Tag: meditation

Contemplating the Cross: Christ Our Passover Lamb

~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

For the next few days, I’ll be posting excerpts from Nancy Guthrie’s Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter (Crossway). Join me as I aim to contemplate the cross this passion week.

Today’s meditation is by John Calvin, from chapter 17 “Blood and Water” (pg. 103-104 of Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross, edited by Nancy Guthrie).

“Not one of his bones will be broken.” This quotation is taken from Exodus 12:46 and Numbers 9:12, where Moses refers to the paschal lamb. John takes it for granted that that lamb was a figure of the true and only sacrifice through which the church was to be redeemed. This is consistent with the fact that it was sacrificed as the memorial of a redemption which had been already made. As God intended it to celebrate the former favor, he also intended that it should show the spiritual deliverance of the church, which was still in the future. So Paul without any hesitation applies to Christ the rule which Moses lays down about eating the lamb: “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:7-8).

From this analogy, or similarity, faith derives great benefit, since in all the ceremonies of the law it views the salvation which has been displayed in Christ. This is the purpose of the evangelist John when he says that Christ was not only the pledge of our redemption but also its price in that we see accomplished in him what was formerly seen by the ancient people under the figure of the Passover. In this way the Jews are also reminded that they ought to seek in Christ the substance of everything that the law prefigured but did not actually accomplish.

Christ truly is our Passover Lamb. A deliverance greater than that of the Jews from the bondage of Egypt (and the fury of the Death Angel) was effected by His death. Christ is without blemish, and his bones were not broken. He was brutally sacrificed for us, in our place. May His sacrifice for our sins grip us to the extent that like a Jewish home in Goshen, Jesus’ blood would adorn the door posts of our hearts. May we glory in nothing else but His Cross.

Contemplating the Cross: Gethsemane

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

For the next few days, I’ll be posting excerpts from Nancy Guthrie’s Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter (Crossway). Join me as I aim to contemplate the cross this passion week.

Today’s meditation is by R. Kent Hughes, from chapter 5 “Gethsemane” (pg. 31-36 of Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross, edited by Nancy Guthrie).

The Lord deliberately chose Gethsemane. John’s specific mention of it as a “garden” in John 18:1 suggests that the apostle has in mind a deliberate comparison with the original garden of Eden. The symbolism is this:

  • The first Adam began life in a garden. Christ, the second Adam, came at the end of his life to a garden.
  • In Eden Adam sinned. In Gethsemane the Savior overcame sin.
  • In Eden Adam fell. In Gethsemane Jesus conquered.
  • In Eden Adam hid himself. In Gethsemane our Lord boldly presented himself.
  • In Eden the sword was drawn. In Gethsemane it was sheathed.

This symbolism is not accidental or incidental to Jesus’ death. It was an assurance for future generations of readers that Christ was in control….

The surroundings of Christ’s final hour clearly displayed his sovereign control. The intensity of his agony and his sovereign resolve to bear it, his control over his captors, his protection of his own, his grace to the wounded, all proved he is an omniscient, all-powerful God. Christ was in control when life was falling in, when things looked the worst….

Gethsemane was not a tragedy, and neither are our Gethsemanes. This does not do away with the wounds of affliction in this life, but it is encouraging to see that behind human tragedy stands the benevolent and wise purpose of the Lord of human history. Life may be dark at times, tragedy may come, and at times the whole world may seem to be falling apart. The wheel may appear ready to crush us. But this is not the end. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28), even in Gethsemane.

How wonderful it is to see Christ undoing the wrongs that befell us in Eden. How glorious our Savior truly is. May we follow him through dark times in our lives, confident that He is always in control.

Contemplating the Cross: They Spit in His Face

~ Bob Hayton

For the next few days, I’ll be posting excerpts from Nancy Guthrie’s Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter (Crossway). Join me as I aim to contemplate the cross this passion week.

Today’s meditation is by Charles Spurgeon, from chapter 7 “Then Did They Spit in His Face” (pg. 44-48 of Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross, edited by Nancy Guthrie).

If we want proof of the depravity of the heart of man, I will not point you to the stews of Sodom and Gomorrah, nor will I take you to the places where blood is shed in streams by wretches like to Herod and men of that sort. No, the clearest proof that man is utterly fallen, and that the natural heart is enmity against God, is seen in the fact that they did spit in Christ’s face, did falsely accuse him, and condemn him, and lead him out as a malefactor, and hang him up as a felon that he might die upon the cross….

…But could I feel as I ought to feel in sympathy with the terrible shame of Christ, and then could I interpret those feelings by any language known to moral man, surely you would bow your heads and blush, and you would feel rising within your spirits a burning indignation against the sin that dared to put the Christ of God to such shame as this….

If ever anybody should despise us for Christ’s sake, let us not count it hard, but let us be willing to bear scorn and contempt for him. Let us say to ourselves, “Then did they spit in his face. What then, if they also spit in mine? If they do, I will ‘hail reproach, and welcome shame,’ since it comes upon me for his dear sake.” See, that wretch is about to spit in Christ’s face! Put your cheek forward, that you may catch that spittle upon your face, that it fall not upon him again, for as he was put to such terrible shame, every one who has been redeemed with his precious blood ought to count it an honor to be a partaker of the shame, if by any means we may screen him from being further despised and rejected of men.

May we feel the affront that sin is to Christ’s glory. And may we joyfully desire, like Paul, to share in Christ’s sufferings.

Contemplating the Cross: True Contemplation of the Cross

~ Bob Hayton

For the next few days, I’ll be posting excerpts from Nancy Guthrie’s Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter (Crossway). Join me as I aim to contemplate the cross this passion week.

Today’s meditation is by Martin Luther, from chapter 1 “True Contemplation of the Cross” (pg. 11-14 of Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross, edited by Nancy Guthrie).

The true contemplation is that in which the heart is crushed and the conscience smitten. You must be overwhelmed by the frightful wrath of God who so hated sin that he spared not his only begotten Son. What can the sinner expect if the beloved Son was so afflicted?…

Take this to heart and doubt not that you are the one who killed Christ. Your sins certainly did, and when you see the nails driven through his hands, be sure that you are pounding, and when the thorns pierce his brow, know that they are your evil thoughts. Consider that if one thorn pierced Christ you deserve one hundred thousand.

The whole value of the meditation of the suffering of Christ lies in this, that man should come to the knowledge of himself and sink and tremble. Pray to God that he may soften your heart and make fruitful your meditation upon the suffering of Christ, for we ourselves are incapable of proper reflection unless God instills it….

…Herein we come to know both God and ourselves. His beauty is his own, and through it we learn to know him. His uncomeliness and passion are ours, and in them we know ourselves, for what he suffered in the flesh, we must inwardly suffer in the spirit. He has in truth borne our stripes. Here, then, in an unspeakably clear mirror you see yourself. You must know that through your sins you are as uncomely and mangled as you see him here.

May Christ’s sacrifice on account of our sin, chill us to the dreadfulness of sin. And then warm our hearts to the glory that Christ would suffer in our place.

Contemplating the Cross: He Set His Face to Go to Jerusalem

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

For the next few days, I’ll be posting excerpts from Nancy Guthrie’s Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter (Crossway). Join me as I aim to contemplate the cross this passion week.

Today’s meditation is by John Piper, from chapter 2 “He Set His Face to Go to Jerusalem” (pg. 17-18 of Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross, edited by Nancy Guthrie).

In Luke 9:51 we read, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”…When Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem, he set his face to die….

If we were to look at Jesus’ death merely as a result of a betrayer’s deceit and the Sanhedrin’s envy and Pilate’s spinelessness and the soldiers’ nails and spear, it might seem very involuntary. And the benefit of salvation that comes to us who believe from this death might be viewed as God’s way of making a virtue out of a necessity. But once you read Luke 9:51 all such thoughts vanish. Jesus was not accidentally entangled in a web of injustice. The saving benefits of his death for sinners were not an afterthought. God planned it all out of infinite love to sinners like us and appointed a time. Jesus, who was the very embodiment of his Father’s love for sinners, saw that the time had come and set his face to fulfill his mission: to die in Jerusalem for our sake. “No one takes [my life] from me [he said], but I lay it down of my own accord…” (John 10:18)….

Praise God, Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem for us! May we be filled with joy in the sovereignty of our God who planned out the glory of our salvation down to its smallest detail.