In order to prepare for such a meditation on Christ’s sacrifice, consider some reflections from J.C. Ryle:

We must not be content with a vague belief that Christ’s sufferings on the cross were vicarious. We are intended to see this truth in every part of His passion. We may follow Him all through, from the bar of Pilate to the minute of His death, and see Him at every step as our mighty substitute, our representative, our head, our surety, our proxy – the divine friend who under took to stand in our place and, by the priceless merit of his sufferings, to purchase our redemption.

Was He flogged? It was done so that “by His wounds we are healed.”

Was He condemned, though innocent? It was done so that we might be acquitted, though guilty.

Did He wear a crown of thorns? It was done so that we might wear the crown of glory.

Was He stripped of His clothes? It was done so that we might be clothed in everlasting righteousness.

Was He mocked and reviled? It was done so that we might be honored and blessed.

Was He reckoned a criminal, and counted among those who have done wrong? It was done so that we might be reckoned innocent, and declared free from all sin.

Was He declared unable to save Himself? It was done so that he might be able to save others to the uttermost.

Did He die at last, and that the most painful and disgraceful death? It was done so that we might live forevermore, and be exalted to the highest glory.

From “The Sufferings of Christ” by J.C. Ryle in Jesus, Keep Me Near The Cross: Experiencing The Passion and Power of Easter, edited by Nancy Guthrie, pp. 58-59.

This past Lord’s Day from 2 Kings 2:22 we reflected on the power and potency of God’s Word. There we learned that it was not Elisha’s throwing salt into the spring of water that brought life – that was simply the visible sign which attended the miraculous work of Word of the Lord. It was the Word of the Lord that brought healing and life. And Elisha spoke that Word of Yahweh. 2 Kings 2:22 does not say, “²²So the water has been healed to this day, according to the salt that Elisha threw.” No, it says, “²²So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.” Elisha spoke the Word of the Lord. Elisha’s word was Yahweh’s Word, and Yahweh’s Word was Elisha’s word.

As we thought about this, we reflected upon the primacy of God’s Word in our lives individually and corporately. If we’re honest, we sometimes displace God’s Word. Here is what Stephen Nichols in his book, A Time for Confidence, says about when, how, and why we subtly move away from God’s Word:

As the standing of Scripture in culture is eroded, we can be subtly moved to look away from it. We begin to wonder if Scripture truly does have all the answers. We begin to wonder if all of Scripture’s answers are right. Maybe Scripture is not so sufficient anymore. Life in the twenty-first century is so complex. The problems we are dealing with are so complex that we need to look elsewhere, we might think. All of a sudden, we are affirming the authority of Scripture in our doctrinal statements while denying the authority of Scripture in our daily lives.

The temptation is to think the Bible has run its course. The temptation is to think it is helpful and inspiring, and to think that at certain times, in certain places, and on certain topics it is true. But not entirely true. We must consider one simple observation, however: Scripture cannot be partially inspired; neither can it be partially authoritative. The moment we speak of “partly,” we are the ones who decide which parts. We are setting ourselves over Scripture as the authority. The doctrine of the authority and inerrancy of Scripture is not like hand grenades or a game of horseshoes. Close does not count.

Since the Bible is the Word of God, we must take it seriously. We must take all of it seriously. We must listen to it, submit to it, and follow it.  [Stephen J. Nichols, A Time for Confidence: Trusting God in a Post-Christian Society, Fourth ed. (Sanford, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2018), 62-63.]

May we never move off God’s Word. May we never close our ears or our hearts to it.

Warmly in Christ,

Mike

Naboth and Jesus: have you considered their similarities? Until I was preparing for last Sunday’s sermon, I had not really thought much about how there were shadows of Christ in the life of Naboth. One of the ways in which Naboth’s life pointed to Christ’s was the great miscarriage of justice he endured. This reminds me of a book that a brother in the congregation encouraged me to read Frederick Leahy’s The Cross He Bore. As you remember the miscarriage of justice in Naboth’s life, consider what Leahy says about the miscarriage of justice in Christ’s life. He writes:

 

From the time of his arrest Christ was denied justice. His judges virtually placed him beyond the pale of law and treated him accordingly. That was so with Herod, the Sanhedrin and Pilate. Between them he was little more than a pawn to be pushed back and forth to suit their own ends. Condemnation in the different courts was not based on evidence; indeed it defied evidence. Pilate confessed, ‘I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither did Herod...Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him…’ (Luke 23:14,15). Yet, at the end of the day, a cowardly governor released Barabbas, guilty of insurrection and murder, and yielded to the demand of Christ’s accusers! Christ was ‘delivered over to their will’ (Luke 23:25).

So much for justice! From the outset Christ was in no man’s land, and no man’s land was any man’s land in that anyone could treat the prisoner as he pleased. There was no legal protection. Justice stood afar off. Truth was fallen in the street. Equity could not enter. In reality Christ was placed beyond law. Christ the outlaw!

In a just society everyone lives in the context of law and has a right to the law’s protection. Condemnation must be in the context of law; but Christ was condemned outside the sphere of law when justice was openly discarded. Cain was given a sign to protect him from lawlessness. His place within the province of law was guaranteed. That privilege was denied Christ. He, the Just One, knew the pain of being denied every shred of justice.  [Frederick S Leahy, The Cross He Bore: Meditations on the Sufferings of the Redeemer (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2007), 69-70.]

 Jesus was denied every shred of human justice, but he received the heavenly justice that was due to our sins. This was for us and for our salvation. This is paradoxical, puzzling, and praiseworthy. Our God moves in mysterious ways, and we praise him for it.

Warmly in Christ,

Mike

What motivated the Lord Jesus Christ to leave heaven, become incarnate, and bear our curse? One word, love. Consider how Donald Macleod describes the pactum salutus (the pact of salvation) in his book Christ Crucified:

The most important of these is that Christ takes our place voluntarily, and behind this lies the fact, already noted, that he came into the world in accordance with a plan of salvation agreed from eternity between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Christ, as the divine Son, was a full party to this agreement, not as an inferior or junior, but as an equal. He did not become mediator by a sovereign divine decree, or by the imperious command of a divine superior. Instead, prompted by love for the world he assumed, voluntarily, the role of mediator; and prompted by the same love the Father agrees to send him and the Holy Spirit to anoint him. It is by this covenant that Christ is united to his people. With his own loving consent he becomes their head, their representative, their surety and their substitute; and by entering into this union he undertakes not only to act on their behalf but to contract their debts and to assume their liabilities. From this point of view, the road to Calvary began in eternity, when the divine Son volunteered, ‘Here am I! Send me!’ There was surely nothing immoral here. The Son of God had a right to love this way, and the triune God had a right to save this way. Who could forbid the Eternal Son becoming surety for his people? And who could forbid him, having become their surety, to love them to the extreme of accepting their doom in their place?

[Donald Macleod, Christ Crucified: Understanding the Atonement (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2014) 95-96.]

Don’t you love that? He loved us to the extreme of accepting our doom. Doesn’t that leave us in awe and wonder? Oh how he loves you and me! He has loved you from eternity past, he loves you in your ever changing present, and he will love you through eternity. May our love be an echo of his.

Warmly in Christ,

Mike 

A few weeks ago, during the membership course, I was asked a difficult question about one of the thorniest areas of Christian theology – how do we relate to the law of God?  I did not have a straightforward or succinct answer. There are two terrible troughs we can fall into. One is called antinomianism (against the law), and the other is legalism (an abuse of the law). We want to understand both dangers, and here is how Sinclair Ferguson explains, exposes, and undermines the first in our lives. He writes:

 

Antinomianism has an everyday and mundane form, for example, in the professing Christian who responds to his passenger’s anxious glance at his speedometer with a “We’re not under law; we’re under grace.”

            At one level it would be appropriate to say: “Actually you are under the law - Indiana Law, or Pennsylvania Law, or Scots Law - and there is a flashing light behind you to prove it!” 

            But in terms of our theology of the Christian life, responding “But you are under the law” would in any case not really deal with the problem. It would miss its real heart. For the deepest response to antinomianism is not “You are under the law” but rather 

You are despising the gospel and failing to understand how the grace of God in the gospel works! There is no condemnation for you under the law because of your faith-union with Christ. But that same faith-union leads to the requirements of the law being fulfilled in you through the Spirit. Your real problem is not that you do not understand the law. It is that you do not understand the gospel. For Paul says that we are “in-lawed to Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:20-21).  Our relationship to the law is not a bare legal one, coldly impersonal. No, our conformity to it is the fruit of our marriage to our new husband Jesus Christ.

 

            Practical antinomianism has many forms today. One of them is the secular gospel of self-acceptance masquerading as Christianity. “Since God accepts me the way I am, I ought not to get straitjacketed by the law of God - what God wants is that I be myself.” This has very concrete expressions in what are euphemistically described as “lifestyle choices”: “This is how I am, God is gracious, and [implied: unlike you, if you disagree with me] he accepts me as I am, and therefore I will remain as I am.”

            At one level the problem is indeed rejection of God’s law. But underneath lies a failure to understand grace and ultimately to understand God. True, his love for me is not based on my qualification of my preparation. But it is misleading to say that God accepts us the way we are. Rather he accepts us despite the way we are. He receives us only in Christ and for Christ’s sake. Nor does he mean to leave us the way he found us, but to transform us into the likeness of his Son (Roman 8:29). Without that transformation and new conformity of life we do not have any evidence that we were ever his in the first place.  [Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance-Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 153-154.]

 

As Dr. Ferguson declared, our faith-union with Jesus Christ leads to the requirements of the law being fulfilled in us through the Spirit. The law is a gift, guide, and a guard to us. The Spirit writes God’s law on our hearts (Jeremiah 31), and it is our delight to live out the love of the law (and the law of love) as transformed and deepened through the ministry of Jesus Christ. Living out the law of love and the love of the law is part of how we display the character of Christ in the world. May we so display the character of the Light of the World (John 8:12) that we shine as lights in the world (Philippians 2:15).

Warmly in Christ,

Mike

How do you look at your life? How do you think about when and where God has placed you? Do you think your life, with your background, experience, and present location are an accident or full of purpose? What if God has been at work from the beginning? What if God is at work in the present? What if God has been at work surrounding you with people who need to know about Jesus and that you’re precisely the person God intends to use to make Christ known to them? We shouldn’t doubt that this is precisely what he has done. Consider what Rico Tice and Carl Laferton communicate in Honest Evangelism about this. They write:

It’s no accident that you know the people you do. It’s no accident that they’re in your path. They need the gospel. You know the gospel. God wants them to hear the gospel. And that transforms how I look at my life. It makes it really exciting. If I’m sitting on a train and there’s someone opposite me, God has put them there. He’s not far from them, because I know him and I’m sitting opposite them. Now that transforms whether I’ll bother to try to start a conversation with them. It’ll transform what I aim to talk about with them. And it’ll transform how I pray for my day ahead; I’ll be praying for energy and love to make the most of every divine appointment that God has already written into my schedule.

We need to believe that God is in charge of which desk we sit at. We need to understand that God has put people around us because he wants them to hear the gospel. We need to grasp God’s sovereignty.

[Rico Tice and Carl Laferton, Honest Evangelism: How to Talk About Jesus Even When Its Tough (Epsom, Surrey, England: Good Book Company, 2015), 50.]

Be bold with the good news today. Look around. Who do you know who needs to know Jesus? Make Jesus known to them today.

Warmly in Christ,

Mike

This past Lord’s Day we reflected on the fact that there is a difference between godly repentance and superficial repentance. The difference is the work of God in us. We ever need to remember that there is joy in repentance. Spirit-given joy due to Spirit given power to turn away from sin and to turn to Jesus Christ. David Murray in his wonderful book Happy Christian offers some of the good results of sins that are truly repented of and forgiven. He writes:

Consider some of the good results of sin that is repented of and forgiven:

 

We are humbled. When we fall into sin, we realize our pathetic weakness and vulnerability. We are not as strong and impregnable as we thought we were.

We are sensitized. We often fall into sin when we are spiritually hard and cold, but when we are humbled and broken, our spiritual senses are revived and restimulated, making us tender and sensitive again to God’s Word and Spirit.

We are silenced. We so easily get arrogant, self-confident, and full of ourselves, with an opinion on everyone and everything. But when we are convicted of our sin, we talk less favorably of ourselves and less judgmentally of others.

We are drawn nearer. Having wandered slowly and imperceptibly away from the Lord, we are now shocked to see how far we have traveled from Him, how distant we have become. We find ourselves longing for the nearer presence of the Lord again as He begins to woo us back to Himself.

We are dependent. Sin is usually the result of relying on our own strength and wisdom and failing to pray, “Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil.” When we are convicted by God’s Spirit, we learn to depend on the Lord like a little baby on her mother. Looking away from ourselves, we do nothing without seeking God’s help and blessing.

We are careful. Often our sin comes about when we have been spiritually careless. We’ve played with temptation. We’ve walked too close to the edge, then fallen over. Now our scars and memories make us much more cautious about letting even the first thought of sin lodge in our minds and hearts. We run away from the edge of the cliff.

We hate sin. When we see the evil of sin and the misery it produces, we no longer view it as harmless or humorous. We hate it with a passion and want to kill it at the roots.

We fight the Devil. Looking back on our sin, we see the role the Devil played. He was well disguised, for sure, but now we see him unmasked in all his hideous ugliness. We resolve to go to war with him and never again to let him seduce us.

We are disciplined. When we retrace our steps, we recognize that we had become irregular and halfhearted in our Bible reading, prayer, family worship, and church attendance. We now realize how much we need to use these divine means to keep us on the right track and become much more regular and disciplined in our daily and weekly use of these resources.

We love Christ. Whether or however we loved Jesus before, we love Him all the more now. He who has been forgiven much, the same loves much.

We are thankful. We are even more thankful for Christ’s atoning work and gracious salvation. We love His cross; we love His mercy; we love His love. And we’re even thankful for the Holy Spirit who pained us for our sin.

We are equipped. Having experienced the power of the gospel to forgive and restore, we are better able to draw alongside others and skillfully apply the gospel to their sinful failings and faults.

We long for heaven. Oh, to be free from sin. Oh, to never want to sin. Oh, to be with and like Jesus.

 

[David Murray, The Happy Christian: Ten Ways to Be a Joyful Believer in a Gloomy World (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2015), 221-223.]

 

As we continue to look back on 1 Kings 19 where we see Ahab and Israel’s superficial repentance, let us remember that sadly, we too have at times offered a superficial repentance. Let’s pray that God would grant us the grace of sincere repentance and to know the great joy sincere repentance brings.

Warmly in Christ,

Mike

As of right now, we are planning to hold Sunday School (9:30AM) & Morning worship (10:30AM) as normal, but we are watching the weather. We will make a final call on what to do about the men's training on Sunday night immediately after the morning service tomorrow.

If you can help the Deacon of Services with snow removal prior to Sunday School and the Morning Service, then please reach out to him.

Also, please use wisdom and discernment in your travels. Give yourself plenty of time to go slow, and if you judge that it is not safe for you to take to the roads, then accept that God has providentially hindered you from gathering with his people, and stay home. Pray for the safety and security of those who do gather.

Psalm 122:1 still remains true, even in the face of snow!

I'm looking forward to reading through the New Testament with many of you beginning on September 1 and concluding on December 31. In this email, I wanted to give you the schedule and some tips to help you make it through the New Testament Reading Challenge (or NTRC from here on out). 

SCHEDULE

Here is a spreadsheet of the schedule (Link). Note: I'll send out the week's readings at the beginning of each week in an email, but I wanted you to have the whole thing up front.

TIPS TO MAKE IT THROUGH

Allow me to address the privilege of reading, preparation for reading, and then give some practical advice (tips) in reading.

The Privilege of Reading

What you are reading is “breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). Consider the privilege we have in reading God's Word to us! And consider how useful it is! Now, reading the Bible can be hard. It can take work. Not every part of the Bible is easy to read, and we’ve got to be okay with this. We even need to be humble and recognize that God wants us to exercise our minds. He doesn’t want lazy thinking disciples. He wants disciples who give effort in their thinking. He may even want disciples who will out-think a thoughtful world. Bible reading takes work. Laziness is no virtue for God’s people, but we need to know that our work will be rewarded. God uses his Word, and thoughtful engagement with it to make us happy in Jesus, more like Jesus, and more useful for Jesus. What a privilege to read and profit from God's Word!

Preparation for Reading:

Pray. Before you read, pray. Pray for faith to believe this is God’s Word to you and for you. Pray, “Give me a mind ready to think, a heart ready to hear, and a response of faith ready to trust and obey,” or some prayer like that. 

Practical Advice in Reading

First, keep reading. You don't have to stop, slow down, or go back. I mean, you can if you really want to, but for this project, I'd encourage you to just keep going. It is okay if you didn’t get or understand every detail. Keep going. Recognize that you’re called to read the Bible for the rest of your life. This is not just a four month project, this is a year after year after year project. Whatever you missed and you need to understand, the Lord will eventually teach you. Keep going. Keep reading. Did I mention that you should keep reading? Good. Keep reading. 

Second, consider purchasing/using a reader’s Bible. There are all sorts of versions of reader's Bibles out there. I have two and I use both for different purposes. A reader’s Bible is one of the best gifts I’ve ever received. A reader’s Bible declutters the Bible from headings, chapters, and verse demarcations. It makes the Bible more like a book, and that is just what the Bible is! When you’re trying to read large passages of Scripture having less text, which you don’t need in the course of your reading (like headings, chapters, and verse demarcations), will help you to keep going. Using a reader’s Bible has helped me to read faster, and it may help you too. 

Third, to help you stay focused, consider listening to your text as you read. I listen to the ESV at double time speed as I read. I think that I can actually read faster by not listening to the audio, but having sight and sound engages multiple senses for me and actually helps me to keep reading. That may not work for you, but it works for me. Whatever the case may be, it helps me to keep reading. Don’t stop. Don’t rewind. Don’t start the chapter over again. Just keep going. If you don't have the Bible on cd (I'm dating myself) or mp3, then www.esv.org will play the audio for you.

Fourth, before reading a book, consider checking out what the Bible Project guys have to say about the book you’re about to read. They’ve got some pretty awesome YouTube videos that help orient you to the main content of the books of the Bible. Consider watching this one on the Gospel of Mark. It is so helpful to know what you are going to read before you read it.

Fifth, read with others and ask them to hold you accountable. If you are seeing another believer from church at some point in the week, then read that day's assignment with them. Talk about it, and pray for one another out of that passage. Part of the reason that I'll be scheduling only a chapter on Wednesdays is because that is when I meet a group of guys from church at 6:30 AM to read the Bible and pray together. We'll use that time to read a chapter, discuss it, hold one another accountable, and pray for one another. If you're a man in the church, and you want to join us on Wednesday mornings, then just turn up in the fellowship hall at 6:30 AM on Wednesdays. That's where you'll find us. If you're a woman in the church and you want to do something similar, then go for it! Get a group of sisters together, read the Bible, talk about it, and pray together. I trust that the Lord will bless that time.

I hope that these tips are helpful, and Lord willing the next email you'll be getting from me on the NTRC is the first week's assignments. I'm looking forward to it!

Warmly in Christ,

Mike Law

Do you love God's Word? Part of the reason that I'd like for us to undertake this challenge to read through the New Testament is because I want each of us to grow in love for God's Word. That happens, in part, by reading God's Word, and remembering afresh the love of God toward us.

Take 10 minutes and watch this testimony from Elder D.J. Ward about receiving his first Bible, and pray that the Lord would grow us in a love for our Bibles as we open and read them.

Warmly in Christ,

Mike Law