Redemption March 25, 2009
Posted by jonesy24 in Christianity, God, Theology.Tags: Jesus Christ, Redemption, the cross
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Redemption is synonymous with being liberated, freed, or rescued from bondage and slavery to a person or thing.
In Exodus, God’s people (the Israelites) were enslaved to Pharaoh (which I’m assuming is a fancy Egyptian word for ‘king’), who rules over the most powerful nation on earth, Egypt. He was worshipped as a god, and he didn’t exactly treat his slaves very well. The slaves cried out to the one true God, and he heard their pleas. God raised up Moses to speak on his behalf to Pharaoh, demanding that the slaves be set free in order to worship the true God. God nicely but authoritatively called Pharaoh to righteousness, but Pharaoh became hard hearted (just as God said he would!), and he refused to let the slaves go free. Big mistake. God sent a bunch of plagues as judgements and warnings upon Pharaoh, giving him more than a few opportunities to repent and do what God demanded.
Pharaoh repeatedly refused to repent, and release the slaves, so God sent a series of pretty awful judgements upon the entire nation of Egypt. The wrath of God was eventually poured out on the firstborn son of every household, who were all killed in one night. The only families that were spared were those who took a lamb without defect, (sorry vegans!) killed it as a substitute, and used it’s blood to cover the door posts of the entry of their homes. Because they done this, the wrath of God skipped them out.
God redeemed his people. He set them free. Whatever you want to call it.
The interesting thing about this is that we see a theme of ‘redemption’ throughout the bible. God ‘redeeming’ his people a bunch of times in the old testament. Then in the new testament Paul talks about Jesus being our redeemer (Rom 3:24, 1 Cor 1:30, Gal 3:13 etc).
Before I was ’saved’, I was a slave to sin.
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. (Romans 6:17)
Jesus Christ is MY redemption. Not only did he take the punishment for our sins, and cleanse us from our sins and the sins done against us like I talked about in my previous blog, but he also set us free from the slavery to sin!Just as he freed the Israelites from their slavery, he freed me from my slavery to sin through death on the cross.
Jesus Christ – My Redemption.
Substitutionary Atonement March 12, 2009
Posted by jonesy24 in Christianity, God, Theology.Tags: Jesus Christ, Substitutionary atonement, the cross
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The most famous symbol in all of history is the cross. The cross represents symbolizes the believer’s connection with the death of Jesus. What’s amazing about this is, back in the days of Jesus, the cross wasn’t a ‘pretty little symbol’, but a shameful, excruciating (which literally means “from the cross”), horiffic mode of death. The ancient Jewish historian Josephus called crucifixion “the most wretched of deaths”. Cicero – an ancient Roman philosopher – asked decent Roman citizens not even to speak of the cross because it was such a disgraceful subject.
Paul talks about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as the most important event in all history, and the verification of the truthfulness of all Scripture. (That’s right… the Old Testament is all about Jesus too!). He then talks about this being the ‘good news’ – that Jesus died because of our sins. It was our sins, but his death.
From pretty much the beginning of Scripture (Genisis 2:17) to the end (Revelations 21:8), the penalty for sin is death. In other words, if we sin – we should die. But it was Jesus, the son of God, sinless, who died in our place for our sins – He took the penalty for our sin.
This means that Jesus’ death was substitutionary.
In good old Leviticus (one of my favourite books), we read about the day of atonement – which was the most important day of the year – the day in which the ’sin problem’ between humanity and God was ‘dealt’ with. On the day of atonement, two goats without defect (perfect little hooves shining) were selected to represent sinless perfection.
The first goat was a sin offering. The first goat got slaughtered (sorry vegans!), which acted as a substitute for the sinners who, according to what we see all throughout scripture, deserved to die. The head priest (who had the joy of slaughtering goat number 1) then sprinkled some of it’s blood on the seat ontop of the Ark of the Covenant inside the most holy place. The goat was no longer innocent when it took the guilt of the people’s sin, and it was a sin offering for the people (Lev 16:15). The goat’s blood represented life given as payment for sin. The dwelling place of God was thus cleansed, and God’s just and holy wrath was satisfied.
The high priest, acting as a mediator between the sinfil people and God would take the second goat (drum role please for goat number 2), lay his hands on it and confess the sins of the people. Goat number 2 (called the scapegoat) would then be sent away to run free in the wild (no doubt to be eaten by a lion or something) away from the sinners, symbolically taking their sin with it.
This is like one giant foreshadowing of the coming of Jesus, our High Priest who mediates between us and God, the sinless substitute who died in our place for our sins, and the scapegoat who cleanses us of our sin to be remembered by God no more.
You have to understand the function of the two goats in order to appreciate the atonement.
“The concept of substitution may be said, then, to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone.” – John Stott
Substitutionary Atonement is Jesus taking our place on the cross, cleansing us from our sin, and restoring the relationship between God and man.
A multi-faceted jewel March 10, 2009
Posted by jonesy24 in Books, Christianity, God.Tags: Christ, Jesus, the cross
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“One theologian has called the cross the great jewel of the Christian faith, and like every great jewel it has many precious facets that are each worthy of examining for their brilliance and beauty. Therefore, you will be well served to see each side of this jewel shining together for the glory of God in complimentary and not contradictory fashion.”
After reading a book called ‘Death by Love’ (Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears) I realized that I had managed to walk into something I’ve been determined to avoid. I ‘forgot’ the cross. To explain, what I mean is as I was reading this book, which focuses on the different aspects of the cross, I was thinking ‘I know this, but I had clearly forgotten this aspect of the cross’.
My point is… we forget that Jesus was our Substitutionary Atonement, our Christus Victor, our redemption, our New Covenant Sacrifice, our gift righteousness, our justification, propiation, expiation, our unlimited limited atonement, our ransom, our Christus Exemplar, our reconciliation, and our revelation.
I’m probably going to do a blog on each of these, part because up until recently I hadn’t fully understood some of these and think it important to explain them if i’m going to throw them in a blog like I’ve just done, and partly because It’ll help me go over and remember the final details of each of these.
What I realized after reading this book, and thinking about it A LOT, is that many of the people I know understand and know most of these to varying degrees. But in certain aspects of their life, you don’t see it. Jesus as our expiation, meaning he cleansed us from the defilement of our sins and the sins done against us, means that we shouldn’t be hiding in shame, or be being shaped by things in the past – why? Because we were made new in Christ, and he dealt with our sin and our shame on the cross.
Following on from that last post – Meet ‘Lou’ the snake. March 4, 2009
Posted by jonesy24 in Glasgow, What's happening with me....Tags: snake
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Meet ‘Lou’ the snake. Named ‘Lou’ because we captured him in the toilet aka. Loo. On Sunday afternoon a couple of the guys that had been playing football inbetween church services came back to use our flat’s shower, etc. We joked about how 3 showers in a row would no doubt bring out the snake.
By the second shower, the snake came out… And I caught it. Basically kept it in a pillow case over night, a shoe box by day… until yesterday afternoon (monday), the owner came to claim him/her. It was sad to say good bye to what we thought might be our new pet – Lou the snake.
The ‘horror’ in/under the bathroom… March 1, 2009
Posted by jonesy24 in Glasgow, What's happening with me....Tags: snake
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I’m assuming from the title you can tell this is another one of my silly blogs… which is more for my entertainment that to blog anything meaningful.
Anyway, It being as Saturday, I was having what was meant to be a long lie… and it was probably about 11am when Stuart (my flat mate) came into my room, telling me I had to come see something. Usually, in my half asleep state, I’d tell him to ‘go away’, but something in his tone of voice suggested urgency.
I clambered, nae… jumped off my bed (which is up ladders on a platform), and followed Stuart out of my room, through the living room, and into the bathroom. I literally could not believe what I then saw. A big spider? No. Something only boys would be proud of in the toilet bowl? NO! A large bright yellow and orange snake, coming out a hole in the floor behind the toilet. AGHHHHHHHHH!
There’s no word to describe the screach of disbelief that came out of my mouth. This thing was huge, and it certainly was no grass snake, adder, or any other boring UK snake… this thing was big, boy band coloured (you know, bright orange, sky blue, sea foam green – those sort of colours), and foreign.
Now what does one do with a large unknown species of snake, from an unknown origin, with no prior experience of handeling snakes? I decided I wanted to pick it up. Thankfully, Stuart spoke sense, and suggested that because we didn’t know what the snake was… whether it was aggresive/dangerous/etc… maybe I should be careful, and not stick my right hand in it’s face as I was about to.
I then proceeded to armour myself with winter gloves (bough for my by my lovely mother for the cold season of winter), a towel wrapped round my arm… and my boots. However, as if the snake knew our plan… it decided to begin to slither back down the whole from whence it came… I arrived back in time to see it disapear back down the hole in the bathroom floor.
Anyway, it was exciting. Until we realized that we had to ‘use’ the toilet…
Who knows… maybe the snake will come back again… and if it does… I’ll hopefully have the sense to take a picture… and then you’ll perhaps understand the horror, the terror… that is the snake in/under the bathroom.
The tin opener January 31, 2009
Posted by jonesy24 in What's happening with me....1 comment so far
My beloved flat tin opener. I’m sure you’re wondering how could such a simple device, a common tin opener… deserve the honour of a blog.
It’s because, for the life of me… I can’t work it. The tin opener completely perplexes me. I have absolutely no idea how to work it. It was actually so bad that until recently, I had been using a kitchen knife to stab open any cans of desired food.
Which brings me to my first tangent. Why on EARTH do they still make tins without the ring pull? To me, and in my current tin opener situation… it would seem that the only reason why all can goods have not converted to the highly superior ‘ring pull’ opening technology… is to ensure that the tin opener factory does not go bust. Imagine the jobs that would be lost?
Anyway…
I myself am now wondering why I didn’t ask one of my fellow flat mates – Stuart or Gordon – how to work the tin opener. But I can quickly conclude that it comes down to pride. ME? Ask for help on how to work a simple tin opener? I THINK NOT!
Now, I’m sure many of you are concerned as to my well being, especially in the area of food, proper eating, and ‘is he starving out there’? Rest assured, all is well. Thankfully, my mother still occasionally sends up food packages, including Marks and Spencers Chicken curry – which comes canned, and has the handy, genious ring pull technology.
The tin opener itself, has finally revealed it’s mystery to me. What I thought was a tin opener with only one handel, in fact has a stealthily hidden second handel!!!!!!!!! Some sneaky designer decided to hide one within the other. I personally think he should be thrown into a jail cell, along with previously mentioned heretics, false teachers, and… Dan ward.
In conclusion, there is absolutely no point to this blog what-so-ever. Other than to save me from bordom, to ’slight’ Dan Ward, and to reassure you all that I, Mark Jones, have mastered and conquered the tin opener. VICTORY!
“God, make me like Peter…” January 19, 2009
Posted by jonesy24 in Christianity, God, What's happening with me....Tags: boldness, initiative, Peter
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I think Peter rocks.
I think I’ve got a bad impression of the guy somewhere along the line (I’m thinking Sunday school). You know… the guy who denied Christ. The guy who sank when he tried to walk on water, etc, etc.
Scripture covers the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to Peter.
I guess there’s a few things in Peter’s life I’d probably like to avoid, but at the same time there’s a lot I admire.
Just as I aspire to be like David with his faith-based optimism, I love the idea of Peter’s willingness to step out and take action.
Even though Peter gets a bit of heat for sinking when he tried to walk on water, shouldn’t he get some credit for being the only disciple who actually got out of the boat? That took initiative.
And Peter made some commitments he couldn’t keep. But I respect the fact that he was the only disciple out of the twelve to man up and speak up. He was the first to publicly identify Jesus as the Messiah.
And THEN… we see Peter chop some guy’s ear off, when they came to arrest Jesus. He couldn’t sit there and let them drag Jesus off. He felt he had to do something!
I can be pretty bold some of the times (which can get me into trouble occasionally too!), but there’s a bunch of times I’ve chickened out of decisions, etc… because I’ve lacked the ‘initiative-taking boldness’ of Peter. Decisions that require boldness. Being a Christian – truly seeking to follow God’s plan… can often require bold decisions that have associated risk.
G0d, make me like Peter.
Prosperity Gospel January 13, 2009
Posted by jonesy24 in Bible, Christianity, God, The Bible - it's quality stuff!.Tags: Joel Osteen, Prosperity Gospel, Prosperity theology
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Maybe it’s a bit unfair that Joel Osteen got the brunt of my blogging wrath. Maybe not. I’ve decided to tackle the broader subject behind my displeasure over Joel Osteen and some of the stuff he teaches – seeing as he’s definitely not the only one who teaches what is known as… *cue dramatic music*…
Prosperity Gospel!!!
So… Allow me to explain what Prosperity Theology is. Prosperity Theology is “teaching that God desires the material prosperity of those He favours”.
Now, by ‘material prosperity’… that’s not just financial prosperity, but success in relationships and good health.
This theology and teaching promotes the idea that God wants Christians to be ‘abundantly’ successful in every way. Especially financially.
*Deep Breath*
Now… apparently there’s a biblical basis for this. It’s bible verses such as Deuteronomy 8:18, Malachi 3:10, John 10:10, and 3 John 2-4. As farm as I’m concerned, they’re taken out of context.
I do believe that God blesses us with regards to finances (but we still have to be responsible), realtionships and health. But there’s a bigger picture.
Prosperity teachers are making it out to be as if we’re still living in Genesis 2.
I also know that being a Christian isn’t plain sailing. It’s not an easy thing. I don’t think it’s fair, or biblical to say that if you’re not healthy then clearly you’ve done something wrong, which is what prosperity gospel suggests. I don’t think God wants us to be the elite super rich Christians, with the giant houses and fancy sports cars… after all, Jesus himself was a carpenter. Not exactly huge income.
Anyway, I’m mincing words.
When someone teaches solely prosperity theology, and doesn’t look at the bible in it’s full context, selecting the fluffy-nice-to-hear sections, they’re only revealing a tiny part of a big picture.
I’ve seen a bunch of people who’ve been damaged by prosperity theology teaching churches. Why? Because they’re only getting a tiny part of the big picture. And it upsets me to see people questioning their faith in God, because they were misled by a leader/teacher that isn’t teaching the true gospel, the whole bible… but a Genesis 2 – before the fall of man fairytale.
“Any Gospel that cannot be preached in a Third-World country is not the True Gospel of Jesus Christ” — Dr. David Jeremiah
P.s. Here’s a few verses that counter the prosperity theology idea – 1 Timothy 6:7-10, Matthew 6:19-21, 24; Luke 16:13, Luke 18:22-25, 1 John 2:15, 1 Timothy 6:3-5, Matthew 19:21, 1 Timothy 2:9, Proverbs 22:16.
Hope that backs up what I was saying before.
“God, make me like David…” January 12, 2009
Posted by jonesy24 in Books, Christianity, God, Internship.1 comment so far
David rocks. It’s official.
I’ve been reading a book called ‘Courageous Leadership’ by Bill Hybels… (just finished it actually) and he briefly talks about David’s faith-based optimism.
David believed so deeply in the pwer of God that a giant could not intimidate him, a murderous king could not paralyze him, and genocidal enemies could not defeat him. With complete confidence, David marched in whatever direction God pointed him, fully expecting grace and power to be revealed along the way.
Even at David’s lowest point, his ‘optimism’ was strong. When he failed morally with Bathsheba and God struck their firstborn son with illness (I’m pretty ill at the moment too… swollen uvula! Eeeeek), David did not give up his optimism. Even though God said that the child’s life would be required for the father’s sins, David clung to hope. He fell on his face. He fasted and prayed for six days and nights. He could not let go of the slight possibility hat God might spare his newborn son.
We know David’s son died though.
Later, when David was asked why he’d fasted and prayed, he said “I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live’” (2 Samuel 12:22)
Over the last year I’ve seen a lot of hopelessness. I’ve seen people who have long term illness struggling to understand why, despite prayer (and fasting?) they won’t be healed. I talked to an orphaned boy who’s hurt, hopelessness, and just plain confusion over ‘why he lost his parents’, turn to anger directed at God. I’ve had a close friend die, and I myself in that point in time lost hope. I’ve seen the homeless and addicts in complete hopelessness. I’ve had conversations with some of those people, who are desperately trying to escape reality – where they feel completely hopeless – through their addictions. I’m aware of people, who’s circumstances have wore them down to the point – in their hopelessness, that they’re ready to give up.
I think David’s got it right. He faces his share of the bad stuff, and has to do some pretty bold stuff – but he has complete hope in God. Complete optimism.
Regarding Hope… (haha… that joke will never get old)… I think for me there’s going to be circumstances and things that happen that I won’t understand. There’s going to be points where I’m going to have to either chicken out, or step forward in faith-based optimism. I think there’s going to be circumstances that are going to test me, that will most definately be some of the hardest stuff that can get thrown at me, where I’m going to have to do a David… cling to hope, trust in the fact that God is ultimately always in control, that he does have a plan.
God, make me like David.
