Mark 15:33-34 (The Death of Jesus)
And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Tag: The Purpose of the Gospel
When we think of the Gospel we often think of our own ticket out of hell. We think of forgiveness of sins, eternity in heaven and security and stability in life. That is our version of the Gospel message. But, that would be a “mankind” perspective. Even though all those are true and wonderful things for those to come to Christ, the glory of the Gospel is not found in those areas. Not even election or justification can be said to be at the center of the Gospel message. If they were, Satan would be trying to keep us from them. But, notice what Satan is trying to keep us from seeing:
2 Corinthians 4:4-6
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Satan is trying to keep us from seeing the Glory of Christ!!! The Glory of Christ is found in the cross. These two verses in Mark give us the window into the Glory of Christ as He takes on the suffering and sin of all mankind!!! His resurrection will continue the vision of His glory, but the consumption of the story of redemption is NOT man centered, but Christ centered. Christ, in His Glory, is His death on the cross for us and His resurrection over death for us. These two verses, as horrific as they sound, is the beginning of the Glory of Christ: The Greatest Good of Salvation.
No comments:
Post a Comment