Month: March 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR MARCH 21 ~ ~ “1 Thessalonians 5:10 ~ ~ “(He) died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him.”

Philippians 1:21 and 23

“To live is Christ, and to die is gain…..I am hard pressed between the two.  My desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better.”

2 Corinthians 5:8

“We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”

We’re in Chapter 40 of John Piper’s book, “The Passion of Jesus Christ”

Christ Suffered and Died………..

SO THAT WE WOULD BE WITH HIM IMMEDIATELY AFTER DEATH

The Bible does not view our bodies as bad.  Christianity is not like some ancient Greek religions that treated the body as a burden to be gladly shed.  No, death is an enemy.  When our bodies die, we lost something precious.  Christ is not against the body, but He is for the body.  The Bible is clear on this:

“The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (1 Corinthians 6:13).  This is a wonderful statement:  THE LORD IS FOR THE BODY!

But we must not go so far as to say that without the body we can have no life or consciousness.  The Bible does not teach this.

Christ died not only to redeem the body, but also to bind the soul so closely to Himself that, even without the body, we are with Him.  This is a huge comfort in life and death, and Christ died so that we would enjoy this hope.

On the one hand the Bible talks about losing the body in death as a kind of nakedness for the soul:  “While we are still in this tent (that is the body), we groan….not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed. (2 Corinthians 5:4).  In other words, we would rather move straight from here to the resurrection body with no in-between time when our bodies are in the grave.  That’s what those will experience who are alive when Christ returns from heaven.

But on the other hand, the Bible celebrates the in-between time, when our souls are in heaven and our bodies are in the grave.  This is not the final glory, but it is glorious.  We read, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). 

“Gain”!!!  yes, loss of the body for a season.  In a sense, “unclothed.”  But more than anything else, “gain”!  Why?  Because death for the Christian will mean coming home to Christ.  As the apostle Paul says:  “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”  (Philippians 1:23).

“Far better”!  Not yet in every way the best.  That will come when the body is raised in health and glory.  But still “far better”.  We will be with Christ in a way that is more intimate, more “at home.” So the early Christians said, “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8).  Those of us who believe in Christ do not go out of existence when we die.  We do not go into a kind of “soul sleep.”  We go to be with Christ.  We are “at home.”  It is “far better.”  It is “gain.”

This is one of the great reasons Christ suffered.  “(He) died for us to that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him” (1 Thessalonians 5:10).

Sleep-like, the body lies there in the grave.  But we live with Christ in heaven.  This is not our final hope.  Someday the body will be raised.  But short of that, to be with Christ is precious beyond words.

GOD’S WORD FOR MARCH 20 ~ ~ Hebrews 2:14-15 ~ ~ “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”

(I must repeat that these promises………all the promises in the Bible, and the statements of this book…….are only for those who have believed in the  death, resurrection, and future coming and Kingship of Jesus Christ.  ….that He died in your place, to pay for your sins, for which you repent and follow Him as your God, Lord, and Savior.  Does that describe you?  If not you are on the wrong side of eternity.  Ask Jesus to give you the faith to believe, then read the Word (Bible) to see what He’ll say to you in it, and obey it.)

From John Piper’s book, “The Passion of Jesus Christ”, we’re in chapter 39:

Christ Suffered and Died……………

TO FREE US FROM BONDAGE TO THE FEAR OF DEATH

Jesus called Satan a murderer.  “He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth….he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44).

But his main interest is not killing.  It is damning.  In fact, he much prefers that his followers have long and happy lives –to mock suffering saints and hide the horrors of hell.

His power to damn human beings lies not in himself, but in the sins that he inspires and the lies that he tells.  The only thing that damns anybody is unforgiven sin.  Hexes, enchantments, voodoo, seances, curses, black magic, apparitions, voices —–none of these casts a person into hell.  They are the bells and whistles of the devil. 

The one lethal weapon he has is the power to deceive us.  His chief lie is that self-exaltation is more to be desired than Christ-exaltation, and sin preferable to righteousness.  If that weapon could be taken out of his hand he would no longer have the power of eternal death.

That is what Christ came to do – take that weapon out of Satan’s hand.  To do this, Christ took our sins on Himself and suffered for them.  When that happened, they could be used no more by the devil to destroy us.  Taunt us?  Oh yes!  Mock us?  Yes!  But damn us?  NO!  Christ bore the curse in our place.  Try as he will, Satan cannot destroy us, the wrath of God is removed.  His mercy is our shield.  And Satan cannot succeed against us.

To accomplish this deliverance, Christ had to take on a human nature, because without it, He could not experience death.  Only the death of the Son of God could destroy the one who had the power of death.  Hence the Bible says:

“Since…the children share in flesh and blood (that is, we have a human nature), He Himself likewise partook of the same things (that is,  He took on a human nature), that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil. (Hebrews 2:14).  When Christ died for sins, He took from the devil his one lethal weapon: unforgiven sin.

Freedom from fear was the aim of Christ in doing this.  By dying He delivered “all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:14).

 The fear of death enslaves!  It makes us timid and dull.  Jesus died to set us free.  When the fear of death is destroyed by an act of self-sacrificing love, the bondage to boring, bigheaded self-preservation is broken.  We are freed to love like Christ, even at the cost of our lives.

The devil may kill our body, but he can no longer kill our soul.  It is safe in Christ.  And even our mortal body will be raised someday:

“He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you,” (Romans 8:11).

We are the freest of all people.  And the Bible is unmistakable in what this freedom is for:  “You were called to freedom, brothers.  Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”  (Galatians 5:13).

GOD’S WORD FOR MARCH 19  ~ ~ Luke 9:23 ~ ~ “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Matthew 10:38

“whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”

Continuing in “The Passion of Jesus Christ” by John Piper, we’re in the chapter entitled:

Christ Suffered and Died…………

TO CREATE A BAND OF CRUCIFIED FOLLOWERS

Christ died to create comrades on the Calvary road.  Calvary is the name of the hill where He was crucified.  He knew that the path of His life would take Him there eventually.  In fact, “He set His face” to go there (Luke 9:51).  Nothing would hinder His  mission to die,.  He knew where and when it had to happen.  When someone warned Him, on the way to Jerusalem, that He was in danger from King Herod He scorned the idea that Herod could short-circuit God’s plan.  “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.’” (Luke 13:32).  All was proceeding according to plan.  And when the end finally came and the mob arrested Him the night before He died, He said to them, “All this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled” (Matthew 26:56).

In a sense, the Calvary road is where everyone meets Jesus.  It’s true that He has already walked the road, and died, and risen, and now reigns in heaven until He comes again.  But when Christ meets a person today, it is always on the Calvary road – on the way to the cross.  Every time He meets someone on the calvary road He says:

“If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me (Luke 9:23).

When Christ went to the cross, His aim was to call a great band of believers after Him.

The reason for this is not that Jesus must die again today but that WE must.  When He bids us take up our cross, He means come and die.  The cross was a place of horrible execution.  It would have been unthinkable in Jesus’ day to wear a cross as a piece of jewelry.  It would have been like wearing a miniature electric chair or lynching rope.  His words must have had a terrifying effect:

“Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:38).

So today the words are sobering.  They mean at least that when I follow Jesus as my Savior and Lord, the old self-determining, self-absorbed me must be crucified.  I must every day reckon myself dead to sin and alive to God.  This is the path of life. “Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).

But camaraderie on the Calvary road means more.  It means that Jesus died so that we would be willing to bear His reproach.  “Jesus …suffered outside the gate …Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured.” (Hebrews 13:12-13).

But not just reproach.  If necessary, martyrdom.  The Bible pictures some of Christ’s followers this way:  They have conquered (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”  (Revelation 12:11).

So the Lamb of God shed His blood that we might defeat the devil by trusting His blood and shedding ours.  Jesus calls us onto the Calvary road.  It is a hard and good life.   COME!

GOD’S WORD FOR MARCH 18 ~ ~ 1 Peter 2:19-21 ~ ~ “This is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly … for to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps.”

Hebrews 12:3-4

“For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.”

Philippians 2:5-8

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,  who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”

Continuing in John Piper’s book, “The Passion of Jesus Christ”. 

Christ Suffered and Died………….

TO CALL US TO FOLLOW HIS EXAMPLE OF LOWLINESS AND COSTLY LOVE

Imitation is not salvation.  But salvation brings imitation.  Christ is not given to us first as model, but as Savior.  In the experience of the believer, first comes the pardon of Christ, then the pattern of Christ.  In the experience of Christ Himself, they happen together:  the same suffering that pardons our sins provides our pattern of love.

In fact, only when we experience the pardon of Christ can He become a pattern for us.  This sounds wrong because His sufferings are unique.  They cannot be imitated.  No one but the Son of God can suffer “for us” the way Christ did.  He bore our sins in a way that no one else could.  He was a substitute sufferer.  We can never duplicate this.  It was once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous.  Divine, vicarious suffering for sinners is inimitable.

However, this unique suffering, after pardoning and justifying sinners, transforms them into people who act like Jesus –

Not like Him in pardoning, but like Him in loving.

 Like Him in suffering to do good to others.

 Like Him in not returning evil for evil. 

Like Him in lowliness and meekness.

 Like Him in patient endurance. 

Like Him in servanthood. 

Jesus suffered for us uniquely, that we might suffer with Him in the cause of love.

Christ’s apostle, Paul, said that his ambition was first to share in Christ’s righteousness by faith, and then to share in His sufferings in ministry.  “(May I) be found in (Christ), not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ …that I may…share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.” (Philippians 3:9-10).  Justification precedes and makes possible imitation.  Christ’s suffering for justification makes possible our suffering for proclamation.  Our suffering for others does not remove the wrath of God.  It shows the value of having the wrath of God removed by the suffering of Christ.  It points people to Him.

When the Bible calls us to “endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:10), it means that our imitation of Christ points people to Him who alone can save.  Our suffering is crucial, but Christ’s alone saves.  Therefore, let us imitate His love, but not take His place.

GOD’S WORD FOR MARCH 17 ~ ~ Titus 2:14 ~ ~ “(He) gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works.”

John Piper’s book, “The Passion of Jesus Christ.”

Christ suffered and Died……………….

TO CREATE A PEOPLE PASSIONATE FOR GOOD WORKS

At the heart of Christianity is the truth that we are forgiven and accepted by God, not because we have done good works, but to make us able and zealous to do them.  The Bible says, “(God) saved us….not because of our works.” (2 Timothy 1:9).  Good deeds are not the FOUNDATION of our acceptance, but the FRUIT of it.  Christ suffered and died not because we presented to Him good works, but He died “to purify for Himself a people…..zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:14).

This is the meaning of grace.  We cannot obtain a right standing with God because of our works.  It must be a free gift.  We can only receive it by faith, cherishing it as our great treasure.  This is why the Bible says, “By grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).  Christ suffered and died so that good works would be the EFFECT, not the cause, of our acceptance.

Not surprisingly, then, the next sentence says, “for we are…..created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10).  That is, we are saved FOR good works, not BY good works.  And the aim of Christ is not the mere ABILITY to do them, but PASSION  to do them.  That’s why the Bible uses the word “zealous.” Christ died to make us  “ZEALOUS for good works.”  Zeal means passion. Christ did not die to make good works merely possible or to produce a half-hearted pursuit.  He died to produce in us a PASSION for good deeds.  Christian purity is not the mere avoidance of evil, but the pursuit of good.

There are reasons why Jesus paid the infinite price to produce our passion for good deeds.  He gave the main reason in these words:  “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5;16).  God is shown to be glorious by the good deeds of Christians.  For that glory Christ suffered and died.

When God’s forgiveness and acceptance have freed us from fear and pride and greed, we are filled with a zeal to love others the way we have been loved.  We risk our possessions and our lives since we are secure in Christ.  When we love others like this, our behavior is contrary to human self-enhancement and self-preservation.  Attention is thus drawn to our life-transforming Treasure and Security, namely, God.

And what are these “good works”?  Without limiting their scope, the Bible means mainly helping people in urgent need, especially those who possess least and suffer most.  For example, the Bible says:

“Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need.” (Titus 3:14).

Christ died to make us this kind of people — passionate to help the poor and the perishing.  It is the best life, no matter what it costs us in this world:

They get help, we get joy, God gets glory!

GOD’S WORD FOR MARCH 16 ~ ~ Galatians 2:20 ~ ~ “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

We’re in the book, “The Passion of Jesus Christ” by John Piper.

Day/Reason 34

Christ Suffered and Died …………………

TO ENABLE US TO LIVE BY FAITH IN HIM

There is an explicit paradox in this verse.  “I have been crucified,” but “I now live.”  But you might say, “That’s not paradoxical, it’s just sequential.  First I died with Christ; then I was raised with Him and now I live.”  True.  But what about these even more paradoxical words: “it is no longer I who live,” yet “I now live”  Do I live or don’t I?

Paradoxes are not contradictions.  They just sound that way.  What Paul means is that there was an “I” who died, and there is a different “I” who lives.  That’s what it means to become a Christian.

An old self dies.  A new self is “created” or “raised.” 

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW CREATION.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). 

“When we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ … and RAISED us up with Him.” (Ephesians 2:5-6).

The aim of the death of Christ was to take our “old self” with Him into the grave and put an end to it. 

“We know that our OLD SELF was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing.” (Romans 6:6). 

If we trust Christ, we are united to Him, and God counts our old self as having died with Christ.  The purpose was the raising of the new self.

So who is this new self?   What’s different about these two selves?   Am I still me?

The verse at the beginning of this chapter describes the new self in two ways:  One way is almost unimaginable; the other is plain.

FIRST:  It says that the new self is Christ living in me:  “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”   I take this to mean that the new self is defined by Christ’s presence and help at all times.  He is always imparting life to me.  He is always strengthening me for what He calls me to do.  That’s why the Bible says, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4;13).

“I toil….with all His energy that He powerfully works within me.” (Colossians 1:29).  So when all is said and done the new self says, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me.”  (Romans 15:18).

That’s the first way Galatians 2:20 speaks of the new self:  a Christ-inhabited, Christ-sustained, Christ-strengthened me.  That’s what Christ died to bring about.  That’s what a Christian is.  The other way it speaks of the new self is this:  It lives by trusting Christ moment by moment:

“The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Without this second description of the new self, we might wonder what our part is in experiencing Christ’s daily help.  Now we have the answer:  faith.  From the divine side, Christ is living in us and enabling us to live the way He teaches us to live.  It’s His work.  

But from our side, it’s experienced by trusting Him moment by moment to be with us and to help us.  The proof that He will be with us and will help us do this is the fact that He suffered and died to make it happen.

GOD’S WORD FOR MARCH 15 ~ ~ Galatians 6:14 ~ ~ Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

John Piper is on day 33 in his book, “The Passion of Jesus Christ”

Christ Suffered and Died……………..

TO MAKE HIS CROSS THE GROUND OF ALL OUR BOASTING

This seems over the top.  Boast only in the cross!  Really?  Literally ONLY in the cross?  Even the Bible talks about other things to boast in.

Boast in the glory of God (Romans 5:2). 

Boast in our tribulations (Romans 5:3).

Boast in our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Boast in the people of Christ (1 Thessalonians 2:19).

What does “only” mean here?

It means that all other boasting should still be a boasting in the cross.  If we boast in the hope of glory that very boast should be a boast in the cross of Christ. 

If we boast in the people of Christ, that very boast should be a boasting in the cross.

Boasting only in the cross means only the cross enables every other legitimate boast and every legitimate boast should therefore honor the cross.

Why?   Because every good thing – indeed, even every bad thing that God turns for good – was obtained for us by the cross of Christ.  Apart from faith in Christ, sinners get only judgment.  Yes, there are many pleasant things that come to unbelievers.  But the Bible teaches that even these natural  blessings of life will only increase the severity of God’s judgment in the end, if they are not received with thanks on the basis of Christ’s sufferings (Romans 2:4-5).

Therefore, everything that we enjoy, as people who trust Christ, is owing to His death.  His suffering absorbed all the judgment that guilty sinners deserved and purchased all the good that forgiven sinners enjoy.  Therefore, all our boasting in these things should be a boasting in the cross of Christ.  We are not as Christ-centered and cross-cherishing as we should be, because we do not ponder the truth that everything good and everything bad that God turns for the good was purchased by the suffering of Christ.

And how do we become that radically cross-focused?  We must awaken to the truth that when Christ died on the cross, we died (go back to two days ago day 31).  When this happened to the Apostle Paul, he said “the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14).  This is the key to Christ-centered boasting in the cross.

When you put your trust in Christ, the overpowering attraction of the world is broken.  You are a corpse to the world, and the world is a corpse to you. Or to put it positively, you are a “new creation” (Galatians 6:15).  The old you is dead.  A new you is alive – the you of faith in Christ.  And what marks this faith is that it treasures Christ above everything in the world.  The power of the world to woo your love away has died.

Being dead to the world means that every legitimate pleasure in the world becomes a blood-bought evidence of Christ’s love and an occasion of boasting in the cross.  When our hearts run back along the beam of blessing to the source in the cross, then the worldliness of the blessing is dead, and Christ crucified is everything.

GOD’S WORD FOR MARCH 14 ~ ~ 2 Corinthians 5:15 ~ ~ “He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.”

Day (Reason) 32 in John Piper’s book, “The Passion of Jesus Christ”

Christ Suffered and Died………….

TO ENABLE US TO LIVE FOR CHRIST AND NOT OURSELVES

It troubles a lot of people that Christ died to exalt Christ.  Boiled down to its essence, 2 Corinthians 5:15 says Christ died for us that we might live for Him.  In other words, he died for us so that we make much of Him.  Bluntly, Christ died for Christ.

Now that is true.  It’s not a word trick.  The very essence of sin is that we have failed to glorify God – which includes failing to glorify His Son (Romans 3:23).  But Christ died to bear that sin and to free us from it.  So He died to bear the dishonor that we had heaped on him by our sin.  He died to turn this around.  Christ died for the glory of Christ.

The reason this troubles people is that it sounds vain.  It doesn’t seem like a loving thing to do.  So it seems to turn the suffering of Christ into the very opposite of what the Bible says it is namely the supreme act of love.  But in fact, it’s both.  Christ’s dying for His own glory and His dying to show love are not only both TRUE, they are both THE SAME.

Christ is unique.  No one else can act this way and call it love.  Christ is the only human in the universe who is also God and therefore infinitely valuable.  He is infinitely beautiful in all His moral perfections.  He is infinitely wise and just and good and strong.  “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.” (Hebrews 1:3).  To see Him and know Him is more satisfying than having all that earth can offer.  Those who knew Him best spoke this way:

“Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” (Philippians 3:7-8);

“Christ died that we might live for Him” does not mean “that we might HELP Him.”   “(God is not) served by human hands, as though He needed anything.” (Acts 17:25).  Neither is Christ:

“The Son of Man came NOT TO BE SERVED, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45).  What Christ died for is not that we might help Him, but that we might see and savor Him as infinitely valuable! 

He died to wean us from poisonous pleasures and enthrall us with the pleasures of HIS BEAUTY.  In this way we are loved, and He is honored.  These are not competing aims.  They are one.

Jesus said to His disciples that He had to go away so that He could send the Holy Spirit, the Helper (John 16:7).  Then He told them what the Helper would do when He came.  “He will glorify Me.” (John 16:14). 

Christ died and rose so that we would see and magnify Him.  This is the greatest help in the world.  This is love.

The most loving prayer Jesus ever prayed was this: “Father, I desire that they also whom You have given Me may be with Me where I am, to see My glory.” (John 17:24). 

For this Christ died.

This is love – suffering to give us everlasting enjoyment – namely, HIMSELF.

GOD’S WORD FOR MARCH 13 ~ ~ Romans 7:4 ~ ~ “You also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.”

Day 31 in our book, THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST, by John Piper

Christ Suffered and Died …….

SO THAT WE WOULD DIE TO THE LAW AND BEAR FRUIT FOR GOD

When Christ died for us, we died with Him. (see chapter 30).  God looked on us who believe as united to Christ.  His death for our sin was our death in Him.  But sin was not the only reality that killed Jesus and us.  So did the law of God.   When we break the law by sinning, the law sentences us to death.  If there were no law, there would be no punishment.  “For….where there is no law there is no transgression” (Romans 4:15).  But “whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that …the whole world may be held accountable to God.”

There was no escape from the curse of the law.  It was just; we were guilty.  There was only one way to be free:  Someone must pay the penalty.,  That’s why Jesus came:  “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).

Therefore, God’s law cannot condemn us if we are in Christ.  Its power to rule us is doubly broken.  On the one hand, the law’s demands have been fulfilled by Christ on our behalf.  His perfect law-keeping is credited to our account (see Chapter 11).  On the other hand, the law’s penalty has been paid by the flood of Christ.

This is why the Bible so clearly teaches that getting right with God is not based on law-keeping.  “By works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight.” (Romans 3:20).  “A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 2:16).  There is no hope of getting right with God by law keeping.  The only hope is the blood and righteousness of Christ, which is ours by faith alone.  “We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” (Romans 3:28).

How then do we please God, if we are dead to His law and it IS NO LONGER OUR MASTER?  Is not the law the expression of God’s good and holy will (Romans 7:12)?  The Biblical answer is that instead of belonging to the law, which demands and condemns, we now belong to Christ who demands and gives.  Formerly, righteousness was demanded from outside in letters written in stone.  But now righteousness rises within us as a longing in our relationship with Christ.  He is present and real.  By His Spirit He helps us in our weakness.  A living person has replaced a lethal list.  “The letter ills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:6)  (See chapter 14).

This is why the Bible says that the new way of obedience is FRUIT-BEARING, not law-keeping.  “You…have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, IN ORDER THAT WE MAY BEAR FRUIT FOR GOD” (Romans 7:4).  We have died to law-keeping so that we might live to fruit-bearing.  Fruit grows naturally on a tree.  If the tree is good, the fruit will be good.  And the tree, in this case, is a living relationship of love to Jesus Christ.  For this He died.  Now He bids us come:  “Trust me.”  Die to the law, that you might bear the fruit of love.

GOD’S WORD FOR MARCH 12 ~ ~ 1 Peter 2:24 ~ ~ “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”

We are at the 30^th reason that Christ died for you and me….in John Piper’s book, THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST”

Christ Suffered and Died ……

THAT WE MIGHT DIE TO SIN AND LIVE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS

Strange as it may sound, Christ’s dying in our place and for our sins means that WE DIED.    You would think that having a substitute die in your place would mean that you escape death.  And, of course, we do escape death – the ETERNAL death of endless misery and separation from God.  Jesus said, “I give them eternal life and they will NEVER PERISH (John 10:28). 

“Everyone who lives and believes in Me SHALL NEVER DIE” (John 11:26).

The death of Jesus DOES indeed mean that “whoever believes in Him should NOT PERISH but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

But there is another sense in which we die precisely because Christ died in our place and for our sins. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die……” (1 Peter 2:24).  He died that we might live; and He died that we might die.

When Christ died, I, as a believer in Christ, died with Him.   The Bible is clear:

“We have been united with Him in a death like His” (Romans 6:5).

“One has died for all, therefore all have died.”  (2 Corinthians 5:14).

Faith is the evidence of being united to Christ in this profound way.   Believers “have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20).

We look back on His death and know that, in the mind of God, we were there.   Our sins were on Him, and the death we deserved was happening to us IN HIM.

Baptism signifies this death with Christ.  “We were buried ……with Him BY BAPTISM into death.” (Romans 6:4).  The water is like a grave.  Going under is a picture of death.  Coming up is a picture of new life.  And it is all a picture of what God is doing “through faith.”  “(you have) been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him THROUGH FAITH in the powerful working of God” (Colossians 2:12).

The fact that I died with Christ is linked directly to His dying for my sin,. “He Himself BORE OUR SINS ….THAT WE MIGHT DIE.”  This means that when I embrace Jesus as my Savior, I embrace my own death as a sinner.  My sin brought Jesus to the grave and brought me there with Him.  Faith sees sin as murderous.  It killed Jesus, and it killed me!

Therefore, becoming a Christian means death to sin.  The old self that loved sin died with Jesus.  Sin is like a prostitute that no longer looks beautiful.  She is the murderer of my King and myself.  Therefore, the believer is dead to sin, no longer dominated by her attractions.  Sin, the prostitute who killed my friend, has no appeal.  She has become an enemy.

My new life is now swayed by righteousness.  “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might …..           LIVE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS” (1 Peter 2:24).  The command that I now love to obey is this (and I invite you to join me):

“Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness” (Romans 6:13)