CCC Gainesville | Blog
Theme: Get Ready for Jesus
Has anyone ever told you that you needed a bath? Do you always agree? God sent John the baptizer to tell people that they needed a bath – a spiritual bath. They thought they were spiritually clean (after all, they were God’s chosen people). But they needed to be perfectly clean if they were going to live forever with the Lord. Only Jesus, the true lamb of God, would be able to offer the sacrifice that could remove the sin of all his people once and for all. John poured water on people as a sign that God was sending one soon who would wash away sin once and for all. Now when we were baptized, God was saying that he will wash away our sin too. But for us, that washing comes after Jesus came to die on the cross for us. Our baptism in water means even more than John’s – a promise that God will make us clean and new now if we believe in Jesus, and we’ll never need a bath again! Ask God to help us live our lives as those who have been washed and made ready for him.
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.
Micah 7:18
from Justin Taylor: Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson, Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus (Crossway, 2011) pp. 107-108, explain a common motivational paradigm for obedience:
First, you could dangle a carrot in front of the donkey, fooling the donkey into thinking that if he pulls the cart far enough, he’ll get to eat the carrot.The second is to prod the donkey along the road by hitting him with a stick.
If the donkey is motivated by the ultimate reward of a carrot, the stick won’t be necessary,
but if he’s not really all that interested in carrots, then the stick will be employed.Either way, through reward or through punishment, the cart driver gets what he wants.
Then they show how the gospel turns this on its head:
Because both parents and children obstinately refuse to pull the cart of God’s glory down the road, the Father broke the stick of punishment on his obedient Son’s back.
Rather than trying to entice us by dangling an unattainable carrot of perfect welcome and forgiveness incessantly in front of our faces, God the Father freely feeds the carrot to us, his enemies.
He simply moves outside all our categories for reward and punishment, for human motivation, and gives us all the reward and takes upon himself all the punishment. He lavishes grace upon grace on us and bears in his own person all the wrath that we deserve. Then he tells us, in light of all that he’s done, “Obey.”
Yes, we do have promises of rewards in heaven, but these are not earned by us through our merit.
Yes, there are promises of punishment, but not for those who are “in Christ.” All our punishment has been borne by him.
The carrot is ours.
The stick is his.
Manage [your children] with beans in a jar if you must, but be sure to tell them that it isn’t the gospel. And perhaps, once in a while, just fill the jar up with beans and take everyone out for ice cream, and when your son asks you, “Daddy, why do we get ice cream? How did the jar get to be full?” you’ll know what to say, won’t you?
Sunday I plan to preach on Zechariah’s Song, the Benedictus, from Luke chapter one.
“What is Zechariah singing about? The coming of Christ releases the true believer from the tyranny of others to live before the face of the Lord. This is what Paul was writing of in Romans 8:15-17:
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
And in Galatians 4:4-7: There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. A Christian who is happy and joyful is a true Zechariah who has had the renewal of the soul. This is a free man who is singing about his new found relationship with His God because of Christ.” –Mike Milton
This Advent we’ve looked at the songs of Luke 1. Mary’s Magnificat and Zechariah’s Benedictus. Both speak of fear. Justin Taylor & John Newton shed light:
When Zechariah the elderly priest and Mary the young virgin encountered a word from the Lord by means of an angel, they both found the experience troubling and frightening:
“And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him” (Luke 1:12).
“But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be” (Luke 1:29).
And in both cases the angel’s first command was against the fear they were feeling:
“But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah . . .” (Luke 1:13).
“And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary . . .’” (Luke 1:30).
Mary obeyed the command with fear-filled faith.
Zechariah initially disbelieved with fear-filled doubt.
But in her song of praise to God (the Magnificat) Mary commends the fear of the Lord:
“And his mercy is for those who fear [God] from generation to generation” (Luke 1:50).
And in his prophecy, Zechariah discourages fear before the Lord. He recalls that Israel was shown mercy and delivered in order that they
“might serve [God] without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days” (Luke 1:74-75).
John Newton got to the heart of this biblical paradox:
The Lord bids me “fear not”—and at the same time he says, “Happy is the man who fears always.”
How to fear and not to fear at the same time is, I believe, one branch of that secret of the Lord which none can understand but by the teaching of his Spirit.
When I think of my heart, of the world of the power of darkness—what cause of continual fear! I am on an enemy’s ground, and cannot move a step but some snare is spread for my feet.
But when I think of the person, grace, power, care, and faithfulness of my Savior, why may I not say — I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.
I wish to be delivered from anxious and unbelieving fear, which weakens the hands and disquiets the heart.
I wish to increase in a humble jealousy and distrust of myself and of everything about me.
