“‘Mercy triumphs over Judgment’
Mankind’s sentence now appealed;
From the holy God offended,
Righteousness has been revealed!
Glory to the Justifier!
Praise His great and gracious plan;
Bless the holy love of God,
Who gave His Son to ransom Man!”
– Kevin Hartnett, Mercy Triumphs over Judgement (1998)
“It is God himself who in holy wrath needs to be propitiated, God himself who in holy love undertook to do the propitiating, and God himself who in the person of his Son died for the propitiation of our sins. Thus God took his own loving initiative to appease his own righteous anger by bearing it his own self in his own Son when he took our place and died for us. There is no crudity here to evoke our ridicule, only the profundity of holy love to evoke our worship.”
~ John Stott
The Cross of Christ, pg. 175
“God instituted the church on the day of Pentecost and even though it has grown like a bramble bush with numerous branches, there is only one trunk and one set of roots that go back to God’s involvement in history authoritatively recorded in scripture. There is also that common core of universal teachings established in the early centuries of the faith, such as the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed. My call is to help us recover these common roots of faith and worship. For these traditions have been received from the Apostles and handed down in the church for centuries. So, if you want a definition of ancient-future worship, it is this: ‘the common tradition of the church’s worship in Word, Table, and song, practiced faithfully and communicated clearly in every context of the world.’
What stands at the very center of worship is Word and Sacrament through which we do God’s vision for the world; it is proclaimed and enacted. What contextualizes this worship more than anything else is its music. Music is the vehicle that communicates worship in the language of the people. Music is also the vehicle of our personal response to the story of God’s work in history. We also proclaim God’s story in hymn and song, but nowhere in scripture, nor in the history of the church have hymns and songs ever been held as a replacement for Word and Table. Word and Table remain the God ordained way to remember God’s saving deeds in history and anticipate his final triumph over all that is evil and death. So if you want to do ancient-future worship learn God’s story and do it in Word and Table and use hymns and songs for responses not only from the great treasury of the church through the centuries, but also from music that is current.” – Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Worship
Hebrews 12:24 “…and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (ESV)
“Listen to the Blood!
Listen to the blood that speaks! It says, “Sinner, I am full of merit: why bring your merits here?” You say, “But I have too much sin.” Listen to the blood: as it falls, it cries, “from many trespasses, to justification” (Rom 5:16).
You say, “But I know I am too guilty.” Listen to the blood! “Even though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white like snow; even though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isa 1:18).
You say, “But I have such a poor desire, I have such a little faith.” Listen to the blood! “He will not break a broken reed, and he will not extinguish a dim wick” (Isa 42:3).
You say, “But I know He will cast me out if I do come.” Listen to the blood! “Everyone whom the Father gives to me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never throw out” (John 6:37).
You say, “But I know I have so many sins that I cannot be forgiven.” Now, hear the blood once more, and I will be done. “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). That is the blood’s testimony, and its testimony to you. “The Spirit and the water and the blood, and the three are in agreement” (1 John 5:8), and behold the blood’s witness is, “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Come, poor sinner, cast yourself simply on that truth. Away with your good works and all your trustings! Lie simply flat on that sweet word of Christ. Trust His blood, and if you can put your trust alone in Jesus, in His sprinkled blood, it shall speak in your conscience better things than that of Abel.”
C. H. Spurgeon
Commentary on Hebrews
One of Oswald Chambers’ best:
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Romans 5:10.
I am not saved by believing; I realize I am saved by believing. It is not repentance that saves me; repentance is the sign that I realize what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger is to put the emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause—It is my obedience that puts me right with God, my consecration. Never! I am put right with God because prior to all, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals I can accept, instantly the stupendous Atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God, and by the supernatural miracle of God’s grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not know how, that I am saved.
The salvation of God does not stand on human logic, it stands on the sacrificial Death of Jesus. We can be born again because of the Atonement of Our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creatures, not by their repentance or their belief, but by the marvellous work of God in Christ Jesus which is prior to all experience. The impregnable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We have not to work out these things ourselves; they have been worked out by the Atonement: The supernatural becomes natural by the miracle of God; there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done—“It is finished.”
Chambers, O. (1986). My utmost for his highest: Selections for the year. Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering.
Made with in Virginia.