Romans 5:7-8:

“For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

John Piper responds:

I have heard it said, “God didn’t die for frogs. So he was responding to our value as humans.” This turns grace on its head. We are worse off than frogs. They have not sinned. They have not rebelled and treated God with the contempt of being inconsequential in their lives. God did not have to die for frogs. They aren’t bad enough. We are. Our debt is so great, only a divine sacrifice could pay it.

I respond:

God didn’t have to die for frogs. They aren’t bad enough. Dang.

This is something I’ve been thinking about over the past few days. Ephesians 1:19:

“… and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power to ward us who believe, according to the working of his great might.”

This verse is talking about the power exercised for believers in the death and resurrection of Christ. However, it’s a vast under-appreciation of the gravity of the situation to see God’s power primarily or mostly in the death and resurrection.

What I mean by that is there is a collision of facts flowing from that one act of power and sacrifice that should embolden just about anyone who truly appreciates them.

Only a few verses earlier, Paul describes believers as ‘sealed’ with the Holy Spirit. Elsewhere God’s Holy Spirit is described as a ‘deposit’ ensuring our eternal salvation. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in every believer is what I mean to make mention of.

Now, let that truth meld with the reality of God’s immeasurably great power. Let it blend with the truth of God’s ultimate victory over the enemy and sin. Set it with his eternal quality, his omniscience, his sovereignty. Remember that work that Jesus did on the cross—his proven commitment to our joy and satisfaction in him. Now, remember that all of that is literally in you.

Okay, now let out a relieved sigh and go get a drink of water.

I was reading in Mark this morning and something interesting caught my attention. Jesus has just healed again. This time, a deaf man with a speech impediment. After healing the man, Jesus charges him to “tell no one.” (Mark 7:36) Immediately after this, the word tells us what happens next:

“But the more he charged them [not to tell anyone what he’s done], the more zealously they proclaimed it.”

Zealous. That’s a mighty descriptive word. With fervor they spread the word of what he’d done, in spite of his charge not to. I don’t know why this is exactly, but it is an interesting contrast from today.

The Gospel is now complete. All that will be revealed to us about Jesus in this lifetime has been revealed in the Gospel. The recounting of the Gospel in scripture ends with a charge to go out and zealously proclaim to the world what the Lord has done. Yet now, the church rarely does it.

If this is not a perplexing reversal, I don’t know what is.

This morning I completed the bible for the fifth or sixth time since beginning the use of the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan. It’s an excellent plan and does a great job helping the reader to develop a discipline in studying the word. It also features a 25 day month which gives you several ‘free days’ each month so that you don’t fall behind.

I know a number of people who have found this plan helpful and therefore, as is my custom, here are some updated (from last year) resources in case you’d like to use this plan.

PDF

I’ve made a printable version of this plan available in PDF format. It can be double sided and folded so that it fits nicely in your bible.

iCal File

Two iCal files which can be imported into Mac’s calendar application. These will be good for 2010 and 2011. If someone feels like porting this to an Outlook compatible file, I’ll be glad to add it here as well.

Public Google Calendar

I’ve made a public Google Calendar with the daily readings through 2011. This can usually be imported to calendar applications, as well as mobile devices like the iPhone and Android phones.

Online

CRCurches.net has also made a web version of this calendar available on their site for browsing, if that’s your particular taste.

Mark 4:22

“For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light.”

This is a verse that, for me, I always found a bit perplexing. In the economy of human behavior, we hide things so that they will not be found out. In fact, often so that they will never be found out.

But God’s economy works differently. When God hides something, it isn’t so that we will never discover it. While I haven’t nailed down this verse entirely, I hypothesize that man’s readiness is somewhere in view here.

What I mean by that is that while there is truth almost everywhere, as individuals, we’re not always ready to hear or see it. God hides things from us until we, as people on our own personal journeys with the Lord, are ready to understand them.

Every one of us is living in sin. Somehow. Some are living in sin they know about. Others are freed from some sins they once lived in and now live in sins they are yet unaware of. But God knows of these sins and has chosen not to reveal them to us yet. Why? Because we’re not ready yet.

God is gentle and patient. He has a truckload to reveal to us about ourselves and this life, but he isn’t going to dump all of it on people who don’t have the means to carry it yet.

I think one of the hardest ideas to really accept is the idea that when we do good, we’re not going above and beyond, so to speak, but we’re simply meeting the standard.

Luke 17:10:

“When you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty.”

We’re well conditioned to feel proud of ourselves, and to expect thanks and honor when we do good things. We feel that we have exceeded the human standard. But, of course, the reality is that we have only begun to meet God’s standard.

Additionally, this concept makes logical nonsense of the prosperity Gospel. Rationally speaking, how much good would a person have to do to so far exceed the scriptural commands of love and sacrifice that God is actually compelled to reward. I don’t mean gift. God gives us gifts, based on grace, all the time. I mean a reward. As in, “you’ve done so much good, here is this big pile of money.”

God isn’t saying, “Whoa, look, you actually did what I said, here have this Lexus”. That’s ludicrous.

We know that the fear of the Lord is the ‘beginning of wisdom’. But what it looks like to fear the Lord can seem a bit ambiguous sometimes. Solomon clears it up.

Proverbs 8:13:

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil,
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil.

Seems pretty cut and dry to me. Now, if I can only stop getting in the way of this sanctification thing…