C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1950), I:4-5.
Christians love and serve the Living God, and one thing that distinguishes Him from all others is just how far and to what lengths He has gone, and will go to save his people.
He is not ashamed to call me brother.
He became a bona fide human being (not just God with skin on, but just as much a human being as if he were never God at all) Hebrews 2.14-15
He identified himself with the Fallen (that is, Human sinners) with his baptism "of repentance" Matthew 3.11, 14
He even identified himself AS a sinner himself (even though he was not one) in dying criminals death Philippians 2.8, Galatians 3.13
Not only that, but he went so far as to become sin itself, the very thing that was keeping people blinded from God. And in becoming sin itself he experienced the unmitigated wrath of God against sin. 2 Corinthians 5.21
He voluntarily chooses to take up permanent residence inside those who are still Fallen, and remakes them from the inside out into new people. Gal 2.20
And now because the Living God is not ashamed to call me kin, even though there's still a streak in me that wants to do things my way, telling God to shove off and mind his own business, there's nothing keeping him from being my Advocate, my Priest, someone who's most definitely for me, even when I think I know better.
Here's the clincher:
In light of this Jesus who identifies with sinners to the point of even dying like a sinner, as a sinner, crushed and forgotten, shouldn't we, out of an enormity of gratitude to this gracious One, identify with God to the point of even living like God lives, overflowing with love and passion, holy and righteous, and with that unending sense of divine joy?
If you are righteous in yourself, you are not one of his people. If you were never sick in soul, you are none of the folk that the Great Physician has come to heal. If you were never guilty of sin, you are none of those whom he has come to deliver from sin. Jesus comes on no needless errand and undertakes no unnecessary work. If you feel yourselves to need saving, then cast yourselves upon him, for such as you are he came to save.”
C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1950), I:4-5.
Christians love and serve the Living God, and one thing that distinguishes Him from all others is just how far and to what lengths He has gone, and will go to save his people.
He is not ashamed to call me brother.
He became a bona fide human being (not just God with skin on, but just as much a human being as if he were never God at all) Hebrews 2.14-15
He identified himself with the Fallen (that is, Human sinners) with his baptism "of repentance" Matthew 3.11, 14
He even identified himself AS a sinner himself (even though he was not one) in dying criminals death Philippians 2.8, Galatians 3.13
Not only that, but he went so far as to become sin itself, the very thing that was keeping people blinded from God. And in becoming sin itself he experienced the unmitigated wrath of God against sin. 2 Corinthians 5.21
He voluntarily chooses to take up permanent residence inside those who are still Fallen, and remakes them from the inside out into new people. Gal 2.20
And now because the Living God is not ashamed to call me kin, even though there's still a streak in me that wants to do things my way, telling God to shove off and mind his own business, there's nothing keeping him from being my Advocate, my Priest, someone who's most definitely for me, even when I think I know better.
Here's the clincher:
In light of this Jesus who identifies with sinners to the point of even dying like a sinner, as a sinner, crushed and forgotten, shouldn't we, out of an enormity of gratitude to this gracious One, identify with God to the point of even living like God lives, overflowing with love and passion, holy and righteous, and with that unending sense of divine joy?
