Healing through Christ’s Sufferings

“God lets Himself be pushed out of world on to the cross. He is weak and powerless in the world, and that is precisely the way, the only way, in which He is with us and helps us. Matt. 8:17 makes it quite clear that Christ helps us, not by virtue of His omnipotence, but by virtue of His weakness and suffering … Only the suffering God can help … That is a reversal of what the religious man expects from God. Man is summoned to share in God’s sufferings at the hands of a godless world.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Christianity is full of paradoxes but perhaps none bigger than a crucified Christ offering liberty from the power of the present time, from the laws and compulsion of history, and from sin. Only the crucified Christ can bring the freedom which changes the world because the fear of death is defeated. 

In his landmark work, The Crucified God, Jurgen Moltmann asserts, “We have made the bitterness of the Cross tolerable to ourselves by learning to understand it as a theological necessity for the process of salvation.” Of course, theological necessities do not sweat blood in the night. Yet the Son of God did.

“The passion of Jesus did not take place on a cold, intellectual, starlit plain,” declares Brennan Manning in his book The Signature of Jesus, “It occurred in the deepest expression of emotion, amid dirt and sweat, blood and tears. Christ’s passionate outpouring of love on the cross is not only the source of our salvation; it is the source of God’s power and wisdom in our daily lives.”

There is no mention in the gospel of Christ’s sufferings coming from nature or fate or from the economic hardships of being a carpenter’s son. "Rather, His [Jesus] sufferings and humiliation came from His actions," underscores Moltmann. "From His preaching of the imminence of the kingdom as a kingdom of unconditional grace, from His freedom towards the law, and from His table-fellowship with ‘sinners and tax-collectors.’ Jesus did not suffer passively from the world in which He lived, but incited it against Himself by His message and the life He lived. According to the gospels, Jesus Himself set out for Jerusalem and actively took the expected suffering upon Himself. The more the mysticism of the cross recognizes this, the less it can accept Jesus as an example of patience and submission to fate. The more it recognizes His active suffering, the less it can make Him the archetype of its own weakness. If men and women in misery understand Him as their brother in their sufferings, they in turn do not become imitators of His suffering until they accept His mission and actively follow Him.”

The cross of Christ is not some relic that we wear around our necks. In the first century, the crucified Christ was regarded as a scandal and as foolishness. As the Apostle Paul confirms in I Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Today the church must turn to the crucified Christ in order to show the world the freedom He offers. Everything else is ornamental. Christ crucified is the very fingerprint of our faith.

Following Him means living dangerously and without compromise; it means living outside of our comfort zone and preconceived notions; it means reaching out to the outcast as well as the religious fanatic; quite simply it is having His signature written on the pages of our lives.

Christianity Characterized in a Word

During this past week I have been studying Biblical love. Most people know 1 John 4:8 “God is love” and the fact that Jesus commanded us to love our enemies. In addition, many people are familiar with portions of 1 Corinthians chapter 13, also known as the great love chapter of the Bible, as it is often quoted during marriage ceremonies.

But what does Biblical love look like in action?

I believe one of the best examples in Scripture that pictures the type of love Jesus has for His children is found in the life of the Disciple John. He is referred to as the disciple Jesus loved and it is said of him that he loved Jesus. This of course begs the question - did the other disciples not love Jesus? Or did John simply love him more?

According to John MacArthur, when we read John’s gospel account, “we enter into the most sacred holy place of all, the holy of holies and we see God in person, God in flesh. And so the fourth gospel is the gospel of all gospels. It is the holy of holies of the New Testament. It is almost as if we ought to take off our shoes for we stand on holy ground as we approach this gospel because it presents in the most magnificent glory the deity of Jesus Christ. It talks about His humanity, it talks about His servant hood, it talks about His kingship, but it presents primarily His deity. It is behold your God that John is trying to get across.”

It would seem based on John’s writings that he had an intimate knowledge of Jesus unlike anyone else. Of course, John was the only disciple at the cross. Even Peter who when told that Jesus would suffer many things and be killed, bolded declared, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” (Matthew 16:22)  We also remember that when the Lord was carrying His cross to Calvary, Peter was busy denying Him three times.

But John was there, wasn’t he? He was at the cross as Jesus told him to take care of His mother. John, unlike the other disciples, was not fearful of losing his life or ashamed to be associated with Jesus because he loved him. Because he LOVED Him. Love compelled John to follow the Savior anywhere – even to the cross. And as a result of this great love, when John was isolated on the island of Patmos for his faith, cut off from civilization on that small, deserted island. Shut off from everyone. He was shut up to God and there received the most extensive revelation of future events ever shown to any writer in the New Testament.

Unfortunately in today’s word, love is associated with a feeling or an emotion. The Greek language, which is the language of the New Testament, uses two different words to describe and define love. The most commonly used Greek word translated “love” in the New Testament is “agape.” This love is represented by God's love for us. It is a non-partial, sacrificial love probably best exemplified by God's provision for our rebellion as found, by no coincidence, in the Gospel of John chapter three, verse 16, “For God so loved (agape) the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

In contrast, our love is usually conditional and based upon how other people behave toward us. The Greek word “phileo” defines this kind of love, often translated “brotherly love.” Phileo is an emotional kind of love. It is something that can be experienced by both believers and non-believers. This is in contrast to agape, which is love extended through the Holy Spirit and requires a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. This kind of love gives and sacrifices expecting nothing back in return.

As we walk with the Lord and become conformed to His image, agape love should be apparent in our life. It is this type of love that makes the world sit up and take notice because it is only possessed by believers. It is agape love in action that magnifies the message of the gospel for it is the very center of it – God loving us while we were yet sinners! It is a statement we should never get over. It is a love we should never get over. And it should compel us to follow the Savior, as it did John, all the way to the cross.

"Every Christian would agree that a man's spiritual health is exactly proportional to his love for God." - C. S. Lewis

Representing the Redeemer

Heinrich Heine, a 19th century German philosopher said, “Show me your redeemed life and I might be inclined to believe in your Redeemer.”

The impetus behind his statement is fair to each and every one of us that claims the name of Christ. But what does a redeemed life look like?

The great commission as stated by Jesus Himself was for each of us to go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature. But just speaking the gospel without a demonstrable effect in our lives leaves our words empty and meaningless.

Jonathan Edwards once said, “There are plenty of people who have false affections for self-interest, but the saved have true and deep affections. They are marked by a holy life manifested in a holy love. They love God, they love Christ, they thus are pursuing the fulfillment of the greatest commandment, to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.”

This sounds simple on the surface but a life that belongs to Christ continually displays a selfless love that makes the world sit up and take notice. The world will always respect us if we pursue it, and it will not take offense if we openly reject it based on anger or disillusionment, but it will hate us if we simply take no notice of its priorities, values, or affections. Such is a life that is lost in Christ. It is a radical departure from the norm.

At the core a Christian is a lover of Christ and His cross. This fact alone is generally repulsive to the world who comprehend the meaning of the cross in a variety of ways. Some see it as a symbol of a humiliating execution. Others view it as a picture of a pitiful man who claimed to be God but died as a criminal. For others it represents a denial of all the sensual pleasures they enjoy in life. And some simply perceive it as a piece of jewelry to be displayed around one’s neck. 

For the Christian, however, the cross is not only the symbol of our salvation, it is the blueprint for our lives. It is at the cross that we understand unconditional love, the true cost of sin and its ultimate defeat.

Quite simply, the redeemed life will appear as the countercultural lifestyle. Our dependence on God, willful forsaking of sin, and obedience to the gospel are the marks of a life changed by Jesus Christ Himself. But the truth is a redeemed life on display will not draw the world in as Heine presupposes because it is the very antithesis of the world system. It is also the opposite of the prosperity gospel that is prevalent today which promises a life of riches and success in return for one’s belief in Jesus.

The sad fact is people only want the idea of the redeemed life on the basis that it has no cost. They want Christ and His love but they don’t want to let go of anything. Jesus said that He would be our provision but on the condition that we seek His kingdom and righteousness first (Matthew 6:33).

According to John MacArthur, the distinguishing mark of a true believer is “not the love for the things of the world but a consuming love for God that’s borne out of the testimony of Scripture. Salvation is a regeneration. It is a real transformation, turning a person from loving self to loving God, from pride to humility, from the reigning power of sin to the reigning power of righteousness. That’s the bottom line. A holy life is the chief sign of grace.”

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” - I Corinthians 1:18, 22-25

Only One Thing Is Needful: Choosing the Good Part

Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about how God desires to meet our most crucial need. It is a need that we seldom contemplate as so often our prayer life is laden with petitions to have temporal needs satisfied and frequently we are discouraged with how God chooses to answer or not answer our requests. Perhaps the very things we are asking for are not the things that God most wants to give us.

When examining the Scriptures it is hard not to notice that when Jesus intervened in a life, a need was not just met, or a prayer answered, but a life was changed. Jesus did not just perform miracles for the sake of alleviating some discomfort or ailment but to display his love. It was Jesus’ love that motivated his acts of healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and resurrecting the dead. For you see everything Jesus did was to give people what they really needed – Him. In fact, every circumstance that comes into a person’s life whether they are a believer or not is designed by God for the sole person of bringing that individual to Him. It is God’s will that no one perish (John 3:16) and it is in Him alone that we find perfect peace (Philippians 4:7). The Bible itself is the divine communicating with man. Every book details God’s action toward man, not man toward God. It is God who is reaching down to man continually to bring man to Himself.

The greatest blessing God can bestow is not helping us pay a bill, fix a broken relationship, or heal our wounded bodies, but to give us a new revelation of Himself. It is interesting to notice that the one thing that Moses asked for when he was commissioned by God to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land was a greater revelation of God’s glory (Exodus 33:18). He did not ask for strength, provisions, or more men. He asked for God Himself. Moses acutely understood what we so easily miss at times. Nothing is impossible for God (Luke 1:37). As God reveals Himself to us, we truly receive everything we have ever sought but so often we get caught up in the circumstances of life and miss God’s still, small voice that is trying to speak to us of His great glory. It is no wonder that when Moses met with God on Mount Sinai his face shone so brightly that he had to wear a veil. Such is the effect of a personal encounter with the Living God.

When this truth permeates our life, our prayer life will change. We will begin to pray for spiritual growth, discernment, and obedience instead of the next promotion, new house, or lavish vacation. We will no longer look toward Wall Street as the barometer of economic certainty but toward the Cross of Calvary. For it is at the Cross that we find what we truly need – unconditional, unfathomable, incomprehensible love. It is here on the hill of Golgotha that we discover our Savior, our Redeemer, our Blessed Hope and are able to join in unison with the Apostle John as he closes the Book of Revelation with the following plea, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”

“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.” - St. Augustine