Fifty Reasons Christ Came To Die: Recap

I hope you enjoyed the countdown to Easter Sunday. I thought it would be profitable to relist the fifty reasons one more time for further reflection. I hope that we can make the death and resurrection of Christ a daily celebration.

Fifty Reasons Why Christ Suffered and Died:

• To Absorb the Wrath of God
• To Please His Heavenly Father
• To Learn Obedience and Be Perfected
• To Achieve His Own Resurrection from the Dead
• To Show the Wealth of God’s Love and Grace for Sinners
• To Show His Own Love for Us
• To Cancel the Legal Demands of the Law Against Us
• To Become a Ransom for Many
• For the Forgiveness of Our Sins
• To Provide the Basis for Our Justification
• To Complete the Obedience That Becomes Our Righteousness
• To Take Away Our Condemnation
• To Abolish Circumcision and All Rituals as the Basis of Salvation
• To Bring Us to Faith and Keep Us Faithful
• To Make Us Holy, Blameless, and Perfect
• To Give Us a Clear Conscience
• To Obtain for Us All Things That Are Good for Us
• To Heal Us from Moral and Physical Sickness
• To Give Eternal Life to All Who Believe on Him
• To Deliver Us from the Present Evil Age
• To Reconcile Us to God
• To Bring Us to God
• So That We Might Belong to Him
• To Give Us Confident Access to the Holiest Place
• To Become for Us the Place Where We Meet God
• To Bring the Old Testament Priesthood to an End and Become the Eternal High Priest
• To Become a Sympathetic and Helpful Priest
• To Free Us from the Futility of Our Ancestry
• To Free Us from the Slavery of Sin
• That We Might Die to Sin and Live to Righteousness
• So That We Would Die to the Law and Bear Fruit for God
• To Enable Us to Live for Christ and Not Ourselves
• To Make His Cross the Ground of All Our Boasting
• To Enable Us to Live by Faith in Him
• To Give Marriage Its Deepest Meaning
• To Create a People Passionate for Good Works
• To Call Us to Follow His Example of Lowliness and Costly Love
• To Create a Band of Crucified Followers
• To Free Us from Bondage to the Fear of Death
• So That We Would Be with Him Immediately After Death
• To Secure Our Resurrection from the Dead
• To Disarm the Rulers and Authorities
• To Unleash the Power of God in the Gospel
• To Destroy the Hostility Between Races
• To Ransom People from Every Tribe and Language and People and Nation
• To Gather All His Sheep from Around the World
• To Rescue Us from Final Judgment
• To Gain His Joy and Ours
• So That He Would Be Crowned with Glory and Honor
• To Show That the Worst Evil Is Meant by God for Good

Be Blessed!

He Is Risen!

“The resurrection was the Father’s ‘Amen’ to the finished work of Christ. The bodily resurrection is a necessity if our complete umanity, including our bodies, is to be included in the saving work of Christ. We are justified by the resurrection because Jesus, our representative before the Father, is thereby justified in the demonstration of his acceptance with the Father.”

Goldsworthy, Graeme. Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture. Grand Rapids: Eerdman’s, 2000. 59.

Fifty Reasons Christ Came To Die #50

1 Days Until Easter

#50: To Show That The Worst Evil Is Meant By God For Good

• In This city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus…both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand had predestined to take place. |Acts 4:27-28|

Buy or Read John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came To Die

Fifty Reasons Christ Came To Die #49

2 Days Until Easter

#49: So That He Would Be Crowned With Glory And Honor

• But we see…Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death. |Hebrews 2:9|
• And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. |Philippians 2:7-9|
• Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! |Revelation 5:12|

Buy or Read John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came To Die

Fifty Reasons Christ Came To Die #48

3 Days Until Easter

#48: To Gain His Joy And Ours

• For the joy that was set before him, [he] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. |Hebrews 12:2|

Buy or Read John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came To Die

Fifty Reasons Christ Came To Die #47

4 Days Until Easter

#47: To Rescue Us From Final Judgment

• Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly awaiting for him. |Hebrews 9:28|

Buy or Read John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came To Die

Interact, Engage, Love

Three articles that I have recently read/listened to have confirmed some thinking in my mind about how non-emerging Christians (at least those who don’t know they are or should be yet) should relate and interact with those who desire to live missionally in an emerging church while interacting with postmodern thought and culture. First, let me direct you to the articles.

• Tim Keller on “The Supremacy of Christ and the Gospel in a Postmodern World”
• Steve McCoy on Reading
• Scot McKnight in A Letter to an Emerging Christian

So, if you took the time to read and listen to these articles, you may understand where I am going with these. For those of you who do not have the time (or desire) to engage these articles, let me provide with you with some quotes that will lend to my point.

First, Steve McCoy says, “If you have a good biblical/theological foundation, read books that stretch you. Read to learn, not merely to critique. If you are reading for ammo to shoot down an author or idea alone, you will just become a jerk. We have enough of those. I read Brian McLaren, Jonathan Edwards, Martin Luther, and Rob Bell. I read books with cuss words and those who think reading books with cuss words are sinful. Some of the books that have helped me the most are the ones that make me want to throw it across the room.”

Next, Scot McKnight writes, “Before I say much I have to begin with this: in spite of good intentions by some fierce critics — protect God’s people, defend a system of theology, prevent the slippery slope into relativism, hold the banner high for truth, etc — I must admit to being deeply saddened by the way some have responded to the emerging movement. I know that many rely on one or two “official critiques” and have done no serious thinking themselves about the issues. They have not met with folks; they have not bothered to read the materials; they avoid all blogs; they have not really thought about the issues that stimulate the emerging movement; they draw large and far-reaching conclusions that many in the emerging movement do not draw. They alienate by not listening carefully. Others, sadly I think, are simply weighing in from their positions of power before they have spent the time to think their way into what is being said. Those who judge from positions of power before they have thought through the issues carefully are responsible to God for their judgmentalism.”

Are you seeing my point? If not, let me explain. Too often I come in contact with people who desire to put themselves into certain camps without doing proper investigation and research. I am certainly not against putting oneself into camps, but I have a huge problem with people who do so without listening to the other side. The place that I am most concerned about this has to deal with the emerging church. Many who don’t do the hard work of understanding the transfer from modernism to postmodernism read a one-sided critique of emerging characteristics or listen to someone who has read a one-sided critique of the characteristics and feel as is they know all things postmodern. One should certainly read the critiques, but one must also read the person being critiqued! It is like reading a child’s take on a love letter from his dad and mom’s dating relationship. The child may not convey accurately what deep feelings the dad was trying to communicate with the mom. Instead, he may feel the “mushy” letter is crazy.

Let me encourage all of you to read broad varieties of books (this is assuming you have a good devotional life). Furthermore, don’t simply read to find out what crap a certain author said. Instead, read to learn. Sure, when I read Peter Rollins’ How (Not) To Speak Of God a few months ago, I certainly did not agree with much that he had to say, but that is okay. I learned so much about what those in the emergent conversation are thinking, and I can more effectively engage those who have emergent sympathies. So please, do not be one of “those” people who reads, talks, and interacts with others like a jerk. This applies to our interaction with non-Christians as well. Do not only be the guy who doesn’t go to bars. Be the guy who loves Jesus. Not going to bars will save no one from hell, Jesus will. Don’t be the guy who votes republican. Be the guy who loves Jesus. Don’t be the girl who does not gossip, be the girl who loves Jesus (Josh Harris talks about this here). So, let me encourage you to be gracious in interaction with the thoughts, ideas, and actions of those who may disagree with you. Disagreement is not inherently wrong, but not being willing to work through differences is.

Got New Attitude?

Well, I am officially attending the 2007 New Attitude Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. The theme for the conference is “Humble Orthodoxy Takes Discernment, and the speakers include Josh Harris, Eric Simmons, C. J. Mahaney, Mark Dever, Al Mohler, and John Piper. I am incredibly excited to start my summer off with a bang. I am also planning on ending it with a bang by attending the DG 2008 National Conference, but we will see how that goes. If anyone is interested in attending either, let me know, and we can meet up, ride together, or share a hotel. I will be providing photos and information about the conference when the time comes.

As a side note, this conference is marketed towards young singles, a category into which I fit. So, if you would please be praying that I will find my future wife at the conference I would really appreciate it as that would save me much time and hassle. Seriously .

Appendix To Reason #46

As a side note on the particular redemption argument, notice how similiar the construction of John 11:51-52 (see reason #46 below) is to that of 1 John 2:2 (“He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world”). Keep in mind the same author wrote both of these verses. So, do you think the sins of the whole world in John 11:51-52 means every person as is commonly put forth by the supporters of unlimited atonement? Or, do you hold to the more consistent view that Christ died for the one people of God who are scattered abroad? Give it a thought.

Fifty Reasons Christ Came To Die #46

5 Days Until Easter

#46: To Gather All His Sheep From Around The World

• [Caiaphas] did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. |John 11:51-52|
• And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. |John 10:16|

Buy or Read John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came To Die