Wednesday, May 07, 2008

THE INCOMPARABLE RICHES AND GLORY OF CHRIST
...by Jonathan Edwards

THE STONE THE BUILDERS REJECTED
based on Acts 4:11

"The saints admire the excellency of Christ, and the glorious angels admire it, and every creature in heaven and earth, but only you unbelieving children of men.

Consider not only how much the angels set by the glory of Christ, but how much God himself sets by it; for he is the darling of heaven, he was eternally God‚s delight; and because of his glory God hath thought him worthy to be appointed the heir of all things, and hath seen fit to ordain that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. ˜ Is he thus worthy of the infinite esteem and love of God himself? And is he worthy of no esteem from you?"



GOD IS A BEING OF TRANSCENDENT MERCY

based on Psalm 108:4

"Consider that the most wonderful act of mercy is already done in giving Christ to die. This is a much more wonderful act of mercy than justifying and pardoning the greatest sinner after way is thus made for it. That God should show His mercy so was ten times more strange and incredible than that He should forgive your sins for His sake. Let your sins be never so great, He can't hate your sins more than He loved His Son; and if He made His Son notwithstanding the subject of His wrath, He will be ready to make you the subject of His mercy."

10 comments:

Brian Ring said...

"He can't hate your sins more than He loved His Son"
Love it. That's strong consolation

Jeremy Weaver said...

I have a theory and I would like you all to help me out with it to see if it is true or not.
Here it is,
"All of God's attributes are most clearly displayed at the cross."
We see His holiness in that He hated sin som much that He gave His Son, His love in that He gave His Son, etc.

littlegal_66 said...

Doxo--
Hmmmm.....also His judgement, His wrath, His power, His goodness--on and on--pretty much every attribute of God that immediately comes to my mind when I think of His character.
Thanks, Jeremy! You've definitely given me something to ponder this weekend. (Maybe you should consider moving to the front of the class).

Jonathan Moorhead said...

Good thought Jeremy. I wonder, is God's justice "most clearly displayed at the cross," or in the reality of eternal hell?

pilgrim said...

God's justice is very clearly displayed at the cross.
He couldn't & wouldn't just ignore our sin. His justice needed to be satisfied, and that happened at the cross.

Adjutorium said...

God's justice will be clearly displayed to all and satisfied on Judgment Day. We all deserve God's justice.

At the Cross, we receive what we do not deserve, God's infinite grace and mercy. Imho. That is how much He loves His chosen people. His life and His blood were poured out on the Cross for the remission of sins of those who believe. And those that believe are those who are born of God. John 1:12-13

If God's justice was appeased at the Cross then all the unrepentant who die in their sins and all the devils/demons and even Satan himself would be saved from the wrath that is to come. The lake of fire will be empty! But the Bible does not say that the lake of fire will be empty. True?

Jeremy Weaver said...

And yet the depth of His justice is revealed at the cross in the fact that He punished His only Son, who had only ever known the blessing of the Father's countenance smiling on Him, and now become the object of wrath by taking our sins upon Himself. Surely if their was the tiniest bit of injustice in God it would have displayed itself at the cross by refusing to punish our sins that were layed on Christ.

pilgrim said...

douglas said-"If God's justice was appeased at the Cross..."

I never siad it was appeased, I said it was displayed. And yet there is a sense in which it was appeased as well. It was appeased for His people.

But it was clearly displayed at the cross as has been pointed out.

Adjutorium said...

Sorry, I am not seeing it as clearly as you folks say, I am having/had a mental block or something. I should have studied and thought upon that some more before I commented.

Would this be correct then in line with what you are saying?

The Presentation of the Gospel
Synod of Dort on Grace
"What is the gospel of Jesus Christ? God is not only supremely merciful, but also supremely just. And his justice requires (as he hath revealed himself in his Word) that our sins committed against his infinite majesty should be punished, not only with temporal, but with eternal punishments, both in body and soul; which we can not escape, unless satisfaction be made to the justice of God. Since, therefore, we are unable to make that satisfaction in our own persons, or to deliver ourselves from the wrath of God, he hath been pleased of his infinite mercy to give his only-begotten Son for our surety, who was made sin, and became a curse for us and in our stead, that he might make satisfaction to divine justice on our behalf."

Thanks for your patience.

pilgrim said...

That's what I was saying.

"Since, therefore, we are unable to make that satisfaction in our own persons, or to deliver ourselves from the wrath of God, he hath been pleased of his infinite mercy to give his only-begotten Son for our surety, who was made sin, and became a curse for us and in our stead, that he might make satisfaction to divine justice on our behalf."