The gospel through Narnian eyes
As Eustace contemplated life as a dragon, the Lion of Narnia – Aslan – came to him and led him to a well. Eustace was told to get into the water and bathe. Later, Eustace recounted the event to Edmond:
“The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe it would ease the pain in my leg. But the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I don’t know if he said any words out loud or not.
“I was just going to say that I couldn’t undress because I hadn’t any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that’s what the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming of here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe.
“But just as I was going to put my foot into the water I looked down and saw that it was all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as it had been before. Oh, that’s all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I’ll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this under skin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe.
“Well, exactly the same things happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.
“Then the lion said – but I don’t know if it spoke – You will have to let me undress you. I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.
“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt…”
“Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off – just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt – and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me…”
- The testimony of Eustace, from The Dawn Treader
The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis (Macmillan, 1952), 89-90
The truth and TBN
I’m not convinced that the words “truth” and “TBN” go together very well, so I was surprised to see John MacArthur appear on Kirk Cameron’s show. However, I was not surprised to hear MacArthur’s straightforward, compassionate and biblical articulation of the gospel. Take the time to listen.
Seeing the hand of God
This is a great quote on God’s sovereign work…
“We may not know what God will do with the troubling and the trivial things that come our way. But those who owe their existence to sovereign creation and divine election must be able to acknowledge the hand of God in the circumstances of life. If we know his will, we will look at circumstances differently, for everything has significance that must be retained in the memory of the people of God.”
- Allen P. Ross, Creation and Blessing, 442 (see Genesis 25:19-26)
The Love of God Displayed in Adoption
I often wonder why some professing Christians associated with adoption refuse to see the eternal and gracious love of God through His adopting of men, women, boys and girls. On several occasions I have read heartfelt statements denying that the work of God in adopting His children relates in any way to what is often called “horizontal” adoption – the adoption of orphans by individuals. Contrary to this belief, the adoptive work of God directly impacts and instructs how we as Christians carry out our ministry to the multitude of orphans around the world.
When my wife and I adopted our children, Cana and Jostin, they became our daughter and son, not our “adoptive” daughter and son. Okay, legally speaking two governments allowed us to work through mountains of paperwork and jump through dozens of hoops so that we could legally take them from their foster homes and their birth country and bring them to our home. However, when I refer to them I never label them my “adoptive daughter” or “adoptive son”. Cana is my daughter and Jostin is my son just as if my wife had physically birthed them. Blood is not the issue. Legality is not my concern (please do not interpret this remark as a lack of concern for unethical or illegal adoptions!). Love, however, is my concern.
I love them both because they are my children. My love for them is not based on who they are or what they do – such topical love is not becoming of a father. My love for them is much deeper. It is a well without a bottom. And I pray that it somehow resembles the sweet love God has for me.
That is the great thing about becoming a child of God through His adoptive grace. He justified me through the sacrificial death of his son and then showed the depth of this great love by choosing to adopt me as His own son. Moreover, he made me a co-heir with Christ! I’m not the unwanted child who is tolerated more than loved; I’m an heir alongside my Lord and brother, Jesus Christ the righteous. Yes, Jesus is still the “first-born” and the pinnacle of God’s revealed glory, but God makes a powerful point in Romans 8 – His love for me is not topical – or typical for that matter – His love for me is like a canyon filled with compassion, mercy, grace, forgiveness, love, and patience.
This “vertical” dimension of adoption is beautifully illustrated in the adopting of orphans into loving homes. Gone is the issue of blood or legality. All that is left is the love of a father and a mother for their children. And truly there is no greater love. To the glory of God and the eternal good of man, his divine love has moved Him to give us, his children, the greatest of privileges, for we can kneel before God and humbly cry, “Abba Father!” Yes, God loved us by sending His Son to take the penalty of our many sins, but His loved extended beyond that great sacrifice as He lovingly made us His sons and daughters.
Thank you God for loving me as a compassionate Father and making me your son.
Reformed theology and reformed character
Ray Ortlund recently posted a great article on being truly reformed, not just in our theology but in our practice as well. I would encourage anyone reformed in their theology to take five minutes and read this article.
Proclaiming the Light
For more years than I care to remember I have enjoyed the stillness of the hours leading up to dawn. I have some great memories of being on a lake of clear and motionless water with a touch of fog rising into the air. All is still. All is quiet. And then the dawn.
Ever so slowly a faint beam of light begins to peak over the horizon and the world around me begins to wake up. The chirping of birds can be heard. Squirrels become active. And if it is truly a good morning, one can smell bacon frying. Oh the good life of being outdoors as another day begins! And before you know it, the heat of the sun bears down, giving life to the world it touches.
I thought about these images yesterday as I read Matthew’s account of the early days of Jesus’ ministry (Matthew 4:12-17). I was particularly struck by Matthew’s use of Isaiah 9 – “the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light”. As Jesus embarked on a world-changing ministry, those who encountered him were in the presence of a great light. Although the shadow of death surrounded them, there was a beacon of hope sent by God to dispel the darkness. Upon these men and women living in and around Galilee the great light promised by God had finally dawned. They didn’t understand it at the time, but what they were seeing was that faint beam of light peaking over the horizon. The Christ had arrived and his message was clear.
It is sad to realize how many people are still living in the shadow of death. They may be able to enjoy the rising of the sun each and every day, but the light on the outside cannot overshadow the darkness within. As one who has received “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6), it becomes evident that I am responsible to proclaim the message Christ initiated some 2000 years ago: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The world desperately needs to see the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Let’s join together and take up the charge to go and tell.
This clay pot is thankful that God saw fit to shine the light of his glory in the darkness of my soul. And I must say that the dawning of Christ in my soul far outweighs the rising of the sun.
The stone could not hold Him
Mark 16:4
“And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back – it was very large.”
“Neither the stone nor the bolts of the tomb could hold Christ a captive; death lies conquered by him, he has trampled on hell’s fiery chasm. With him a throng of saints ascended to heavenly regions, and to many he showed himself, letting them see and touch him.”
Prudentius, Scenes from SACRED HISTORY 43, THE SEPULCHER OF CHRIST
He died voluntarily
Mark 15:25
“Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him.”
“He who was able not to die unless he willed it, did die because he willed it. So he made a show of principalities and powers, openly triumphing over them in himself. By his death the one and most real sacrifice was offered up for us. Whatever were the charges by which the principalities and powers held us under bondage, he cleansed, abolished, extinguished.”
Augustine, ON THE TRINITY 4.13.17
What happened on the Cross?
“By nothing else except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ has death been brought low:
The sin of our first parent destroyed,
hell plundered,
resurrection bestowed,
the power given us to despise the things of this world,
even death itself,
the road back to the former blessedness made smooth,
the gates of paradise opened,
our nature seated at the right hand of God,
and we made children and heirs of God.
By the cross all these things have been set aright…
It is a seal that the destroyer may not strike us,
a raising up of those who lie fallen,
a support for those who stand,
a staff for the infirm,
a crook for the shepherded,
a guide for the wandering,
a perfecting of the advanced,
salvation for soul and body,
a deflector of all evils,
a cause of all goods,
a destruction of sin,
a plant of resurrection,
and a tree of eternal life.”
John of Damascus, ORTHODOX FAITH 4
Jesus’ Sacrificial Death
Isaiah 53:10-11, ESV
“Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”
As we approach Easter I can’t help but think about the life and death of Christ. It is certainly joyous to celebrate the life of Christ, for in Him we have the amazing reality of God in the flesh. The importance of Christ’s physical life cannot be overstated. One reason Jesus’ life is so important is because if He had never lived He could have never died. I realize that sounds somewhat insensitive or perhaps morbid, but the truth is that all Christians should rejoice in the death of Christ, for, as the great Puritan Pastor John Owens declared, in Christ we have the death of death. Through the death of Christ we have been brought near to God.
Rather than facing the wrath of God at judgment, the Christian will experience the endless grace of our Creator for no other reason than because of our faith in Christ. And there would be no gift of faith from the Creator to the creature if there was no atoning death.
Isaiah 53 provides one of the most heart wrenching chapters of Scripture, for in it we read of a Servant, a suffering servant who was beloved of God but despised by man. This servant was oppressed, afflicted, bruised, and rejected. He experienced the force of human brutality without offering any hesitation. He simply obeyed the will of God. What makes this account so difficult is to realize that Isaiah was speaking of the Messiah, which is Christ the Lord. The above passage defines quite clearly why Christ’s death is so important to the Christian.
Simply stated, God willed for Jesus to die because through His death He could be made an offering for sin. God will not overlook or bypass any sin. To our good and His glory each and every sin we have ever or will ever commit was paid for in full by Jesus Christ. Through His death we are “accounted righteous”.
Consider how this affects our ministries. When we share the gospel, we must emphasize that through faith in Christ we do not become perfect, we are simply treated as though we are. Jesus, the Suffering Servant of God, bore the punishment of our sins. He paid the price we could never pay so that we could live for ever in a place we will never deserve.
Let us thank Jesus for dying in our stead.
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