Why did Jesus suffer?

[Note: This was originally posted on my blog on my home church's web site. I thought I would also post it here, even though Good Friday is past.]

Why do we observe Good Friday? When we think about the audacity of human beings to torture and kill God incarnate, our minds are unable to fathom a reason why this could happen. The suffering and death of Jesus Christ is the darkest moment in human history, yet we call this day "good."

In 1 Peter 3:14-18, we find Peter making a connection between the suffering we experience as Christians and the suffering of Jesus. We read: "But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit."

Peter tells us that Jesus suffered for our sins. He, who was perfectly righteous, took on the sins of us, who are unrighteous, so He could bring us to God. Think about that. The way to God is a way of suffering. In order for us to be restored to God, our sins required judgment, and that judgment cam through suffering. Yet we do not have to face the judgment for our sins ourselves, because Jesus did the suffering for us.

This passage also points out the way we should react to suffering in our lives. If we are suffering because we have done wrong, we have no complaint; we get what we deserve. But if we suffer for doing what is right, we suffer in a very faint imitation of our Lord. He took on suffering that He did not deserve so we could be made right with God. We can take our suffering in stride because we know that Jesus has experienced suffering and understands what we are going through, even as He goes through it with us.

For me, the most moving service of our church year at CNCC is our Good Friday service. As we sit and listen to prophetic Scriptures and an account of the death of Christ, and as the darkness slowly envelopes the sanctuary, we are brought in a symbolic way into reflection on the terrible cost of our salvation. We are brought face to face with the agony of our Lord, even if it is only in a small measure, and reminded that the grace which gives us a salvation we did not deserve through faith in Jesus comes because He took a judgment He did not deserve on Himself.

Easter is coming shortly. We rejoice at the resurrection triumph of Christ, and often can't wait to get to the celebration of life over death and grace over sin. In our desire to celebrate, however, let's not rush past the cross and the tomb. The joy of Easter only comes because of the sorrow of Good Friday. We experience the "good" of salvation because of the "bad" of the killing of the Savior. Enter into the darkness for a while, and remind yourself of the price paid for you to be made right with your God.

Explore the Bible: Luke 24:5-8

The gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection focus on different details. Some look at this and see contradictions, but the four descriptions of the resurrection can be woven together into a single account. The process isn’t as easy as doing a cut-and-paste document throwing all the phraseology of each author together, but many scholars and teachers have made satisfactory renderings of the resurrection story. (I’ve dealt with some of the issues surrounding harmonizing the resurrection accounts in a paper I posted on my “Pastor Steve’s Study” web site.) Each gospel writer has specific emphases that they wish to make, so they focus on those details that fit what they want to say, without contradicting what the other gospel writers have written.

Luke in particular would likely have been aware of other accounts of the resurrection, given his interest in researching the subject of Jesus’ life and teaching. Matthew and Mark had likely already written their gospels (in fact, many scholars think Luke was dependent on Mark and at least a common source with Matthew), and while John would not write his gospel for a number of years the material of his account may have been in circulation. It is hard to imagine Luke deliberately allowing his account to contradict what he knew others had written and taught.

There is an interesting detail in Luke’s account that is not included in the others. When the women come to the tomb, they encounter two angels. One of them speaks to the women, beginning by announcing that Jesus was alive. Luke goes on to record more that the angel said: “Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and rise on the third day’?” And they remembered His words.” (Luke 24:6-8, HCSB) Luke tells us that the first reminder of Jesus’ words about Himself to His followers was given by the angel to the women at the tomb.

Why would Luke alone record this detail? We certainly see Jesus saying similar things to His disciples when He appears to them in the other gospel accounts. If we look at Luke 24, though, we see that he moves from the angels’ appearance at the empty tomb and Peter’s confirmation to the account of Jesus’ appearance to two of His followers on the road to Emmaus. As they conversed, Jesus rebuked them in these words: “How unwise and slow you are to believe in your hearts all that the prophets have spoken! Didn’t the Messiah have to suffer these things and enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:25-26, HCSB) Jesus goes on to teach them from the Scriptures (our Old Testament) about Himself.

Luke’s resurrection account sets up his extended account of the Emmaus road encounter (which is briefly mentioned by Mark, and not recorded in the other gospels). It is interesting that the gospel writer who was probably a Gentile writing to someone who also was likely Greek or Roman points to the prophetic words of Jesus and of the prophets to make the case for Jesus as the Messiah. Luke clearly wants to establish the fact that in His suffering, death, and resurrection Jesus was the fulfillment of the expectations of the Jews. Yet in both his gospel and in Acts, Luke goes on to Jesus’ words of commission to take the gospel to all nations.

The resurrection of Jesus was a confirmation of His role as the Messiah of the Jews, but it also was a sign to everyone in the world that this Messiah was not only for the Jews, but for all people. The death of Jesus was no accident, but God’s plan to provide for our salvation. The resurrection and Jesus’ appearances after it were verification that His sacrifice for us was approved by His Father, and that now through faith in Him we can be made right with God. As we read about the Passion of Christ, and about His glorious Resurrection, let’s remember what that means for us as His followers today.

Explore the Bible: Acts 2:41-42

There are many functions that are carried out by a church that is following Jesus Christ. You can find many lists of what these functions are, as classified by whomever is making the list. If you read enough church studies literature, you see that these lists tend to emphasize the same few functions, although they may use different terminology for them.

When we look at Acts 2:41-47, we see a number of these functions practiced by the very first “church” (even before they called themselves a church). Fellowship, worship (including Communion), prayer, ministry, and evangelism were all practiced by the first believers. Some of these practices continued in their Jewish tradition, since the followers of Jesus would have still considered themselves Jews at this point. Others were new practices instituted by the Lord Himself, or encouraged by the situation of these new believers.

I find it interesting that the first function, however, is devotion to the apostles’ teaching. In the first days of the church, there would be little understanding of just what had happened to convince the disciples that Jesus was the promised Messiah. The early followers of Jesus were Jews, and knew to at least some degree what the Scriptures taught. Their Bible was what we call the Old Testament, for the New Testament was years away from being written. I believe that the apostles did with the Jewish Scriptures just what Jesus had done on the road to Emmaus, opening the Scriptures and showing how they spoke of Him.

The apostles could add another element to their teaching. They had travelled with Jesus, sat at His feet, seen His great miracles, and ultimately witnessed His death, resurrection, and ascension. They could give eyewitness testimony to the life, ministry, and Passion of Jesus. Even at this early date, their stories and teaching probably started to take on the form that would later be written in the Gospels as they taught the life of Christ over and over as new converts joined the church.

We do not have the apostles around to teach us about Jesus in person anymore. Yet we still have their teaching available through the inspired writings they gave us through the Holy Spirit. This is vitally important, because without this teaching we would know little to nothing about Jesus. One hymn tells us that “the Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord,” but without the Gospel accounts left by the apostles and their associates we would not know the truth about Him, nor would we know what He had done to save us.

A healthy church will balance all of the functions laid out for us in Scripture, but without a devotion to the truth taught in God’s Word we will simply be a group that is busy doing things without understanding why we do them. All that we do must be founded on truth-ultimately the essential truth of the Triune Godhead, but a truth that is mediated to us through the inspired Word given to us by God. May everything we do as Christians and as churches be built on this God-given foundation so we may honor our Lord and see His truth in action through us.

The Baptist Faith and Message: II. God (Part 2)

IIb. “God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience.”

In revealing His name to Moses, God chose to use “I AM.” That name expresses the infinity of His existence, for God always was, is, and always will be. Because God “is,” everything that He is also is infinite. This statement singles out His holiness, an attribute that tells us why sin cannot endure in His presence. Since God is infinitely holy, all sin is an infinite offense against His very person. This has implications for some of the doctrines we will see later in this statement of faith.

Although this article doesn’t spell out all of God’s attributes, it does state that all of them are infinite perfections. We see here a statement about God’s power and knowledge. The theological terms we use for these are “omnipotence” (all-powerful) and “omniscience” (all-knowing).  Since He possesses these infinite attributes, God knows all things in all times. We don’t know exactly how God interacts with time; He created it, and stands outside of what we call “history,” yet He also chooses to act in that history. I like the way this article presents both sides of the ongoing debate over God’s sovereignty and human will, by stating what I believe is the Biblical teaching that our decisions are free, yet God knows from all eternity exactly what those decisions are.

There are many others attributes of God that are not listed in this article. In my next post, I will list and define some of these attributes. What is said here is that whatever God is and whatever He is like, He is the perfect expression of that attribute. He has always been and always will be who and what He is. Some contemporary theologians suggest that God changes along with His creation, and that He interacts with humanity so that we progress together to the ultimate goal of the universe. The Bible, however, presents us with an eternal, unchanging God, giving us grounds to trust that He will always be who He is when we come to Him, and that He will be faithful to His word.

Because God is infinite in holiness, power, and knowledge (not to mention everything we’ll look at later), He is not only worthy of our praise, but is owed our praise. One day every creature will indeed bow their knee to Him (Philippians 2:10-11), but it is the duty of every one to honor and glorify their Creator. It is also our duty to obey God. I am teaching on Psalm 119 at my church right now, and throughout that psalm we see the benefits of reading, knowing, studying, and obeying the Word of God. We are free to choose to disobey, however, but all disobedience is not only breaking God’s law, but rejecting our relationship to our Creator.

Certainly we understand that we don’t always obey God perfectly, and that growing to be like Christ is a lifelong process. As we get to know God better, and more fully understand who He is and what He is like, we should find it easier to give Him the honor and obedience He is due. Looking at our lives, we need to evaluate if we are learning to know God better, loving Him more, and honoring and obeying Him more consistently. Our knee should bow willingly, not under compulsion, as we see the infinite perfection of our God.

Explore the Bible: Acts 2:1-12

One of the questions raised as you read Acts 2 is just where the followers of Jesus were when the Holy Spirit descended. Traditionally, most scholars have held that they were in a room together, most likely the same room mentioned in Acts 1:13. Such a room must have been large (it held 120 people) and located in Jerusalem somewhere not far from the Temple area. It has been speculated that it would have been in the poorer part of town, since most of the followers of Jesus were from the working class and were visitors who had been in the city for almost two months.

A few scholars, however, argue that the coming of the Holy Spirit happened in the Temple itself. They point out that the word “house” is sometimes applied to the Temple, and that there was certainly room in the Temple courts for 120 people to gather. The time given in verse 15, 9:00 AM, suggests that the disciples would have already have gone to the Temple to observe the festival. If this is the case, then the coming of the Spirit would have been heard and seen by a huge throng at the Temple and in its vicinity, which could explain the amazement of the crowd and the powerful response to Peter’s preaching.

As attractive as this idea is, I think there are two facts in the text that make it unlikely. The first is that the group is described as “sitting” in the house where they were. Worshippers would not have been sitting in the Temple on a feast day; they would have been standing amidst a mass of people gathered for the feast. The Greek word translated “sitting” does have a secondary meaning of “staying” or “dwelling,” but the more common translation seems to be appropriate here.

The second factor that tells against the Temple theory is that we do not read that the crowd was amazed by the visible and audible phenomena that surrounded the descent of the Holy Spirit. Rather, they were amazed by the fact that the followers of Jesus, although distinctly Galilean, were speaking in their own native languages, and this all at the same time. Those who derided them as drunk may have been natives who, of course, only heard them speaking Aramaic or Hebrew, the common languages of Israel. It was this phenomenon that drew the crowd and attracted their attention.

I think the most likely scenario goes like this: The followers of Jesus were gathered in an upper room not far from the Temple. Sometime before 9:00 AM, perhaps as they were preparing to leave to go to the Temple, the Holy Spirit came with audible and visible signs, and as they began to talk about what was happening they were intelligible to all people in their native languages. (This is often seen as a reversal of Babel.) As they went out in the street and moved toward the Temple, they began to attract a crowd of amazed onlookers, Jews from all over the Roman and Parthian empires. Peter rose to the occasion, and the Spirit moved the crowd through Peter’s preaching so that 3000 people responded and were saved.

Whatever the facts are, we can see that the power of the Holy Spirit, coming at Pentecost, brought about conviction of sin and conversion of hearts. The same Spirit is still at work today, and we should not be surprised when, in any place and at any time, we see Him working in power today to draw people to Jesus and to bring salvation to any who yield to Him.

The Baptist Faith and Message: II. God (Part 1)

IIa. “There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe.”

"Who (or what) is God?" Almost everyone asks themselves this question, even if it's just to answer with skepticism that there even is a God. There are many different conceptions of God in the world today. Despite common sayings, these ideas about God cannot all be correct, since they differ widely in what they say God, the gods, or the Ultimate is. Their beliefs about God are so different that they are incompatible, no matter what cute bumper stickers about "Coexisting" may imply.

The religions of the world are often broken down into categories by the number and nature of the gods they worship. Christianity worships one God, so it is called a “monotheistic” religion. This follows from the Jewish belief about God expressed in the Sh’ma: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4) Nothing else is god, neither the idols worshipped by the nations around Israel in the past nor the spiritual and material interests that drive humanity today. God is the one true and existing God, as expressed in the name He revealed to Moses, I AM (Exodus 3:14).

Our God is a living and personal God. He is not an impersonal force, nor is He some kind of indefinable “oneness” which is part of everything. He exists with His own thoughts, personality, and attributes (which we will cover in a future post). God is intelligent, which means He is able to think, to plan, and to communicate with Himself and with His creatures. He is the Designer and Creator of the universe, which can be observed to reflect His design and purpose (Psalm 19:1-3). He is spiritual, living not in a body but as a spirit (John 4:24). When Biblical authors use anthropomorphic language, which describes God in human terms, such language is an analogy, not a description of the reality of God. God is also personal, having the ability to relate to Himself and to His creation through His personality rather than as a mere directive force.

While God is the Creator, He did not stop with making the universe and His ultimate creation, humanity. God is also the preserver of His creation, enabling it to continue in its existence and order (Acts 17:27-28). He is the absolute Ruler over His universe, a fact reflected in the traditional beginning a many Jewish prayers: “Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the Universe.” This understanding of God as King carries over in the New Testament with the ascription to Jesus as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (Revelation 19:16).

Perhaps most significantly to us, God is also our Redeemer. This redemption began with the announcement at the Fall of a “seed of the woman” who would conquer Satan, and was continually demonstrated in God’s mighty acts on behalf of His people, Israel. The great act of redemption in the OT, the Exodus, demonstrated God’s power and care for His people. The ultimate act of redemption came in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Later articles of our statement of faith will explore redemption further, but here we simply say that the redemption of humanity is all due to the power and grace of the one true and living God.

Explore the Bible: Acts 1:15-25

In the period between the Ascension of Jesus and Pentecost, we have one action taken by the early church recorded in Acts. Peter called the gathered followers of Jesus to select an apostolic replacement for Judas. This little incident has caused quite a bit of controversy, and there are a number of opinions about just what this episode means.

There are some who think the early church jumped the gun. They point to Paul’s call as an apostle, and claim that he was meant to be Judas’ replacement. However, this argument rests on the faulty assumption that Paul’s apostleship was the same thing as that of the disciples. When we look at the qualifications Peter laid out for Judas’ successor, we see that Paul met neither of them. Paul’s encounter with the risen Christ came well after He had ascended into heaven. Therefore Paul, while legitimately an apostle, was an apostle in a different sense than the Twelve.

Some questions are raised about the way the church chose the new apostle. Given the qualifications stated by Peter, there would have been a number of men qualified to take Judas’ place. It is likely (though not explicitly stated in Scripture) that Joseph and Matthias were both  part of the larger group of disciples (70 or 72) sent out by Jesus, as recorded by Luke in Luke 10. That means there were probably several dozen others who met the minimum criteria! Something about these two stood out, however, as the group gathered together examined all of the men. If the “they” of verse 23 is the entire group, which I think is likely, the decision probably came down to these final two men.

Once the final candidates were chosen, the church decided to make the selection not by a vote or a decree of the apostles, but by lot. This seems odd to us today; would you call a pastor based on the flip of a coin? But the church wanted this decision, which had tremendous consequences for these men and for the new congregation forming, to be the Lord’s choice. The use of lots may reflect the way the high priest would seek the Lord’s counsel through the use of the Urim and Thummim (whose precise function we don’t know). It also reflected their belief that even what seems to be chance to us is in fact controlled by God. They cast the lot, and Matthias was chosen.

While Judas was replaced among the Twelve, this is the last time that this happens. When James is executed by Herod, there is no replacement sought for him. Nor do we see any of the other apostles replaced after their deaths. Why, then, did Peter call for a successor to Judas? First, he cites prophecy, but I think more significant is the statement in verse 25: “to take the place in this apostolic service that Judas left to go to his own place.” Taken together, there was a sense that Judas had abandoned his place among the apostles, and that there was a need to complete the number Jesus had chosen. When the apostles later died, they died still in their place, having remained faithful until the end.

This leaves us with the question of what this scenario means to us today. Certainly decision making in the church has changed since the coming of the Holy Spirit, something they did not yet have. I think that the choices made, and even the procedure used, show us that the earliest followers of Jesus did not want to put their own thinking and wisdom ahead of God’s will when making choices. There was a dependence on the Lord and His wisdom that we in the church can sometimes neglect in favor of our own ideas. While I certainly don’t advocate tossing dice to solve church problems, I do think we need to keep a constant awareness of God’s will and wisdom, and rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us into His truth, not ours.

The Baptist Faith and Message- I. The Scriptures (Part 2)

Ib.“It [the Bible] reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.”

Having a Bible that is without error and authoritative is good, but simply having such a book in existence isn’t enough. We need to know the purpose for which God gave us His inspired Word. The Bible doesn’t just give us spiritual information; it unveils a story from eternity past to eternity future, with Jesus Christ at the center. All of Scripture points to Jesus, whether in anticipation in the Old Testament, in fulfillment at His coming for our salvation, or in further anticipation of His return. He makes that point on the road to Emmaus when He teaches His two followers about Himself from the Jewish Scriptures (Luke 24:44-46). God gave us an inerrant an authoritative word so we could know the truth about Christ.

The Bible also reveals God’s standards to us. There are many today, even in the church, who want to minimize or even ignore what the Bible teaches us about God, about salvation, about humanity, and about the way we should live before our Creator. They would prefer to find standards that are acceptable to themselves and to the world around them. There is a desire to make some sort of Christianity acceptable to the masses, even if it isn’t exactly what the Bible teaches.

Yet if the Bible is only relevant and applicable where it agrees with what humanity consents to, it instead becomes irrelevant, since it only tells us what we already think or know. To truly understand an infinite God, we need a Word that comes from Him and that tells us the truth, whether it is what we want to hear or not. Thus the Bible is the standard by which each of our lives is judged, and is the standard by which even the creeds and statements of churches are judged.

We are examining the statement of faith of the Southern Baptist Convention, yet this statement is only valid insofar as it reflects the teaching of Scripture. Creeds and statements of faith are helpful to enable us to organize and recall the basic doctrines of our faith, and to put together the teaching of the Bible in one place. They cannot, however, take the place of Scripture. When we put more trust in the human construction of a creed than in the Bible that provides the content of that creed, we can effectively make that statement an idol that obscures our view of Christ as it takes our eyes off of His inspired Word.

The Bible also is the center of Christian unity. No one can deny that the church is presently divided, and that some of those divisions are serious (not to mention ancient!). Many seek to bring all of the churches and denominations together, and to do so they want to downplay anything that separates them. While this effort is laudable on the surface, it often is more interested in creating a unity of structure rather than one of faith. We cannot lay aside the truths of God’s Word just to make it appear that we are one with others who call themselves “Christian” but who do not value the truth of Scripture.

We have God’s inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word in the Bible. God did not give it to us so we could have some divine declaration to enshrine on a shelf. The Word of God is given to us to show us God’s standards, to regulate our lives and our churches, and most importantly to show us Jesus and teach us about Him.