Tag: Jesus

Good News from an Old Hymn 

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O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down

Now scornfully surrounded, with thorns Thine only crown

The opening verses of Bernard of Clairveaux’s hymn, written in the 12th century, voices the pathos of the Lenten season. While everyone looks forward to the joy of that accompanies Christ’s resurrection, we must never forget the event which precedes it: the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. These two events are the heart and soul of the good news. 

The crucifixion of Jesus confronts us with an inconvenient, uncomfortable yet undeniable and incontrovertible truth. Jesus died the death we deserved. The second stanza of Bernard’s hymn expresses this with a solemnly eloquent poignancy. 

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain; 

Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain. 

Lo, here I fall my Savior! ‘Tis I deserve Thy place; 

Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe* to me Thy grace. (*promise)

By his death Jesus secured God’s forgiveness for our sins. (see 1 Corinthians 15:3-5; Philippians 2:5-11; Hebrews 1:1-4; 10:5-14) In a sermon on the crucifixion a former professor said, “Only a sinless Savior can save us from the sin which separates us from God and Jesus is that Savior.” The good in Good Friday is that by dying in our place for our sins Jesus makes it possible to live the life God intended us to live: a life in full, unbroken, and ongoing fellowship with him. According to Bernard we are at a loss for words to express our gratitude for God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness. 

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.

Here is more good news. By his death Jesus defeated, conquered, and overcame completely the power of sin to separate us from fellowship with God. By his resurrection Jesus defeated, conquered, and overcame completely the power of death so that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (see Romans 8:38-39) 

The last stanza of Bernard’s hymn is a prayer motivated by the triumphant tone of Romans 8. 

Be my consolation, my shield when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion when my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfolds Thee. Who dieth thus dies well.

What language we shall borrow to thank him who died for our sin and rose to give us eternal life? The only answer can be that of the apostle Thomas in John 20:28: “My Lord and my God!”

You think about that. 

He Became Flesh

michaelmalanga2013Leave a comment

Dear Travelers,

As Christians worldwide celebrate Advent in preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ birth, consider the following – ancient – declaration of faith:

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

The Nicene Creed expresses in confessional form what the apostle John declared under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when He wrote,

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14

Christians believe Jesus “was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man.” Although the word does not appear plainly in Scripture, we employ the term incarnation to refer to the historical event whereby the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down from heaven and wrapped Himself in human flesh. We believe this to be so not because it is a tenet of our faith – albeit so. We believe this to be true because it actually happened. The incarnation is an historical event. The painstaking chronology of Luke’s gospel gives us a factual foundation on which to construct a viable, tenable, incarnational faith founded on an indisputable truth: at a particular point in time, at a particular place in history, the Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, . . . . was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

As the pages of the gospel unfold and the plan of God comes more and more into focus, we understand that Jesus wrapped Himself in our flesh so that we could be covered by His grace.

Some have argued that Christ’s deity required that He be born of a virgin. However, the more persuasive, more truthful argument, is for the virgin birth as the sign, not the basis, of Jesus’ Sonship. In other words, the Incarnation is the herald, not the cause, of God’s grace. And according to John, “we have seen His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” It is this combination of grace and truth which makes the incarnation so potent a historical reality especially with respect to our salvation.

We are saved by grace – God’s unmerited favor – because all we, like sheep, have gone astray. The truth is all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So in sending Jesus to be incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man, God did for us what neither the law of Moses nor our own effort could achieve: live sinless lives thereby satisfying fully all the righteous demands of the law as well as God’s requirement for moral perfection. Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live so that by trusting in His life, death and resurrection we will inherit everlasting life.

Just as Thanksgiving is prelude for Advent so, too, is Advent prelude to Lent. The babe born in the manger grew up to be the Savior crucified for us. His life brought us grace and truth. His death for us, for our salvation gave us life beyond this life.

You think about that.

Merry Christmas!