Devotions

The offence of the Cross

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 10:58:11 +0100

The Offence of the Cross

And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.
(Galatians 5:11)

From his own writings we learn that the apostle Paul was often a persecuted man. The sad thing was that this came not so much from the Romans but from his own people; not from the civil powers but from the religious authorities. Paul was a preacher, and it was because of the content of his preaching that the Jews were stirred up against him.

Doubtless the apostle was tempted to change his message, or perhaps to be silent. This is true of any man of God who faces opposition. What should he do? Let him learn from Paul, whose loyalties were clear. He wrote: “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Gal.1:10). He knew that what he was preaching was not just important but absolutely vital. It had to do with the salvation of men’s souls. If what he had to say upset others, then so be it.

Firstly, let us see what is meant by “the cross” here. The reference of course is to the cross of Christ. We perhaps think immediately of the tree on which our Saviour died. But we should rather be thinking of the One who was crucified on that tree. Did not Paul say to the Corinthians, “I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1Cor.2:2)?

It is the doctrine of the cross that is meant here. The crucifixion was certainly an historical event, but it was one with an eternal significance. All the great themes of Scripture seem to find their focus at Calvary. Types and figures are fulfilled, prophecies are brought to pass and the divine attributes are gloriously displayed.

Secondly, let us see why the cross is an offence to men. The word means literally a ‘scandal’ – that which brings disgrace and discredit. To so many the cross of Christ is a stumbling-block. The world generally deems the cross weakness and folly. It seems that every generation and this one especially is obsessed with wealth, power and success. To such the cross appears to be a great failure. After all, the Jews did not regain their freedom as a nation through Jesus Christ. He was hardly a king worthy to be followed!

The church of course is different from the world. She professes her admiration for the cross, viewing it as a wonderful symbol of the love of God. The problem is that this is just about all that most who call themselves Christians see in it. They appreciate the fact that God has done so much to help mankind but believe that now we must do our own part! We must do good, become more religious and generally try our best to follow Christ’s noble example.

Friend, this is NOT the message of the cross! If this is our thinking then we show ourselves to be yet under the law. If like so many we are determined to join our own works to the work of Christ then we have never viewed Calvary in its true light. Paul did not add circumcision to the death of Christ as necessary for salvation: he knew that if a sinner subjected himself to circumcision then he would be “a debtor to do the whole law” (v.3). Beware of adding baptism or any other part of your obedience to the obedience of Christ as a ground for your acceptance with God.

Oh how the true cross is hated by those who remain in unbelief! Salvation by free and sovereign grace is a rebuke to our natural pride. The Saviour’s blood had to be shed because sin is serious and God is righteous.

Finally let us see how the offence of the cross may be removed. The wrong way is to pare down the cross, to smooth off its doctrines. How men would love to make divine justice less strict! But it cannot and must not be done, No, the right way to remove the offence of the cross is not to change the cross but to change the sinner. Indeed this is the only way souls can be saved.

Paul tells us the change that is required. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature” (6:15). When a man has been born again he will want to be saved on God’s terms, not his own. Do you have a new heart? Are you sorrowing over your sins and trusting in Christ crucified? Then the cross will not be an offence to you but the wonder of wonders, that the Son of God should die in your place!

The Preciousness of Christ

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 11:32:47 +0000

Unto you therefore which believe he is precious
(1 Peter 2:7a)

Here is a blessed theme indeed. God’s people love to speak of how precious the Lord Jesus Christ is to them. To extol the greatness, glory and grace of the Redeemer is the essence of Christian testimony and proclamation to the world. What can be said about the preciousness of Christ?

Firstly we should say that Jesus Christ is precious to God. In verse 6 of this chapter the apostle quotes the Lord saying in Isaiah: “Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious.” Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the only begotten Son, a divine Person. From all eternity He has dwelt with the Father and the Spirit in the perfect fellowship of the holy Trinity. We learn of this from the apostle John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Christ Himself speaks of this in the Book of Proverbs, in connection with the creation: “Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him” (Prov.8:30).

We have a picture of this relationship in the account of Abraham and Isaac. God commanded the patriarch to take his precious son and offer him up as a burnt offering. In the event Isaac was not sacrificed. As ever the reality exceeds the type. See what happened with God’s only begotten Son: God “spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all” (Rom.8:32). Christ was the greatest gift that could ever be given and He was freely given by God.

Secondly we may say that Jesus Christ is precious to man. This is true in many ways, although unrecognised and unacknowledged by mankind. You have life because of Christ the Creator (John 1:3). Your life is sustained because of Christ the Preserver (Col.1:17). Your life is spared because of Christ the Governor (Eph.1:22b). God has a plan and purpose in the world. He is gathering His church, taking out of our race a people for His Name.

Generations of people are born into the world. Because of sin we live out a brief and troubled life here and then we die. But because of Jesus Christ there is good news for our race! There is a gospel for you to hear and believe. There is the hope of salvation for your perishing soul.

Have you ever thought what an utterly bleak and despairing place this would be without Christ, the light of the world? The tragedy is that because of sin men are blind to His great worth. Christ is rejected by very many. To such He is “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence” (v.8).

Finally we will say that Jesus Christ is precious to believers. This surely is the burden of the text. In a twofold sense Christ is precious to us. Objectively He has value and subjectively He has honour. There is His work for His people and His work in His people.

What value does Christ have to believers? As the God-man He is precious, for His atonement has infinite value to cancel our sins, to justify us and reconcile us to God forever.

What honour has Christ to believers? In our eyes He is everything we admire and desire. Christ is our life. We say with Paul, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil.1:21). From regeneration through sanctification to glorification, we live by the grace of God in union and communion with Jesus Christ. Christ is also our light. “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord” (Eph.5:8). The Scriptures reveal Jesus Christ the Saviour and blessed to us by the Holy Spirit, they have a saving and transforming effect in our lives. Christ is our love too. "What is thy beloved more than another beloved...My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand" (Song 5:9-10). We desire His presence more than that of anyone else. What a day it shall be when we shall finally see Him face to face!

Believer, if you would know how precious Jesus Christ is to you, then try to imagine for a moment what your life would be without Him. Everything would surely be empty. You would have no reason for living and no hope in dying. Then may we be careful to show to others what Christ is to us by walking with Him and talking of Him.

The Last Things (4)

Tue, 2 Nov 2010 11:20:20 +0000

THE LAST THINGS
3. ETERNITY
9. On leaving time we pass into eternity. This follows from the very nature of man as a rational creature, the image of God. It is involved in the necessity and the fact of a retributive judgment to come. It is clearly manifested in the light of scriptural revelation. The judgment-day is but the dawning, dark or bright, of an existence that can have no termination. No sinner may hope that he can ever die, no saint need fear that he shall ever cease to live. Saint and sinner alike are endowed with the glorious or the tremendous attribute of immortality: “These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.” It is impossible to picture to our minds the idea of an eternal duration. To say that our life can never cease to be, is only to tell what eternity is not. To number millions of millions of years and ages, is not to tell what eternity is; it is not so much as to describe a portion of it: for after all these years and ages have been lived, eternity has not been diminished, it is only beginning, it is forever beginning, never ending. Of that eternity it is awful so much as to think. I have read of one who was driven from worldliness to godliness by merely seeing the word. How much more awful to think of the thing, to think that in a few short years at the longest you and I shall be in eternity, on the shore-less sea, and that you or I may, through that eternity, be lost. Oh, let us make sure that we are now in the ark of salvation!
10. The eternity of sinners is unspeakably woeful. The lost man is parted forever from the world which constituted his only life on earth (1 John 2:17). He is incapable of receiving any enjoyment from the manifested presence of God the Saviour: the presence of the holy God, even in heaven, would be to him but a consuming fire, a hell, awakening his carnal mind, which is enmity against God, into a perpetual anguish of fear and hate. He is shut out from God’s favour which is life, His loving-kindness which is better than life. He is driven into outer darkness, where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. His soul is pierced and torn with contending passions, a hell let loose within him; his heart is consumed by the vultures of remorse, by an accusing conscience now fully awakened, and gnawing like a worm that never dies, by unavailing regrets for neglected opportunities, a neglected God, a rejected Saviour, a wasted life, a ruined soul, a lost and undone eternity. He is shut in with companions whose misery and rage must immeasurably add to his misery and rage; with the human associates of his wickedness on earth, whom he has countenanced and encouraged on the way of destruction, and with the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41), to be tormented by them who delight in tormenting, whose torment it is to be hindered from tormenting (Luke 4:33, 34), and who are now set free to torment by the same Messianic authority which restrained them on earth. He is in everlasting fire, and endowed with an immortal strength for the enduring of an immortal pain. His soul and body are under the uncontrolled dominion of that sin which is the sting of his undying death. That sin is invested with almighty power to torment by the Divine law which is its strength. The sinner is laden with the curse of the holy God, pressing upon soul and body with the weight of Divine wrath (2 Thessalonians 1:8). And in the lowest deep of hell there is ever a lower deep revealed in the fact, that the lost soul is lost forever. After millions of millions of years and ages have rolled away, the wildest imagination will not dare to imagine, the father of lies will not venture to hint, that the immeasurable woe and terror is one instant nearer its termination. For “there is no repentance in the grave, no pardon offered to the dead.” The Saviour, offered once, is offered no more. There remains only a fearful looking for of judgment forever and ever, a hopeless despair, a ray-less blackness of darkness, to them who have once rejected Him; a blackness which is the darker, a despairing anguish which is the deeper, because they have rejected Him, and their everlasting destruction is the awful glory of His righteous judgment. Would you escape that frightful doom, which no tongue can describe, no heart conceive? Then do not reject Him, receive Him now, in time, in the day of salvation:
“Life is the season God hath given  To fly from hell and rise to heaven.”
11. The eternity of saints is unspeakably joyful. It is all summed up in this, that they shall see the face of God in Christ (Revelation 22:1-4). In looking upon His face, they shall be delivered from every doubt and misgiving regarding the awful retribution that has visited the impenitent; the light of His glory shall transform into a sea of gold the dark clouds of judgment that rise from the hell beneath their feet; and they shall be able to see and exultingly sing that God is unchangeably holy in His nature (Revelation 4:8), just and true in all His ways (15:3). In looking on His face they are delivered from every sorrow and sin (Revelation 7:16, 17), the mournful attendants of their imperfection on earth; their faith, as a dim beholding “in a glass,” like Moses on Pisgah has died in sight of the promised land, and has given place to beholding “face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12); their hope, like the summer blossoms passing away before the autumn fruit, has given place to full enjoyment (Romans 8:24); their love, like Enoch and Elijah, has been translated into heaven without tasting of death, and is made perfect in the image of the incarnate love upon the throne (1 John 3:2). The last vestige of the curse has passed away in the unclouded vision of His blessedness. The last remains of sin’s bondage have perished in the glorious liberty of the sons of God, the liberty of serving Him freely, and singing His praise, out of the overflowing fullness of an ever flowing love. All alienation and strife have ceased to be among them who are brethren at heart: the whole Church of God is visibly, sensibly, audibly, one body, one heart, one soul, united at last in the adoring love, and service, and praise of the one Saviour God. All doubts and fears about the past, the present, the future, are ended: all- things are united into one glorious kingdom of light, fully and finally triumphant, immoveably established in the person of that incarnate Jehovah: there are no regrets for the past, no anxieties for the future, but a perpetual present of love answering to love; no weakness, no want, no woe, but a cloudless light and an abounding strength of eternal love - an endless communion of glory, the fully manifested love of the ransomed people responding to the fully manifested love of the Lamb that loved and died, and lives and loves forevermore. Are you called to be one of the blissful throng? Then cherish the hope, and look forward to the near approach, of that “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;” and by a glad reliance on Christ hold yourself in readiness for His coming (Revelation 22:20). Would you be one of them? Then obey the gospel call to faith and repentance, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, turn from sin to that Saviour God, enter by the Spirit’s grace on the new life, with its works of faith and labours of love. “Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing.”

[James MacGregor (1830-1894) was a Free Church minister and Professor of Theology at New College, Edinburgh (1868-1881). This is from his Christian Doctrine (1861)]

The Last Things (3)

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 11:34:44 +0100

THE LAST THINGS
2. JUDGMENT (2)
7. The judgment is to be according to works (Romans 2:6). It is true that men are saved only by faith. But it is no less true that they shall be judged only by their works. In that day there shall be many professors of the Christian faith, who will plead their faith at the judgment-bar, calling the Lord himself to witness that they have been hearers of His word (Luke 13:26), and have even wrought miracles in the faith of it; but who, nevertheless, because their works have been evil, shall be condemned as workers of iniquity (Matthew 7:21-23). On the other hand, none shall be acquitted and approved but those who have done good works; and they shall be acquitted and approved because they have done good works. The real question to be determined on that day is this: Was this or that man, while he lived on earth, a true servant and son of God? And the principle upon which it will be determined is, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” There are infant children of God, whose divine life has no time to manifest itself by works on earth, flowers that are transplanted in the bud to the paradise above. But in the case of those who are permitted to dwell for some time on earth, the quality of the man shows itself by the quality of his conduct, thoughts, words, and actions (verses 17, 18). And by our deeds it shall “on that day” be determined what we are, whether servants and sons, or enemies of God, and judged accordingly (verses 19, 20). Has this man, however imperfectly, obeyed the royal law of love: love to God supremely, love to man as God’s image? If he has, then though he should have committed many sins, yet in his love, and labours of love, there is evidence that he is born of God (1 John 4:7), he is God’s true child and servant, he has been justified, and adopted, and (so far) sanctified; and now he is approved. If he has not, he is no son nor servant of God (verse 8); his own works bear witness that he is an enemy; and he is condemned.
It is true, again, that in the judgment there will be a difference made between the heathen who have not enjoyed, and us who have enjoyed the light of outward revelation, of offered salvation, in Christ Jesus. The heathen will have to answer only for the few “talents” they possess, their natural faculties of soul and body: we will have to answer for our many “talents,” especially the offered grace of God in Christ. The heathen shall be dealt with only by that law which they possess, in the light of nature (Luke 12:47, 48; Romans 2:12-16): we shall be judged by the new commandment, which bids us not only love Jehovah as our God, and our neighbour as ourselves, but love Jehovah as our Saviour, and love and cherish His people as our brethren in Him, as the members of His body. Indeed, this new commandment is to be the grand test of the sonship or alienation of those who have received the outward light of offered mercy in the gospel. In their case the general question will assume this specific form: Has this man or that loved and cherished the people of Christ? If he has, then he is approved as having loved and cherished Christ himself in His members (Matthew 25:35-40). If he has not, he is condemned as not having loved the Lord Jesus Christ (verses 42-45), and as being, therefore, “anathema maranatha” (1 Corinthians 16:22).
In order, therefore, to be prepared for this judgment, we must be engaged in good works, in labours of love, love to God, love to man, above all, love to Christ the God-man, the Redeemer, going forth in manifold loving-kindness to His people. And for this end - in order that we may be ready for a judgment by works - we must now accept the Saviour and His salvation by faith. For not only is this faith itself a duty, “the work of God” (John 6:29); it is the instrument of working all true good works. “Labours of love “are “works of faith” (1 Thessalonians 1:3); it is “faith which worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6). And the motive thus furnished to faith is the more urgent, because,

8. The judgment is final and irreversible. The Judge is the Lord Jesus Christ (John 5:21, 22). Specially, the judgment is committed to Him as the Mediator, the Son of man (Matthew 25:31; John 5:27). As the Son of man He has perfectly obeyed the law, and thereby shown the justice of the law by which we are to be judged. As the Son of man, He has been invested with a special authority over our race; He has purchased the supreme lordship over man at the cost of His precious blood. When He comes to us in the gospel, calling us to salvation, He utters not merely an invitation but a command, a command which we cannot disobey without rebellion against His Messianic sovereignty. Those who accept Him and His salvation not only save their own souls but glorify the Lord as Redeemer, crown Him with glory and honour. Those who reject Him and His salvation, not only ruin their own souls but “pierce” the Saviour, crucify the Lord afresh, putting Him to an open shame. And as it is through the Son of man that God deals with us now in offered mercy, so it is through the Son of man that God will deal with us “on that day” in coming judgment. Christ will come in His own glory, and that of the Father, and that of the holy angels (Luke 9:26). Every eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced Him, (Revelation 1:7). The world which judged Him, which has looked upon His humiliation, and want, and woe, shall look upon His Messianic glory, and see in Him its Judge, and bend before His judgment-throne (Matthew 25:31, 32).
And in this we see that the judgment will be final and irreversible. For, first, there can be no escape nor appeal from it. He, the eternal Son of God, is perfectly holy, and just, and true; so that the judgment must be rigidly impartial (Romans 2:11); He is perfectly wise, heart-searching, omniscient, so that the judgment will be infallibly correct (verse 16); He is infinitely powerful, almighty, all-present, so that none can escape from sure execution of His impartial and righteous doom. But, second, on that day He appears as a Judge. He appears no more as an offered Saviour to the lost. If we receive Him not as our Saviour now, we never shall have the opportunity of receiving Him as such again. We shall see Him once again: but it is not as an offered Saviour, but as a just Judge, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:8). In a word, that day’s proceedings are the final dealing of God with lost men through His Son. And from this it necessarily follows that the issues of those proceedings are perpetual and irreversible, alike for weal and for woe.

[James MacGregor (1830-1894) was a Free Church minister and Professor of Theology at New College, Edinburgh (1868-1881). This is from his Christian Doctrine (1861)]

The Last Things (2)

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 11:30:21 +0100

THE LAST THINGS
2. JUDGMENT (1)
6. As surely as we live, so surely we shall be judged (Hebrews 9:27). The certainty of a coming judgment might have been concluded, and has been concluded even by heathens, from the nature and place of man as a rational creature, under the government of God. Man, as a rational creature, is the servant of God, entrusted with so many “talents” (Matthew 25:14, 15); so much ability of body and mind, so much wealth, and influence, and power, above all, an immortal soul, to be employed in the service and for the glory of the Giver; and for the use that he makes of these talents he is accountable. God, as a moral governor, is bound by His very nature and place, sooner or later to come to a reckoning with every one of His servants, and deal with them according as they have dealt with His gifts (verses 19-28). Hence, the judgment is as certain as the nature of man, as the being of God. But, obviously, the judgment is not fully administered in the present life. It is administered in the case of nations, which have no existence but in time. It is not administered in the case of individuals, whose time is but their transition into eternity. In general, it is true, the wicked shall not live half his days (Psalm 55:23), the righteous shall have long life and prosperity (Psalm 91:16). But in detail, we often see the righteous, so far as this world can make weal or woe, of all men most miserable (1 Corinthians 15:19; Psalm 72:13, 14), undergoing the pain, sinking beneath the burden, of poverty, contempt, obloquy, persecution, death (Hebrews 9:36-38; Romans 8:35, 36); we see the wicked prosper, nourish like a green bay tree, and after a life of unchecked insolence, of cloudless prosperity, endure no pangs of natural terror in his death (Psalm 73:3-12). In order, therefore, to the vindication of God’s glory as a righteous magistrate, in order to the existence of His government as a rule of justice and law, there must be a judgment in the life to come, in which Jehovah shall bring to light the righteousness of the righteous (Psalm 37:5, 6), and right all wrongs, and punish the guilty wrong-doers (Psalm 73:16-20).
This truth, evidenced by the light of nature, is put beyond a doubt by the light of revelation. Two men have been excepted from the general doom of death: no man shall be exempted from the universal judgment. Although it had been expressly revealed to you that you shall never die, that your soul shall never part from the body, yet you and I, and all, shall one day be judged (Acts 17:31). At the sound of the last trumpet, the bodies of all the dead shall be raised from their graves, and endowed with an immortal strength, for weal or woe (Job 19:27; 1 Corinthians 15:52, 53). The immortal spirit shall return to the immortal body. And, in this condition, prepared for their immortality of bliss or pain, all nations shall stand before God (Revelation 1:7; Matthew 25:32). They shall be separated into two classes, the sheep and the goats, on either hand of the Judge: the sheep, the righteous, on His right hand, shall be approved, and received into everlasting life; the goats, the wicked, shall be condemned, and driven away as accursed into everlasting punishment (verses 32-34, 43-46). Here, then, is another mighty motive to faith in Christ. We must be in Him, in order that we may be duly prepared for judgment. The man who now rejects Him is choosing his own place for that day on the left hand of the throne.

[James MacGregor (1830-1894) was a Free Church minister and Professor of Theology at New College, Edinburgh (1868-1881). This is from his Christian Doctrine (1861)]