This is your story!

Whether I was a so-called "good" person, or a so-called "bad" person before I met Jesus, the fact is I was a lost person in need of rescue. That's what today is all about. Jesus rescuing me and you through his death on the Cross.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. - Luke 19:10

And this life-changing relationship I have with him is not meant to be privately cherished or fearfully hidden from the public. It is meant to be shared!

When I think of sharing my life story with others, my thoughts never, ever go to what I have done to achieve closeness with him. Joining a particular denomination, reciting certain prayers, or performing specific religious duties does not result in a thriving, joyful relationship with my heavenly Father. Intimacy with God is not accomplished by following a list of do’s and don’ts.

Rather, my life story and the intimacy I experience with my Father is all about him…who he is…how he rescued me…listening to him speak directly to me through his word…the peace he gives me in ‘hopeless’ circumstances…the way he never tires of me, but continues to affectionately pursue me…the miraculous transformation only he could ever make in my naturally sinful heart and mind…resulting in an entirely different “me” with entirely different desires and plans than the “me” who first believed in him.

When you are tempted to work for God’s love…remember the Cross.

When you are bogged down by the weight of your sin…remember the Cross.

When you start to act as though your salvation can be earned or paid back…remember the Cross.

The Cross is evidence of God’s all-consuming love for you. It is evidence that Christ fully paid the price for your sin once and for all. There are no remaining interest payments or hidden taxes he left as your responsibility. And the Resurrection is evidence of his mighty power at work within you. On the day of your salvation, forgiveness was not your only immediate blessing. You were blessed with a whole new life - and this life is to be lived by faith and in the power of the Spirit. In fact, if you are not continuously surrendering to the Spirit, you are not living ‘in Christ’ at all.

Do you need to surrender once again today? Bow at the Cross. Rejoice at the empty grave! This is your story - and that story is meant to be shared.

Reversing a guilty verdict!

Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. - Mark 15:15

Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. - Luke 22:63

As we read through the sufferings of Christ, we find that he was ‘scourged’ or ‘flogged’ under the orders of Pilate. The practice of flogging was a legal preliminary to every Roman execution because it weakened the victim through shock and blood loss.

When flogged, the Roman soldiers used an instrument that was like a short whip with several leather thongs of varying lengths, in which small iron balls or sharp pieces of sheep bones were tied at intervals. Jesus would have endured these blows while tied to a post in a bent position and unlike Jewish laws that only allowed 39 lashes (13 on the chest and 13 on each shoulder) there were no limits whatsoever to the number of lashes that could be inflicted by the Romans, nor were they restricted to these areas.

Jesus was cruelly tortured and severely mutilated so you and I could be completely healed and beautifully whole. In order to further ridicule Jesus, the soldiers made a “crown of thorns” and placed it on his head.

They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. - Matthew 27:28-31

The NET Bible describes it this way:

The crown of thorns was a crown plaited of some thorny material, intended as a mockery of Jesus’ “kingship.”

Traditionally it has been regarded as an additional instrument of torture, but it seems more probable the purpose of the thorns was not necessarily to inflict more physical suffering but to imitate the spikes of the “radiant corona,” a type of crown portrayed on ruler’s heads on many coins of the period; the spikes on this type of crown represented rays of light pointing outward (the best contemporary illustration is the crown on the head of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor**).

Can you even imagine? The sinless Son of God was being mocked, beaten, and spit upon by those whom he loved so deeply. And yet the people took perverse pleasure in his pain, oblivious to the fact that he was enduring it all for them. The pain of Jesus served a colossal purpose – he purchased our pardon. (Very Christian-ese of me, huh? Our pardon.) But I adore the meaning. The Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary defines pardon as: “Authoritative act reversing a sentence given under a guilty verdict.”

We are indeed guilty. And without Christ, a sentence of death is guaranteed. But Jesus, in effect, walked into the courtroom of our sentencing and said, “I’ll pay the price for her freedom! She is guilty, but punish me instead.” And God did.

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” - 1 Peter 2:24

Jesus suffered indescribable pain to rescue you from death. We will experience a certain amount of pain in life. And when we do, it is an opportunity to follow the example of Jesus by bringing glory to the Father. But be on your guard! When we endure hardship, it is a prime opportunity for our adversary, the devil, to creep in and turn us into angry, bitter, unforgiving Spirit-starved people. When we suffer pain, we have a choice to make, just like Jesus did. Will we love others in spite of our suffering, breathing grace into the lives of those we know, and bringing glory to the Father? Or will we turn our thoughts inward, focusing on self (self-pity, self-loathing, self-righteousness, self-destruction, etc.) which brings about the unintended consequence of leading those around us astray?

We can use our power of influence for God's glory. We can love others with the over-the-top grace and forgiveness we have received from our King Jesus. He has reversed our guilty verdict. We are no longer living under a death sentence. Jesus has set us free - and we are FREE indeed!


*Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Jn 19:2). Biblical Studies Press.
**Brand, C., Draper, C., England, A., Bond, S., Clendenen, E. R., Butler, T. C., & Latta, B. (2003).

The Cost of being a Christian

The following is a very close paraphrase from J.C. Ryle's Holiness outlining the 4 costs of being a Christian. I wanted to be able to refer back to this and take it to heart, so I personalized it with "I" throughout instead of "he" as was originally written.

1. It will cost me my self-righteousness.
I must cast away all pride and high thoughts, and conceit of my own goodness. I must be content to go to heaven as a poor sinner saved only by free grace, and owing all to the merit and righteousness of another. I must be willing to give up all trust in my own morality, respectability, praying, Bible-reading, Church-going, and sacrament-receiving, and trust in nothing but Jesus Christ. To be a true Christian it will cost my self-righteousness.

2. It will cost me my sins.
I must be willing to give up every habit and practice which is wrong in God’s sight. I must set his face against it, quarrel with it, break off from it, fight with it, crucify it, and labor to keep it under, whatever the world around me may say or think. I must do this honestly and fairly. There must be no separate truce with any special sin which I love. I must count all sins as deadly enemies, and hate every false way. Whether little or great, whether open or secret, all my sins must be thoroughly renounced. To be a Christian it will cost me my sins.

3. It will cost me my love of ease.
This also sounds hard. There is nothing I naturally dislike so much as ‘trouble’ about my religion. I hate trouble. I secretly wish I could have a ‘vicarious’ Christianity, and could be good by proxy, and have everything done for me. Anything that requires exertion and labor is entirely against the grain of my heart. But the soul can have ‘no gains without pains.’ To be a Christian it will cost a me my love of ease.

4. It will cost me the favor of the world.
I must be content to be thought ill of by others. I must count it no strange thing to be mocked, ridiculed, slandered, persecuted, and even hated. I must not be surprised to find my opinions and practices in religion despised and held up to scorn. I must submit to be thought by many a fool, an enthusiast, and a fanatic – to have my words perverted and my actions misrepresented. In fact, I must not marvel if some call me mad. I dare say this also sounds hard. I naturally dislike unjust dealing and false charges, and think it very hard to be accused without cause. I should not be flesh and blood if I did not wish to have the good opinion of my neighbors. It is always unpleasant to be spoken against, and forsaken, and lied about, and to stand alone. But there is no help for it. The cup which our Master drank must be drunk by His disciples. I must be ‘despised and rejected of men’ (Isaiah 53:3). To be a Christian it will cost me the favor of the world.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? {Matthew 16}