Fourteen years ago, the genocide in Rwanda was at its height. See this…
During Sunday’s sermon, I briefly discussed the implications of being in Christ on three different aspects of a person’s life:
- First, the inner life: How do you think? What occupies your mind? What do you value and treasure? What do you long for?
- Second, the personal life: How you work, how you allocate your time, how you spend money. These are decisions you make on your own that primarily affect you.
- Third, your Life in Community with others: Your relationships in marriage, in your family, among your neighbors, among your colleagues.
These are the verses referred to during the sermon on baptism yesterday.
On Sunday we sang the great hymn, “Crown Him with Many Crowns” by Matthew Bridges. Here is one of the verses:
Jesus died and now lives “that death may die.” This week I’ve meditated on that biblical theme, looking at passages throughout the history of redemption that discuss the coming of death into the world, God's plan to overcome death, Jesus' victory over death, and the final destruction of death. Here is a selection of key passages on that theme. Read them - and rejoice that death will die.Crown Him the Lord of life, Who triumphed over the grave, And rose victorious in the strife For those He came to save. His glories now we sing, Who died, and rose on high, Who died eternal life to bring, And lives that death may die.
Jesus is condemned to death. Jesus is condemned to death! Is this just?
Surely on a human level, this is a travesty of justice. Jesus' trial is a sham, violating virtually every rule regarding fair trials under both Jewish and Roman law. There was no due process exercised in this trial; Jesus was innocent of any wrongdoing.
But consider Jesus' condemnation from God's point of view. Was Jesus' death justified?
Listen to these words of Scripture:
· The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)
· He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. (1 Peter 2:24)
· He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people. (Hebrews 9: 26-28)
These Scriptures tell us that from God's point of view, Jesus' death was justified. Indeed, Jesus' death was necessary if anyone is to be saved - for without His death, God would have to punish you and me for our sins.When we sin, how do we put matters right? This question keeps coming to the forefront even in politics and popular culture.
The former governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, faced that question this week after his personal sins became public knowledge. On Monday, the New York Times quoted Spitzer as saying that he had spent the last several days with his family, “atoning for his personal failings.”
Consider also Atonement, Ian McEwan’s 2001 quintessential postmodern novel (which, in its film version, was nominated for this year’s Academy Award for best picture). The story opens with the main character, Briony, as a 13-year-old. With her mind wrapped up in the fantasies of her fictional stories, she destroys a young man’s life by falsely accusing him of a crime. The novel closes with Briony at 77, Alzheimer's on the horizon, writing alternative realities as she still tries – unsuccessfully – to atone for that sin. She writes,