Tag: Devotional

Book Excerpt — Raised With Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything by Adrian Warnock

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments


For Resurrection Sunday, I wanted to share an excerpt from Adrian Warnock’s book Raised With Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything, published by Crossway. I hope to review this book in the near future, but this excerpt captures some of the beauty of it. Very few books are written which revel in the resurrection. This book is full of such reveling.

Some may wonder why the resurrection is so important, since Jesus uttered “It is Finished” on the cross, and there atoned for the sins of the world. This excerpt from pages 124 to 126 explains how vastly significant the resurrection is. The words below will be another reason to wonder and worship Jesus Christ our living Savior this Easter morning.

The credit of Jesus’ righteousness is much larger than the debt of our sin. His account had more positive approval than the negative disapproval that was due to all of us. The debt was paid, and as a result, as a righteous man and the beloved Son of God, the Father was entirely just to raise him. Jesus had turned away God’s wrath, he had destroyed our sin, our guilt could now be taken away, and we could be counted righteous. If the cross was Jesus’ payment for our sins, then the resurrection marked God’s acceptance of that payment.

Jesus is declared to still be righteous by his resurrection, just as he was declared to have become sin by his death. God’s wrath has been satisfied….

Unless Jesus himself had been justified, it is impossible to see how we could have been. If he could not even save himself, how could he save others? The resurrection shows the positive delight of God in his Son, which is now shared by us. Many people think of salvation as the removal of our sin and its punishment. If Jesus had only wiped the slate clean, forgiven our wrongdoing, and taken the wrath God had for us, we would be left in a neutral position. We would no longer be under God’s displeasure, but he would not be pleased with us either. Many Christians, even if they do not articulate their theology like that, certainly live as though it was true. Many live as though they must still work to please God.

The resurrection was necessary to allow the credit of Jesus’ righteousness to be shared with us, for it demonstrated that the credit was greater than the debt. Jesus’ favor still remained when sin was destroyed. God’s hatred for sin was not greater than his love for his Son. Righteousness remained available to credit to our account.

Jesus was so full of merit that not only did he have enough righteousness to cancel out our sin and enough that he deserved to be raised from the dead, but he still had abundantly more credit remaining in his account. As a result, our justification consists not just of a canceling of our debt, but also of an imputing to us of the righteousness of Christ. It is not only “just as if I’d never sinned,” but also “just as if I’d already completed a perfect life.” Jesus doesn’t merely give us a clean slate and then sit back and watch whether we will mess it up again.

Book Excerpt — The Whole Bible Story: Explaining Everything That Happens in the Bible in Plain English by William H. Marty

~ Bob Hayton

The significance of Jesus’ crucifixion is something that is only real for the believer. On Good Friday, meditating on Jesus’ crucifixion and what His death means for you is the joy of every redeemed heart.

Today, I thought I’d offer an excerpt from a new book described as “A Bible Story Book for Grown-Ups”. Dr. William H. Marty, professor of Bible at Moody Bible Institute, has published surveys of the Old and New Testament. In his new book, The Whole Bible Story: Explaining Everything That Happens in the Bible in Plain English (published by Bethany House Publishers), he summarizes the Bible story in simple language, seeking to encourage more people to learn the Bible and go from his book to a personal reading of the Bible.

Today’s excerpt is the story of Jesus’ crucifixion. It is drawn from the account in all four Gospels. As you read and meditate on the events of that day, let the Holy Spirit inspire true heart-felt worship and wonder at the significance of Jesus’ death for you.

The Crucifixion: The First Three Hours

Before crucifying Jesus, the soldiers tortured him. They put a staff in his right hand and, mockingly bowing down to him, they said, “Hail, king of the Jews!” They spit on him and beat him again and again with the staff.

Then they took away the robe and put Jesus’ clothes on him. Jesus initially was forced to carry his own cross, but eventually the soldiers saw a man named Simon from Cyrene and forced him to carry it. On the way to the place of execution, a large group of people followed Jesus, including women who grieved.

Jesus called out to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and your children. Blessed are those women who have never given birth to children or nursed infants. People soon will beg for death because of the terrible suffering they will be forced to endure.”

Jesus and two other criminals were taken to the Place of the Skull (“Golgotha,” in Aramaic). At around nine in the morning, the soldiers crucified him between two thieves. After nailing him to the cross, the soldiers divided his clothes into four parts. Instead of tearing his outer robe, they gambled for it by throwing dice.

Pilate ordered a sign placed on the cross that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” The inscription was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek.

When the chief priests read it, they objected, saying “Do not write ‘King of the Jews.’ Write that he claimed he was king of the Jews.”

Their protest fell on deaf ears. Pilate said, “What I have written, I have written!”

Some of the people walking by mocked Jesus, saying, “You, who claimed you were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. Come down from the cross if you are the Son of God.”

The leaders joined the people in mocking Jesus. They said, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself. We will believe that he is the Christ and the Son of God if he can come down from the cross.”

One of the crucified thieves shouted, “If you are the Christ, save yourself and save us!”

Th other thief, though, scolded him: “Don’t you fear God? We deserve to die; we are guilty, but not this man. He isn’t a criminal.” He said to Jesus, “Don’t forget me when you enter into your kingdom.”

Jesus answered, “You can be certain that today you will be with me in paradise.”

Several women were standing near the cross. When Jesus saw his mother and John, the disciple he loved, standing next to her, he said, “My dear woman, this man is now your son”; to the beloved disciple, Jesus said, “This dear woman is now your mother.”

From that time on, John took care of Mary as if she were his own mother.

The Crucifixion: The Last Three Hours

From noon to three, the entire area was shrouded in darkness. Then Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Some didn’t understand and thought he was calling for Elijah.

Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”

One of the onlookers tried to give him a drink with a sponge on a pole.

Then Jesus prayed, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit,” and he cried out, “It is finished!”

With those words, Jesus bowed his head and died.

That instant, the curtain in the temple ripped from top to bottom. The earth shook, breaking open tombs, and people were raised to life. After Jesus’ resurrection, many of them appeared in Jerusalem.

When the commander of the soldiers who had crucified Jesus saw him die, he said, “He surely was the Son of God, and an innocent man.”

Three of the women who had watched the crucifixion were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of James and John. [excerpted from pages 249-251]

Disclaimer: This book was provided by Bethany House Publishers. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

You can pick up a copy from Amazon.com or direct from Bethany House.

Quotes to Note 28: Daniel Doriani on How Pastors Read the Bible

~ Bob Hayton ~ 5 Comments

Recently, I was referencing Daniel Doriani’s commentary on James again. I have reviewed his commentary previously, and it is very good. He has a lot of pastoral wisdom, as seen by the following excerpt.

Here, Doriani exposes the tendencies of pastors or other teachers, to be too professional with the Bible in their own lives. His thoughts are worthy of reflection, which is why I’m sharing them with you here: Let me know what you think and if you agree that he strikes a nerve.

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…This seems obvious, but pastors and seminarians are prone to professionalize their use of Scripture, to read it to help every soul but their own. Let me offer a typology of the ways pastors can read Scripture.

When he is a new Christian, the future pastor’s reading is naïve and devotional. He devours Scripture, underlining virtually every word in his new Bible, feeling that God speaks directly to him with every word.

After a few years, the budding leader’s reading becomes sophisticated and devotional. He still feels that God is speaking to him in the text, but he has learned to read texts in their contexts. He reads Bible dictionaries and commentaries. He knows the translation strategies of various Bible versions and begins to use that knowledge to get at the original text.

The future pastor decides to go to seminary, where he becomes a technical reader. He reads Greek and Hebrew; he consults scholarly sources. He respects the distance between his world and that of biblical thought. His zeal to describe biblical history, culture, and language grows. He pursues what the word originally meant and perhaps neglects what it means today.

As ordination comes, our friend remembers that his study has, as its goal, the edification of the church. He continues to read technically, but now he shares his findings with the church. He becomes a technical-functional reader. His reading may be detached, personally speaking, but he stores and organizes his discoveries so he can offer them to others. While this phase may mark a partial improvement, he does not directly profit from his reading of Scripture.

He needs therefore to become a technical, devotional reader. Every technical skill remains, but he reads like a child, letting the word speak directly to his heart again. He gains what Paul Ricoeur calls a “second naiveté.” He is both technically astute and meek. He both receives God’s word and expounds it. In this way, he finds strength to endure trials and to check the growth of sin.

[pg. 50-51, James (Reformed Expository Commentary) from P&R Publishing]

Quotes to Note 25: Dorothy Sayers on the Necessity of Fundamental Christian Doctrine

~ Bob Hayton ~ 4 Comments

I recently finished reading through Collected Writings on Scripture by D.A. Carson (compiled by Andrew Naselli; Crossway, 2010). The book includes not a few technical essays where Carson defends orthodox Christian doctrine on Scripture from innovative theological liberalism. In the conclusion to his essay, “Unity and Diversity in the New Testament: The Possibility of Systematic Theology”, Carson shares a lengthy quote from Dorothy Sayers that is pertinent to his defenses of orthodox doctrine. I intend to share the quote by Sayers here, as well as some of Carson’s remarks which follow it.

“The one thing I am here to say to you is this: that it is worse than useless for Christians to talk about the importance of Christian morality, unless they are prepared to take their stand upon the fundamentals of Christian theology. It is a lie to say that dogma does not matter; it matters enormously. It is fatal to let people suppose that Christianity is only a mode of feeling; it is virtually necessary to insist that it is first and foremost a rational explanation of the universe. It is hopeless to offer Christianity as a vaguely idealistic aspiration of a simple and consoling kind; it is, on the contrary, a hard, tough, exacting, and complex doctrine, steeped in a drastic and uncompromising realism. And it is fatal to imagine that everybody knows quite well what Christianity is and needs only a little encouragement to practice it. The brutal fact is that in this Christian country not one person in a hundred has the faintest notion about what the church teaches about God or man or society or the person of Jesus Christ.” (emphasis mine, quote from Dorothy L. Sayers, “Creed or Chaos?” in The Necessity of Systematic Theology, ed. Davis, 15-32)

So writes Dorothy Sayers, and I think she is basically right. This chapter has dealt with technical articles and critical judgments, but in the final analysis what is at stake is not some purely academic dispute, but what we preach. (D.A. Carson, Collected Writings on Scripture, pg. 148-149)

The wider American church needs to hear Sayers (and Carson) on this point. It does matter what you believe. The fundamentals of the faith are extremely important. All the warm-hearted feelings and emotion in the world, all the Christian morality and love for mankind, none of this means a hill of beans without clinging to the rock of Christian doctrine which has been revealed to us in Scripture.

In the next few weeks I’ll be sharing another quote or two from Carson’s work and then reviewing the book. I plan on giving away a copy too, so stay tuned!

A Gospel-Centered Reading of Genesis

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

My daily Bible plan has me reading through Genesis currently. So far, I’ve been refreshed by many Gospel themes I’m finding therein. I’ve been helped in making Gospel connections, by a series of blog posts I stumbled across recently. Dr. John Davis, at TheGospelFirst.com has been blogging his way through Genesis in a series highlighting the Gospel Story and the City.

His devotional take on Genesis is refreshing, and the entries are fairly brief. The posts complement my reading thru the chapters covered and help me to be seeing Genesis through Gospel-eyes. Not only does Davis help people to see the Gospel in the text, he helps them to make application to the context of living in the city. Davis is partnering with his brother Steve to reach the city of Philadelphia. As I find myself in the city of St. Paul, many of his applications hit home.

I encourage you to take advantage of Davis’ series on the Gospel as you read through Genesis. Here are links to the posts that are currently available.