Howe Original

Reason #14 – To Bring Us to Faith and Keep Us Faithful

In the Bible the covenants God makes with man are initiated by himself. He sets the terms. His obligations are determined by his own purposes.

When Christ died, he secured for his people not only new hearts but new security. He will not let them turn from him. He will keep them. They will persevere. The blood of the covenant guarantees it.

Oh the richness of the covenants in the Bible. From Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to David, the love and steadfastness of God is so evident in these divine promises. But they were all perfected and completed in the new covenant that was established on the cross.

For this new covenant took the law, wrote it on our hearts, and placed inside us the living Spirit of God.

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

2 Corinthians 3:5-6 ESV

Due to Thanksgiving break, I will resume posting next weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Reason # 13 – To Abolish Circumcision and All the Rituals as the Basis of Salvation

The very meaning of the suffering and death of Christ was at stake. Was faith in Christ enough to put us right with God? Or was circumcision necessary too?

The cross means freedom from the enslavement of ritual.

For Jewish men in the first century, circumcision was a much larger cultural issue than it is today. It identified you as a member of the people of Israel — the people of God.

But justification through faith, and membership into God’s family, was a major culture shift for the Jewish men. Now you could be a “child of God” without circumcision. We see how important this issue became when a conference was called in Jerusalem.

I can only hope it was called either “Together for Circumcision” or “The Desiring Circumcision National Conference”. Somehow, I doubt that, though.

Anyway, Paul laid it out in Acts 15: 5-12 – Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone.

This is just another reminder that we can’t work our way to heaven. Jesus’ death on the cross made it oh so simple – repent and believe – yet we sometimes try to make it oh so difficult.

Note – I thought about adding a pic to this post, but I didn’t want to risk a Google image search for “circumcision”

Reason #12 – To Take Away Our Condemnation

There is no double jeopardy in God’s court. We will not be condemned twice for the same offenses. Christ has died once for our sins. We will not be condemned for them. Condemnation is gone not because there isn’t any, but because it has already happened.

Our entire fall series at CrossPoint last year dealt with this principle. Ryan Whitley did 13 weeks on Romans 8. The first verse is Piper’s basis for this truth:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Ryan did a much better job unpacking this than I ever can. – His sermon can be found here.

Reason #11 – To Complete the Obedience that Becomes our Righteousness

Our sin was imputed to Him, and thus He became our pardon…Christ’s righteousness was imputed to us, and thus He became our perfection.

Imputation. Another $2 theological word. But it’s worth so much more.

It means to assign value or assign the deed. Our sin was assigned to Christ and he expunged it through His death on the cross.

But even more, like was discussed yesterday, his righteousness was assigned to us and we were made sinless.

But it was Christ’s obedience that made this possible. He HAD to obey the Father and the Law and live that sinless life for any imputation to be made.

If not, both Christ and us would be imputing sin and judgement on one another. But because of His obedience, we can now obtain something unattainable–righteousness, and he became the suffering servant written about in Isaiah 53:5:

He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities.

For more on Isaiah 53, check out Ryan Whitley’s series he’s doing this week over at JustOneMore.info.

Reason #10 – To Provide the Basis for Our Justification

Being forgiven implies that I am guilty and my crime is not counted. Being justified implies that I have been tried and found innocent. My claim is just. I am vindicated.

We many times mix up the meanings of forgiven and justified. Forgiven means we are guilty but not charged. Justified means we have been found innocent.

We have all sinned (Rom. 3:23). We are all guilty. But forgiveness isn’t enough for God. Forgiveness means we have gone from morally negative to morally neutral. Justification means we have been made morally positive.

Forgiveness is necessary, but so is justification. Forgiveness alone is not enough.

So many things happen in that one moment when we become sons of God.

We are forgiven. We are redeemed. We are ransomed. We are adopted. We are no longer slaves to sin. We become joint heirs with Jesus. And we are justified.

Let us never forget that the basis of our justification is the Cross of Christ and nothing we can do on our own. God alone is just. And God alone justifies.

Reason #9 – For the Forgiveness of Our Sins

Forgiveness is not “getting” even. It is giving away the right to get even.

Oh, how precious is the news that God does not hold our sins against us! And how beautiful is Christ, whose bklood made it right for God to do this.

What struck me about this entry is that it is ninth. The book doesn’t state that these are in a particular order, but knowing what little I do know about Piper, there is definitely a method to his writing. He doesn’t waste words or throw them out there randomly.

That’s what’s so interesting. This reason came ninth. For many, this would be reason number one. Our sins. My sins. God sent Jesus for me. For the world. None of that is untrue.

But by placing this as #9 and “To Absorb the Wrath of God” as #1, I think Piper is clearly implying that the Cross and the events in the life of Jesus were more about God and less about us.

What a glorious thought and one that is totally opposite to much of our thinking. While it eventually was about you and me, it ultimately was all about God.

We should live our lives in a way to make that known — In everything we do, it’s always more about God than it is about us. Always.

Reason #8 – To Become a Ransom for Many

Yet not everyone will be ransomed from the wrath of God. But the offer is for everyone.

It only took Piper 8 reasons to come out swinging with limited atonement. It had been implied earlier in the book, but this was His first direct foray into the subject.

This is a very controversial topic in many evangelical circles. To me, it seems pretty clear. Some people WILL be saved, some WON’T.

However we don;t know who will and who won’t. So it is our mission and our responsibility to share the Gospel with everyone possible so that all might hear and have the opportunity to be ransomed.

Reason #7 – To Cancel the Legal Demands of the Law Against Us

What a folly it is to think our good deeds may one day outweigh our bad deeds.

Piper lists 2 reasons that he considers this a folly:

1. It is not true
2. It is not the way God saves

Number 1 is made brutally clear in Romans 1:17 and Ephesians 2:8. Paul nails it. It’s not our works that can cancel the legal demands our sin has accrued. Only our faith in Christ as our savior.

Number 2 is seen all through the old testament. God never asked Israel to “do better” or “work harder” or “be nice”. He demanded a sacrifice for the sins of the nation.

The beautiful part of this is that not only were the legal demands of our sins cancelled, but they were replaced with the perfection of Christ.