Our labor is not in vain

The deeds of Christians in this present time — however insignificant they may seem, however “vain” they may appear to those who value worldly success —— are already being built into God’s advancing kingdom. In other words, Christians do not simply look to the cross of Christ with prayerful reverence. We are set in motion by its power, energized by it, upheld by it, guaranteed by it, secured by it for the promised future because it is the power of the creating Word that “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Rom. 4:17). Our labor is not only “not in vain” but also has eternal significance because it is being built into God’s future in ways that we presently see “through a glass, darkly,” but in the fullness of time, “face to face” (I Cor. 13:12 KJV). —Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion,14

Thine Is the Glory

291 Thine Is the Glory

1 Thine be the glory, risen, conqu'ring Son;
   endless is the vict'ry Thou o’er death hast won.
   Angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,
   kept the folded grave-clothes where Thy body lay.

Refrain:
   Thine be the glory, risen, conqu'ring Son;
   endless is the vict'ry Thou o’er death hast won.

2 Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb.
   Lovingly He greets us, scatters fear and gloom;
   let His church with gladness hymns of triumph sing,
   for the Lord now liveth; death hath lost its sting. [Refrain]

3 No more we doubt Thee, glorious Prince of life!!
   Life is nought without Thee; aid us in our strife;
   make us more than conqu'rors, through Thy deathless love;
   bring us safe through Jordan to Thy home above. [Refrain]
                         Edmond L. Budry
                         Tr. by R. Birch Hoyle
                         Hymns for the Family of God

The Trinity and salvation

One of the currently popular substitutes for the name of the Trinity, “Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer,” cannot serve this function because God does not create, redeem, or sustain himself. These terms describe God in relation to us but not within himself, so God’s being (ousia) is not affirmed. When we say “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” however, we are saying that what God is in himself, he also is toward us. The doctrine of the Trinity is therefore a working out of what it means to say that God is love. It tells us that God is love within his own three-personed self, and he is love toward us as we see his action in the Son’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 12 n. 24

Timeless truths from Tozer

Right here I want to say something that will no doubt land me on the wrong side of popular Christian opinion. But I will say it anyway. I do not believe the church is the place for entertainment. With that said, let me explain what I mean.

We have churches today, in desperate need of attendance, advertising in newspapers for the world to come and enjoy “clean entertainment.” We have, so the boast goes, what the world has, only ours is much cleaner and, to add insult to injury, in my opinion, it is family friendly. I am not totally against entertainment; I am just totally against entertainment in the church and entertainment used by the church to try to win the world. How can we battle the world if we have locked arms with the world?—A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God, 133–34

Jesus Lives, and So Shall I

288 Jesus Lives, and So Shall I

1 Jesus lives, and so shall I;
   Death, thy sting is gone forever!
   He who deigned for me to die
   lives, the bands of death to sever.
   He shall raise me with the just:
   Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

2 Jesus lives, and reigns supreme,
   and, His kingdom still remaining,
   I shall also be with Him,
   ever living, ever reigning.
   God has promised: be it must:
   Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

3 Jesus lives, and by His grace,
   vict'ry o'er my passions giving,
   I will cleanse my heart and ways,
   ever to His glory living.
   Me He raises from the dust;
   Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

4 Jesus lives! I know full well
   nought from Him my heart can sever,
   life nor death nor pow'rs of hell,
   joy nor grief, henceforth forever.
   None of all His saints is lost;
   Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

5 Jesus lives, and death is now
   but my entrance into glory.
   Courage, then, my soul, for thou
   hast a crown of life before thee;
   thou shalt find thy hopes were just;
   Jesus is the Christian's Trust.
                         Christian F. Gellert
                         Tr. by Philip Schaff
                         Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
Yep. That Philip Schaff, the one who wrote all those church history volumes. Makes sense he would also translate hymns—I just never noticed any before. Some hymnals insert a verse after verse 2:

3 Jesus lives, and God extends
   grace to each returning sinner;
   rebels He receives as friends
   and exalts to highest honor.
   God is True as He is Just;
   Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

</idle musing>

The role of the Trinity in the crucifixion

God is the triune God. He is one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus of Nazareth was not a free-floating holy man. If he is not the second person of the Trinitarian Godhead and the only-begotten Son attested in the Nicene Creed, then God’s self was not directly involved at Golgotha. In that case, Jesus would be detached from the eternal plan of God shown forth in the history of Israel, and the cross would be a random event of no more than passing interest.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 12

Were You There?

287 Were You There?

1 Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
   Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
   Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
   Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

2 Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
   Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
   Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
   Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

3 Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
   Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
   Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
   Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?

4 Were you there when God raised him from the tomb?
   Were you there when God raised him from the tomb?
   Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
   Were you there when God raised him from the tomb?
                         American Folk Hymn
                         Hymns for the Family of God

If We Had Been There (A very relevant thought for today)

286 If We Had Been There

Minister: If we had been Jews, would we have spoken out for Him when the Sanhedrin accused Him of blasphemy?
      If we had been Gentiles, would we have defended Him when the Romans condemned Him to death?
      If we had been disciples, would we have stayed with Him when the crowd became a crucifying mob?
      Or would we have been like Peter-
      who followed Him and loved Him
      and denied Him three times before the dawn?

Choir: Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
      O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Minister: And the Christ who was crucified there, once said.
      “As you have done it to the least of these, My brothers, you have done it unto Me.”
      As nations rise in war
      As governments oppress the poor
      As passive people turn and look aside
      In silence
      We crucify.
      Again-
      We crucify.

People : As indifference forms the pattern of our lives,
      As hungry children cry for food,
      As widows mourn alone in empty rooms,
      In apathy-
      We crucify.
      Again-
      We crucify.

Choir: Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
      O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Minister: I think of the nails that crucified my Lord.
      They were made of iron,’ but more-
      They were made of hatred, prejudice and greed.
      And I wonder-
      What part of myself is found in the shadow of that mob that stretches down through history?
      What part of myself creates nails in other forms that wound my brother—and my Lord?

People: You know how many times I have betrayed You, Lord.
      You know the times lhave chosen evil over good.
      Guilt lies upon me like an iron cloak.
      My soul is heavy—my burden hard.

Choir: Were you there when He rose up from the grave?
      O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Minister: In the act of death He absorbs our sins.
      In love, He forgives our failures.
      In the act of resurrection He gives the promise of acceptance, the assurance of forgiveness, the affirmation of eternal life.
      “Your sins are forgiven you”, He said, “Go and sin no more. ”

People: Through Your love, I am made whole,
      Through Your death, I have found new life.
      You are my shield, my redeemer and my hope.
      My sins are forgiven—Hallelujah!
                         —MariIee Zdenek
                         Hymns for the Family of God

What Wondrous Love Is This?

283 What Wondrous Love Is This?

1 What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
   What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
   What wondrous love is this
   That caused the Lord of bliss
   To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
   To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.

2 To God and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing;
   To God and to the Lamb, I will sing.
   To God and to the Lamb
   Who is the great "I Am";
   While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing;
   While millions join the theme, I will sing.

3 And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on, I'll sing on;
   And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on.
   And when from death I'm free
   I'll sing and joyful be;
   And thro' eternity, I'll sing on, I'll sing on;
   And thro' eternity, I'll sing on.
                         American Folk Hymn
                         Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
Some versions insert a verse after verse 1:

2 When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
   When I was sinking down, sinking down,
   When I was sinking down
   Beneath God's righteous frown,
   Christ laid aside His crown for my soul, for my soul,
   Christ laid aside His crown for my soul.

</idle musing>

Amazing God! (covenant)

The particularity of this God is startling; the God of Israel aligns himself with specific mortals with individual names who live in identifiable places on the map. They have life stories unique to themselves, by no means always edifying. This God, unlike the gods of the religions, has chosen of his own sovereign free will to elect a discrete group of people simply because he wills to do so. The irreligiousness of this election is that it has nothing to do with any spiritual attainments by the chosen ones. The opposite is true — they are selected, we might say, in spite of themselves, for if there is one thing certain about the children of Israel, it is that they did not deserve their election. This factor of undeserved election is in view whenever God is called “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 11 (emphasis original)

Go to Dark Gethsemane

281 Go to Dark Gethsemane

1 Go to dark Gethsemane,
   You who feel the tempter's pow'r;
   Your Redeemer's conflict see;
   Watch with Him one bitter hour;
   Turn not from His griefs away;
   Learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

2 Follow to the judgment hall;
   View the Lord of life arraigned;
   O the worm-wood and the gall!
   O the pangs His soul sustained!
   Shun not suff'ring, shame, or loss;
   Learn of Him to bear the cross.

3 Calv'ry's mournful mountain climb
   There' adoring at His feet,
   Mark the miracle of time,
   God's own sacrifice complete:
   "It is finished!" Hear the cry;
   Learn of Jesus Christ to die.
                         James Montgomery
                         Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
I've never sung this hymn, although it occurs in more than 800 hymnals. Hymnary.org inserts a fourth verse:

4 Early hasten to the tomb
   Where they laid his breathless clay;
   All is solitude and gloom;
   Who hath taken Him away?
   Christ is ris'n! He meets our eyes:
   Savior, teach us so to rise.

I like that. Without the fourth verse, the hymn seems truncated and hopeless.
</idle musing>

"Which one?" as a denominational weapon

There have been times when groups of Christians — especially Protestants of an evangelical persuasion — have rated themselves genuine or false by adherence to, or rejection of, a given “theory” of what happened in Christ’s death. This is a difficult stance to maintain, since the great church councils that succeeded in defining the nature of Christ and the Holy Trinity left us with no equivalent conciliar definition of the cross. This fact in itself is suggestive. Does anyone think that the great minds of the early church were not up to the challenge? It seems wiser to posit that there is a reason for the silence of the sources in this respect, and that the reason favors a multifaceted understanding rather than favoring one theory over against another.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 8–9

Come to Calvary's Holy Mountain

276 Come to Calvary's Holy Mountain

1 Come to Calvary's holy mountain
   sinners ruined by the fall;
   Here a pure and healing fountain
   Flows to you, to me, to all,
   In a full perpetual tide,
   Opened when our Savior died.

2 Come in poverty and meanness,
   Come, defiled without, within;
   From imperfection and uncleanness,
   From the leprosy of sin,
   Wash your robes and make them white;
   Ye shall walk with God in light.

3 Come, in sorrow and contrition,
   Wounded, impotent, and blind;
   Here the guilty, free remission,
   Here the troubled peace may find.
   Health this fountain will restore;
   He that drinks shall thirst no more.

4 He that drinks shall live forever,
   'Tis a soul-renewing flood;
   God is faithful; God will never
   Break His covenant of blood;
   Signed when our Redeemer died,
   Sealed when He was glorified.
                         James Montgomery
                         Hymns for the Family of God

It's a kaleidoscope!

The Old and New Testaments give us images — drawn from many sources — making a kaleidoscopic, inexhaustibly rich storehouse from which to draw meaning and sustenance for all times and all generations. No one image can do justice to the whole; all are part of the great drama of salvation. The Passover lamb, the goat driven into the wilderness, the ransom, the substitute, the victor on the field of battle, the representative man — each and all of these and more have their place, and the cross is diminished if any one of them is omitted. We need to make room for all the biblical images. We will be best enriched by the meaning of the crucifixion in all its manifold aspects, not just as an intellectual construct, but as dynamic, living truth empowering us for the living of these days.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 7

Up Calv'ry's mountain (Blessed Redeemer)

275 Blessed Redeemer

1 Up Calv'ry's mountain one dreadful morn
   Walked Christ, my Savior, weary and worn;
   Facing for sinners death on the cross,
   That He might save them from endless loss.

Chorus:
   Blessed Redeemer! Precious Redeemer!
   Seems now I see Him on Calvary's tree;
   Wounded and bleeding, for sinners pleading—
   Blind and unheeding— dying for me!

2 "Father, forgive them!" thus did He pray,
   E'en while His lifeblood flowed fast away;
   Praying for sinners while in such woe–
   No one but Jesus ever loved so. [Chorus]

3 O how I love Him, Savior and Friend,
   How can my praises ever find end?
   Thro' years unnumbered on heaven's shore,
   My tongue shall praise Him forevermore. [Chorus]
                         Avis B. Christiansen
                         Hymns for the Family of God

Feel-good religion? Not so much…

The religious imagination seeks uplift, not torture, humiliation, and death. Therefore the principal purpose of this book about the crucifixion will be to strengthen the reader’s surmise that the cross of Jesus is an unrepeatable event that calls all religion into question and establishes an altogether new foundation for faith, life, and a human future.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 2

Jesus Paid It All

273 Jesus Paid It All

1 I hear the Savior say,
   "Your strength indeed is small!
   Child of weakness, watch and pray,
   Find in Me your all in all."

Refrain:
   Jesus paid it all,
   All to Him I owe;
   Sin had left a crimson stain–
   He washed it white as snow.

2 For nothing good have I
   Whereby Your grace to claim–
   I'll wash my garments white
   In the blood of Calv'ry's Lamb. [Refrain]

3 And when before the throne
   I stand in Him complete,
   "Jesus died my soul to save,"
   My lips shall still repeat. [Refrain]
                         Elvina M. Hall
                         Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
The author only wrote a few hymns; this one was by far the most popular, occurring in more than 850 hymnals. Hymnary.org inserts a verse:

2 Lord, now indeed I find
   Your pow'r, and Yours alone,
   Can change the leper's spots
   And melt the heart of stone. [Refrain]

</idle musing>

New book started!

Today we start a book I've been meaning to read for about ten years now. I was going to start it on Ash Wednesday, but finally started late last week. It's a thick book, and will probably take a few months to get through, but I think it will be worth it. The book? Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion. Here's the first excerpt:

The Christian faith is empty at its heart if congregations habitually skip over Good Friday as if it had not occurred.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, xvii

Jesus, the Son of God

269 Jesus, the Son of God

1. Do you know Jesus,
   Our Lord, our Savior,
   Jesus the Son of God?
   Have you ever seen Him,
   Or shared of His favor?
   Jesus the Son of God.

Refrain
   O sweet Wonder!
   O sweet Wonder!
   Jesus the Son of God;
   How I adore Thee!
   O how I love Thee!
   Jesus the Son of God.

2. God gave Him, a ransom,
   Our souls to recover;
   Jesus the Son of God.
   His blood made us worthy
   His Spirit to hover;
   Jesus the Son of God. [Refrain]

3. O who would reject Him,
   Despise or forsake Him,
   Jesus the Son of God?
   O who ever sought Him,
   And He would not take Him?
   Jesus the Son of God. [Refrain]

4. If you will accept Him
   And trust and believe Him,
   Jesus the Son of God,
   Your soul will exalt Him,
   And never will leave Him;
   Jesus the Son of God. [Refrain]

5. Then some day from Heaven,
   On clouds of bright glory,
   Jesus the Son of God
   Will come for His jewels,
   Most precious and holy,
   Jesus the Son of God. [Refrain]
                         G. T. Haywood
                         Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
Take a minute to read the biography of the author. Interesting guy, although his theology went a bit off the rails when he embraced, and became a founding member of, Oneness Pentacostalism.
</idle musing>

An Easter meditation

300 Easter

Some years ago a newspaper editor telephoned and asked me to tell in a few words what Easter means to me. My testimony was this: Easter means Christ to me. It means Christ in His kingly splendor, Christ in His serene glory, Christ in His gracious condescension. This is because Easter is the return of Christ from inflicted violence, from induced death, from imprisonment in a tomb. Easter is Christ triumphant over all that sin and death and man could do to Him. Easter means Christ.

And where Christ goes, drama goes. For it is impossible to look anywhere in the Gospels and fail to find something powerful happening. This is because Christ is Himself the Gospel and He is life, abundant life, and His life means action, pilgrimage, arrival. Easter means life. Christ defeated death in order that life in Him might always live. And it is life that we want, life in Christ. Whether we put it in words or not, our constant thought is “Life, more life, always more and more life.” We want life in ourselves, in our loved ones, in our friends, the kind of life that cannot be diminished, the kind of life that always expands. Easter is Christ’s victory over all that would restrict, deny and strangle life. “For to me to live is Christ.” That is Easter.
                        —Raymond Lindquist
                         Hymns for the Family of God