Only dogs are to obey.

Obedience is often mocked in our era, but that's a mark against our society, not against the concept or the implication of divinely appointed roles. In addition, the necessity of obedience cannot be in human redemption.

The following from John Murray elucidates the fuller significance of the death of the second person of the trinity, Jesus the Christ, particularly with regard to His obedience to a "sin avenging God" (HT Jay Porterfield).

What the obedience of Christ involved for him is perhaps nowhere more strikingly expressed than in Hebrews 2:10-18; 5:8-10 where we are told that Jesus "learned obedience from the things which he suffered," that he was made perfect through sufferings, and that "being made perfect he became to all who obey him the author of eternal salvation." When we examine these passages the following lessons become apparent.

1. It was not through mere incarnation that Christ wrought our salvation and secured our redemption.
2. It was not through mere death that salvation was accomplished.
3. It was not simply through the death upon the cross that Jesus became the author of salvation.
4. The death upon the cross, as the climactic requirement of the price of redemption, was discharged as the supreme act of obedience; it was not death resistlessly inflicted but death upon the cross willingly and obediently wrought.

[The above is from Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray. Read the whole chapter: The Nature of the Atonement. Buy the book.]

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
~Philippians 2:5-11 (ESV)

I mean, that thing is good. I wanna be friends with it.

Some Good Friday thoughts ...

From Mike Gendron's address tonight at Providence Church regarding Christ's 6th saying on the cross: "It is finished." (John 19:30)

Q: What does Jesus mean by "it"?
A: 10 accomplishments of Jesus when "it" was finished:

1. Jesus' blood was shed.
2. Divine justice was satisfied.
3. Atonement was achieved.
4. Sin was forgiven.
5. Redemption was paid.
6. Reconciliation was accomplished.
7. Death was conquered.
8. Righteousness was perfected.
9. Salvation was secured.
10. Heaven was opened.

From Ted Winton's address tonight at Providence Church regarding Christ's 7th saying on the cross: "Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit!" (Luke 23:46)

Q: What does this saying mean?

A: What it means to Him ... A commitment and dedication to His Father's plan for His life.

A: What it means to us ... Something we must share with Jesus, trusting in the Father's will for our lives, our futures.

• To hear these or any of the 7 sayings of Christ on the cross addressed during our Good Friday service, check out the Providence Church sermons page.

I hold myself in contempt!

“… what Christ did by dying on the cross for sinners was to appease the wrath of God against sinners. By requiring of his Son such humiliation and suffering for the sake of God's glory, He openly demonstrated that He does not sweep sin under the rug. All contempt for His glory is duly punished, either on the cross, where the wrath of God is propitiated for those who believe, or in hell, where the wrath of God is poured out on those who don't.” ~ John Piper, Desiring God (emphasis added)

For more of the topic of glorifying God (i.e., NOT having contempt for His glory), see the following:

• You may be the lovely dust through which God works His purpose!
• You'll get the answer to that question, Mr. Bender, next Saturday.
• It's not that I'm lazy. I just don't care. It's a problem of motivation.
• I can't have a chink in my chain.

Say, "Hello," to my little friend.

During our Good Friday service at Providence Church, we have reflections on the 7 sayings of Jesus on the cross. This year, I spoke on the 3rd, found in John 19.

but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”
-John 19:25-26

Whenever I compare this saying to the other 6 sayings of Jesus on the cross, I initially think of Sesame Street ... of these things is not like the other. Here we seem to have the mundane among the spiritual, the human among the divine.

But, here is a tender moment, full of compassionate obedience. In His greatest moment of need, Jesus focuses on the need of His earthly mother.

Jesus is fully God & fully man. As such, he had human responsibility: Obedience to honor His father & mother.

Jesus perfectly obeyed the law and this moment is no exception. Jesus felt an obligation to ensure the welfare of His earthly mother, thereby fulfilling the 5th Commandment to honor one's father & mother.

However, the 5th commandment is more than just “children, obey your parents.” Even after you grow up, you never stopped being a son or daughter and you're never free of that obligation. Even if they pass away, you honor them with your reputation, but also by caring for them when/if necessary as long as they live.

This is not just a Old Testament obligation, but is plainly seen in the New Testament also. When Paul addressed the obligation for those in the church to care for their widows, he issued a bold statement:

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
- 1 Timothy 5:8

Jesus made sure his mother was taken care of, but notice that He did not admonish his own brothers to care for their mother. Why is that?

Jesus’ younger siblings were not there at the cross and apparently not believers at this time. But, we have further insight from Mark 3 where Jesus prioritized the spiritual family over the natural, physical family.

For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
- Mark 3:35

There's a powerful lesson for us there as well, particularly with regard to providing for our Christian brothers & sisters, especially if there is a lack of physical family. Plainly, our loyalty should be to our spiritual family over our physical family. But this is more good news than a burden.

“And if Jesus purchased the church with his own blood and ordained that in it bereft mothers find sons and sons find mothers, then no one should be without a caring family today in the body of Christ.”
- John Piper

Jesus bypassed His physical brothers and entrusted to the disciple He loved, His true brother, His loving mother.

She was loving and faithful, though it had to have been difficult. His disciples, friends, and nation may disown Him, but Mary was there at the foot of his cross.

In Luke 2:34-35, Simeon had told Mary that Jesus was appointed "for the fall and rising of many in Israel." But, He also delivered these sobering words: "and a sword will pierce through your own soul also." The full weight of those words must have been felt standing at the foot of the cross watching her Son endure rejection, scorn, mocking, physical pain, and bearing the sin of His people.

“What sorrow it must have caused her when, because there was no room in the inn, she had to lay her new-born babe in the manger! What anguish must have been hers when she learned of Herod’s purpose to destroy her infant’s life! What trouble was given her when she was forced on his account to flee into a foreign country and sojourn for several years in the land of Egypt! What piercings of soul must have been hers when she saw her Son despised and rejected of men! What grief must have wrung her heart as she beheld him hated and persecuted by his own nation! And who can estimate what she passed through as she stood there at the cross? If Christ was the man of sorrows, was she not the woman of sorrows?”
- A.W. Pink

To this woman, Jesus tenderly gave a surrogate son.

And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
-John 19:27

Some commentators wonder whether it's long or short-term care in mind here? After all, James & Jude later believe and become leaders in the church, with each even writing a New Testament epistle. Some suggest she may have eventually went to live with one of them, but there is tradition that asserts she lived out her days in John's household.

Either way, the next few days were going to be pure agony and her other children probably weren’t around and if they were they wouldn’t likely have been much comfort. The beloved John, however, would be care for and comfort Mary. He would also bring her good news.

In John 20, Peter & John learn that Jesus is not in the tomb, so they go to investigate. John entered, saw, believed, and went back to his home (John 20:10). It's subtle, but who would be there? Jesus' mother Mary and her heart would rejoice.

He is not there; He is risen. He is risen indeed.

Meditate on this, I will.

Lionel Woods sparked a conversation about the atonement and the potential for Christ's death to be fruitless, if nobody choose Him.

In other words, what if Jesus died on the cross and nobody believed? Could that have happened? To take it further, did Christ's death on the cross accomplish something, or did it create the potential for something and, subsequently, the potential for nothing?

For what it's worth, I shared the following. Label it what you will, but I think it's what the Scriptures teach.

I think the Father chooses a people as a gift to the Son (John 6:37, 39), the Son dies for that people (John 10:15), and the Spirit brings those people individually to from spiritual death to spiritual life (Eph 2:1-3) so that they freely choose the Light of the world, else they never could (John 3:3; 6:44), because they would never want to (John 3:19-20).

This has to do with the limitation of the atonement, for some limit its scope (the who) while others limit its effect (the what), but everyone (except the universalists) limit the atonement in some way. I prefer to think of it as the intent of the atonement, for whom did Christ intend to die?

From John Owen's The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, I leave you with the following:

The Father imposed His wrath due unto, and the Son underwent punishment for, either:

1. All the sins of all men.
2. All the sins of some men, or
3. Some of the sins of all men.

In which case it may be said:

• That if the last be true, all men have some sins to answer for, and so, none are saved.
• That if the second be true, then Christ, in their stead suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the whole world, and this is the truth.
• But if the first be the case, why are not all men free from the punishment due unto their sins?

You answer, Because of unbelief. I ask, Is this unbelief a sin, or is it not? If it be, then Christ suffered the punishment due unto it, or He did not. If He did, why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which He died? If He did not, He did not die for all their sins!"

It's ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself.

Tonight Providence Church is having a Good Friday service, a large part of which is exposition & meditation upon the 7 sayings of Jesus on the cross:

1. "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34)
2. "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:43)
3. "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." (John 19:26-27)
4. "Eloi, Eloi lama sabachthani?" (Matthew 27:46)
5. "I thirst." (John 19:28)
6. "It is finished." (John 19:30)
7. "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." (Luke 23:46)

It will be somewhat of a somber occasion, but only somewhat since we know what comes next: the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

He could have saved Himself, but chose not to, to please the Father and to pay for the sins of His sheep.

"11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father." (John 10:11, 14-15, 18; ESV)

If the witch understood the true meaning of sacrifice, she would have interpreted the deep magic differently.

Each year Providence Church holds a Good Friday service where we spend time in prayer and focus our thoughts on the cross with 7 devotional meditations on Christ’s 7 sayings on the cross.

I spoke to the 7th saying, the final recorded words of our Savior prior to His death.

The final saying of Jesus on the cross is recorded in Luke 23:46:
Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

The preceding context has the temple curtain torn in two (23:45), signifying access to God through Christ.

As I pondered the words of Jesus, I wondered why Jesus felt the need to say them out loud. Surely, the text could have said something to the effect of, “Jesus committed His spirit to His Father.” Why did He need or want to call out with a loud voice? Surely, it wasn’t for God’s benefit.

I think it was not even primarily for our benefit that those words had to be spoken, but for the benefit of those eye witnesses.

“He spoke that all might hear, and that His enemies who judged Him destitute and forsaken of God might know it was not so any longer, but instead, that He was dear to His Father still, and could put His Spirit confidently into His Father’s hands.”
-Arthur Pink, The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross, 127

Jesus made it clear to them that He was not beaten and that things were once again right with Him and His Father.

What about the words themselves? What can be gleaned from Christ’s words?

First, they are a recitation of Psalm 31:5. Psalm 31 is David’s call to God to be saved from his enemies.

1 In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me! 2 Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me!
3 For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me;
4 you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge.
5 Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. (ESV)

It wasn’t that Jesus couldn’t think of anything original to say, but here He identified with David’s sentiment and confidence that God would deliver Him.

Second, these words show us how important Scripture was to Christ.

We have seen the importance of Scripture in the life of Christ as He fulfilled it. But we also see the importance of Scripture by His use of it.

For example, during His time of testing, the devil's 3 propositions were met with 3 responses from Scripture.

1. His challenged with a test to turn stones into bread, but He quotes Deut 8:3, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” (Luke 4:4)
2. He is offered all the kingdoms of the world if He would bow down to the devil, but He quotes Deuteronomy 6:13, saying, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” (Luke 4:8)
3. He is tested by Satan’s use of Scripture to cast Himself down from a lofty place since God will send His angels to protect Him, but Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:16, saying, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Luke 4:12)

In Luke 23:46, we see the last words on His lips prior to His death were Scripture.

Third, we see in the words, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” the contentment of Christ.

“These words set before us the last act of the Saviour ere He expired. It was an act of contentment, of faith, of confidence, and of love.”
-Arthur Pink, The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross, 127

I appreciate the HCSB’s translation of “entrust” (παρατίθημι). Christ’s commitment of His immaterial part to the Father is an act of faith and trust. Moments before Jesus had cried out asking why His God had forsaken Him (Matt 27:46), but after the wrath has been absorbed, He expresses great confidence in Him who had been His tormentor.

I find in that thought great comfort and conviction.

“We must show that we are freely willing to die, that we firmly believe in another life after this, and are desirous of it, by saying, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”
- Matthew Henry

We often pray for sick people to get well, but without a realization of how to pray should God not be so inclined. We forget to pray for “dying grace.”

We want our lives to be an expression of our faith, but our deaths should do that as well.

We recently had a family member die of cancer. She was doing rather well at Thanksgiving, but then took a dramatic turn for the worse shortly after Christmas. She was being kept alive artificially and was asked by her family if she was ready to go.

With great confidence in Christ to save, she said she was. After the disconnection, she was dead within minutes.

Paul says the last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Cor 15:26) Because Christ has conquered it in His resurrection, we can face it as well. When we face death in the face, will we be able to confidently say, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”?

Scripture often speaks of the hand of God with regard to power, but also with regard to security. Jesus tells us in John 10:29 that, “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.”

There is security and contentment being in the hand of God for the believer. Christ has absorbed the wrath that was due us, for it is finished.

However, the same is not true for those who are not Christ’s. In fact, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Heb 10:31)

Fourth, in Christ’s words we are reminded of the voluntary and authoritative nature of His death.

Jesus had said in John 10:14-18

14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

In Christ's words, He initiates the separation of His material and immaterial parts. Christ had been given into the hands of the Gentiles, and they would still have His body for a few days. However, His spirit they will not have, nor did they break.

His material and immaterial parts will be joined again at His resurrection and in the same way, our bodies await redemption in the grave until they are reunited with our immaterial part.

Jesus said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!”

If we are in Christ, we commit ourselves, our lives, and our deaths into the hands of our Father, longing for the day of our final redemption.