Redemption

"Calvary Love:" A Poem By John Piper

John Piper is an adept theologian, though some may not know that he is also a winsome poet. He has written several lengthy poems based on biblical narratives as well as thematic poems on important topics.

But this poem of his is one of my favorites. It's short, and it's about the most gruesome and beautiful act that ever took place here.


          "He held the world between his thumb and finger
          like a tender grape.

          And when the spike was driven through his hand,
          his muscles flinched with world-creating force,
          and crimson wine dripped from his fingertips.

          But with omnipotent resolve
          he neither dropped nor crushed his grape."

© 2015 Desiring God Foundation

Cowper, God, and Poetry: Part 3

Apparently Cowper saw a desperate problem in his time that still pervades our society today - an abuse of the gospel and the grace that it gives. People claim to love the Word of God, sing it, read it, and even preach it, but their hearts are far from it. Their hypocrisy struck Cowper and out of his musings came his poem, Abuse of the Gospel.

Too many, Lord, abuse Thy grace
In this licentious day,
And while they boast they see Thy face,
They turn their own away.

Thy book displays a gracious light
That can the blind restore;
But these are dazzled by the sight,
And blinded still the more. 

The format of the poem is a prayer, a mourning cry to God. Cowper begins with highlighting the hypocrisy of the day and the licentiousness, or lawlessness, that abounds. People claim to love the law of God but are not constrained by it. They say that they see God's face, but they're really turning "their own away." The second stanza is a picture of the work of the Word of God, using this metaphor of light. The Word displays a light that can both transform and blind, and you can see Cowper's literary skill come out. It is a light that transforms the blind but blinds those who think they're transformed. The power is not in the interpretation of the Word, insists Cowper, but the Word itself.

The pardon such presume upon,
They do not beg but steal;
And when they plead it at Thy throne,
Oh! where's the Spirit's seal?

Was it for this, ye lawless tribe,
The dear Redeemer bled?
Is this the grace the saints imbibe
From Christ the living head? 

Next Cowper paints a picture of the hypocrites approaching God with their stolen grace, a badly disfigured replica. You get a taste of Matthew 7:23 here, when the self-deceived try to shoulder their way into the Kingdom with good deeds, and Jesus says to them, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." What perhaps may seem cold is really just justice, though a painful justice, the result of a life wasted on selfish pursuits.

But then in Stanza 4, you get a beautiful picture of grace. The truly saved are the "lawless tribe" but have been saved by the Redeemer's blood. And we absorb "grace/From Christ the living head." Left to our own vanity and pride, we will deceive ourselves by our hypocrisy, but when Christ redeems a soul, grace is imbibed.

Ah, Lord, we know Thy chosen few
Are fed with heavenly fare;
But these, -- the wretched husks they chew,
Proclaim them what they are.

The liberty our hearts implore
Is not to live in sin;
But still to wait at Wisdom's door,
Till Mercy calls us in.

Now Cowper appears to take a spin on another well-known passage, the "you will know a tree by its fruit" from Matthew 12:33, except he uses what they eat instead of what they bloom. Their heart's loyalty is shown pretty evidently from what overflows out of their heart, he says. Do they feast on the "heavenly fare" or are they content to chew "the wretched husks"? Do their deeds bear good fruit or rotten fruit?

Cowper ends the poem with a call to holy living, to forsake sin, to embrace wisdom, and to wait eagerly for the final call of mercy. At the beginning of the stanza, Cowper highlights what the power is that gives us strength to do those things - "the liberty of our hearts," or the freedom in Christ.

This poem may seem tough and offensive and cold and loveless, but I plead with you to read it again and see that it's not. This is Cowper's prayer, and my guess is that it hurt him just as much to write it as it does us to read it. For it's a dark commentary on the times we live in and the sin that abounds. Let this be our wake-up call to never forsake preaching the gospel, loving, telling, showing, doing, being - in everything. Let no one say to us, "You left me deceived," so that Christ will say to them, "I never knew you." 

Happy Earth Day


On Saturday morning I spent two and a half hours picking up soggy trash off the side of the road in the midst of cold fog and wind and spits of rain, along with almost twenty other people from my church. We did this because God has created this earth for His glory, and He desires us to care for it. (Well, we also do it because we committed to it twice a year, but that's beside the point.) Even though the weather was miserable and there probably wasn't one of us who wouldn't rather be curled up in a blanket at home, we chose to get outside, get dirty and care for God's creation.

Today, April 22nd is Earth Day. Many Christians tend to stay away from this topic because for many people today, the earth has become an idol. Recycling and "going green" and caring for this planet are all good things, but nowadays they've been elevated higher than the earth's Creator.

But Earth Day is a good day, a day that Christians should recognize and realize the need for proper care of earth. So I will wish you a happy earth day and encourage you to care for this planet to magnify God. The earth is the Lord's, and so we must care for it not because the earth is worthy of glory, but because its Creator is.

Countdown to Christmas: 18 Days Until Christmas

In the past few days, I've found myself thinking a lot about the Great Contrast. Let me explain ...

The Bible portrays two contrasting pictures. The first one is of God, the self-existent, self-sufficient, sovereign Creator who is completely faithful. Just this morning I read in Joshua 23:14-15 about when Joshua was giving his final good-byes to the people of Israel and he reminded them that "none of the good promises the Lord your God made to you has failed. Everything was fulfilled for you; not one promise has failed." God was (and is) absolutely faithful. Dozens of other references throughout Scripture highlight that same perfect faithfulness of God, a few being 2 Samuel 22:26; Psalm 36:5; Psalm 57:10; Psalm 117:2; Lamentations 3:23; and 1 Thessalonians 5:24.

The second picture the Bible portrays is that of man, selfish, sinful and utterly faithless. On our own, we can do nothing good. (Romans 3:10-18) From the beginning, while God is the faithful, man is the faithless. From Adam and Eve's betrayal (Genesis 3:1-19) to Cain and the murder of Abel (Genesis 4:1-16) and then to the flood, where men were so corrupt, God wiped out all but a small remnant, (Genesis 7:1-24) man has stood out with their weakness. Then there were the Israelites. Oy vey! Over and over and over again, they displayed their lack of faith and disobedience to God's commands. (Judges 2:11-13) But it gets worse, because as people are quick to say, "We today are just like the Israelites." Perhaps we may not have sinned in the exact same way that they did, but the point is that we do sin, and we disobey God too. Throughout all of time, since man was created, we have been faithless, while before the world began, God has stood faithful.

This is the Great Contrast portrayed in Scripture. While it is true that those who chose to obey the Lord's commands were blessed by the faithful God, even they messed up, because no human being is completely faithful.

But Christmas is when we celebrate the Great Bridge, the bridge between faithful God and faithless men, when God incarnate, Jesus Christ, came to this earth to offer up His life as a ransom for many. He, God, yet man, was the only completely faithful man. He bridged the gap between God and man and made it possible for us to approach God and interceded for us before the throne of God.

So this Christmas, let's celebrate the faithfulness of God, humbly recognize and repent of our sin and rejoice in the beautiful hope of the Incarnation!

Christmas Countdown: 19 Days Until Christmas


"And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:76-79

These verses are from Zechariah's prophecy of his son, John the Baptist's, ministry, and then of Jesus' birth and mission. When I was reading this in my devotions just a few weeks ago, verses 78 and 79 really stuck out to me. "Because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." I absolutely love the word picture. Jesus Christ is the sunrise that "shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

Have you ever seen a sunrise? It's magnificent! A burst of beauty and glory that begins a new day. Jesus' appearance into the world was a rich manifestation of His beauty and glory that brought a new day in Christianity. His life and death brought light to the lives of dark, filthy sinners who cowered in the shadow of death. His life and death brought peace. His life and death brought life. And why did Jesus come? "Because of the tender mercy of our God." How beautiful is that? Through God's tender mercy, the sunrise came from on high to give salvation to His people and to give peace and life.

As we celebrate the birth of Christ, let's praise God for His tender mercy in sending His Son for our redemption and for His glory.

Unpacking the True Biblical Definition of Justification


Justification. It's one of those "Christianese" words that Christians use all the time without really understanding its true definition. Many half-sorta-kinda-true definitions exist out there, but what about the biblical definition?

The Bible is replete with phrases that refer to Christians being "justified by faith" or "justified by His grace." But, really, what does that mean?

Justification is a legal act of God in which He declares Christ's righteousness to cover our sin and forgives us our trespasses. We're justified before God because of Christ. Wayne Grudem adds to this in "Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know:"
The sins of those justified are considered forgiven because God considers their sins as belonging to Christ, and Christ already paid the penalty for those sins. But not only does God consider those sins as belonging to Christ, he also considers Christ's righteousness as belonging to us. Christ took the place of guilt that we all deserved so that we could take the place of acceptance we all long for."
That is justification.

But a common, catchy definition that's been taught widely (this was the definition that first introduced me to the doctrine of justification) is "just as if I didn't sin." Unfortunately, there's a problem with that definition. It puts more emphasis on us than Christ. My dad likes to say, "just as if Christ didn't sin, because He didn't." My youth leader refers to justification as Christ "imputing his righteousness on us." It was Christ who justified us by his death. That is why Paul could say to Titus, "Being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (Titus 3:7) And that is why Paul could say to the Romans, "[We] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:24) We are justified, we are forgiven, we are granted grace, only through Jesus' atoning sacrifice. It was a gift. There was nothing we could do to gain justification; it was all on God's part. He chose us. He called us. And He justified us.

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified." ~ Romans 8:28-30

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