Paradoxical Pleasures in God

Paradoxical Pleasures in God

"But the LORD was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief; when he makes himself a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in his hand." — Isaiah 53:10

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The prophetic allusions to Christ—the ultimate suffering servant—drip off this verse, but there remains a troubling question, "Why is the Lord pleased to crush Christ?" This question helps us to understand the two rival pleasures which please God that occur at this juncture. This tension is reconciled in the servant making himself a guilt offering as prophesied in Isaiah 53:10, but first let's observe the paradox of pleasure.

            On the one hand, God takes pleasure in his name and fame (1 Sam. 12:22), and, on the other hand, God takes pleasure in electing people unto himself (Deut. 10:14–15). The tension here is that all people exchange the glory of God for lesser things (Rm. 1:23 c.f. Rm. 3:23); therefore, God's pleasure in the fame of his name is at apparent odds with God's pleasure in choosing a people for himself. God is apparently in a paradox of rival pleasures . . .         

            They are paradoxical because if God vindicates his name then he would destroy the people he desires to elect, or if God justifies his people without vindicating his name then he is unrighteous (Pro. 17:15). Heads, he loses. Tails, he loses . . .  Isaiah 53:10–12 (c.f. Rm. 3:23–26) provides the answer to this paradox. The paradox is remedied during Christ's guilt offering at the cross because in Christ's dying to definitely atone for God's chosen people he was made their propitiation (God's wrath taken in their place). Romans 3:23–26 explains the significance in saying, "This [putting forward of Christ as propitiation] was to demonstrate God's righteousness . . . that he may be both just and justifier . . ." In short, God's pleasure in crushing Christ is the pleasure that comes at the climax of redemption where the vindication of his glory and the salvation of his people are reconciled. In other words, the pleasure in crushing the Son results from the consummation of the reality that God is both just and justifier.

            As a practical application, consider the term guilt offering in another light. A proverb which uses it is Proverbs 14:9, "Fools mock at the guilt offering, but the upright enjoy [God's favor]." Christ, according to Isaiah 53:10, is the only person in the Bible to offer himself as a guilt offering! Whose sin was the guilt offering for? Romans 8:3 says God condemned our sin in Christ's flesh. Whose sin? Not Christ's! Do you delight in what Christ has done? Not to delight is to mock. Christian, after meditating upon Christ's guilt offering on your behalf, rejoice with great joy because: it is finished, God is just, and God has justified you!


[This devotional was originally written for the FBS Friends Banquet 2014.]

The Lamb of God

Jesus | The Lamb of God

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Easter is upon us, and Easter ushers in thoughts of its meaning, namely Jesus' passion. Let's set the scene for the story by identifying our state. Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." This death-penalty for sin comes from the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:17) and is inherited by all mankind via what is called original sin (Rom. 5:12). It can be seen based on the structure of the verse that since death is paralleled to life (see diagram below) the death referred to is an eternal death.

The wages that are received are like any other wages: earned, deserved, and "what you have coming." This is a similar idea to earning a wage at a job, you've got your paycheck coming. In this case, however, what you did to earn the wages was sin. Sin is, or results from, an inward preference for anything above God (Romans 1:22-23,3:23). Sin is an exchanging of God for lesser things. This is why eternal death is necessary because God, infinite and all satisfying God, has be traded for things which are lesser and could never satisfy (Jeremiah 2:12-13). The Bible says we should be shocked and appalled that such a horror would happen.

But, thankfully the verse does not end there. God has a free gift (unearned, undeserved, something you don't have coming) which is paralleled to the wages (see diagram above). That free gift may only be bestowed by God and is not earned. As much as we receive the wages because of sin, so we receive the free gift because of God alone (Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:10). The gift is Himself in the person of Jesus whom we get to spend eternity with, beholding His glory(John 17:24; Revelation 5:9-10,12).

Surely at this point you're asking yourself, "How do I exchange the wages, that I rightly deserve, for this free gift, which I could never earn?" The answer to that question (and there is an answer) is worth spending your life and energy to find. It is good to note here that you must answer the question for yourself. Not answering the question is accepting the wages you've earned...

The original answer to this question was to kill a lamb, and its blood would be a sign that God would pass over His people (Passover) and not kill them (Exodus 12:5-13). This answer was a picture of the true and perfect answer, who is Jesus Christ -- the Lamb of God. Consider the quoted commentaries here in comparison between Jesus' passion and the Passover lamb's passion, some meditation, and then application.

God's Passion for His Glory in Corporate Worship

Corporate Worship: The Heart Hunger That Honors God
[Excerpted from: John Piper and Jonathan Edwards, God’s Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998), 40–42.]

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     I previously posted the implications which Piper lists, and this is the full piece on implication 10 which I've been reflecting over. Unless noted in [], the emphasis is mine. My prayer is that this would be as challenging and edifying a meditation as it has been for me. 

For His glory and your joy,
-David

Without further adieu...

Implication #10. The essence of authentic, corporate worship is the collective experience of heartfelt satisfaction in the glory of God, or a trembling that we do not have it and a great longing for it.[italics original] 

God made a choice

6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “ Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” (Acts 15:6-11, ESV - italics added)

God made a choice ... That by, specifically, Peter's mouth... Gentiles would hear and believe, (not just some people in a general group but,) specifically Cornelius^[1] in Acts 10:30-45 as many as 10 years before the council; furthermore, God bore witness through Peter's mouth and poured out His Spirit on them. What we see here is one of the many places in scripture which God ordained to show both His sovereignty in salvific power as well as the means which He uses to do His saving work, namely the mouths/words of men. This awesome interplay leapt out of my bible at me last night. Calvin in his commentary on this passage says:

"You know. He calleth them to bear witness, ... lest any man should think that he is about to speak of some dark and doubtful thing. The history was well known to them all.....God did choose in us. The word choose doth signify to appoint or decree. Though Peter doth comprehend as well the free election of God as the choice whereby God did adopt the Gentiles to be His people; therefore, He chose, that is, as it were, making choice, that He might show a token of His free election in the Gentiles... For his meaning is, that he declareth nothing but that which they knew full well; which was done before their eyes.^[2]"

There are 5 things which I take away from this:

Implications of God's Passion for His Glory

These implications come from the book titled, God's Passion for His glory written by John Piper as a commentary on (and including the full text of) Jonathan Edward's work The End for which God created the world.

Central truth which the implications build on: God created the world to exhibit the transcendent fullness of His glory in the God-centered joy of His people.

Implications(as I tweeted at twitter.com/Christensen_Dv):

1. God's passion for His own glory and His passion for my joy in Him are not at odds. @johnpiper #GPfHG
2. Therefore, God is as committed to my eternal and ever-increasing joy in Him as He is to His own glory. #GPfHG
3. The love of God 4 sinners is not His making much of them but His freeing & empowering them 2 enjoy making much of Him.
4. All true virtue among human beings must aim at bringing people to rejoice in the glory of God. #GPfHG
5. Sin is the suicidal exchange of the glory of God for the broken cisterns of created things. (Romans 1:23, Jeremiah 2:12-13) #GPfHG
6. Heaven will be a never-ending ever-increasing discovery of God's glory with greater and increasing joy in Him. #GPfHG
7. Hell is unspeakably real, conscious, horrible, and eternal--the experience of those who wouldn't delight in God. #GPfHG
8. Evangelism means depicting the beauty of Jesus and His saving work with a heartfelt urgency of love that labors to help people find their satisfaction in Him. #GPfHG
9. Christian preaching is an expository exultation over the glories of God in His word, designed to lure God's people from the fleeting pleasure of sin into the obedience of satisfaction in Him. #GPfHG
10. The essence of authentic, corporate worship is the collective experience of heartfelt satisfaction in the glory of God, or a trembling that we don't have it and a great longing for it. #GPfHG
11. World missions is a declaration of the glories of God among all the unreached peoples, for the gathering of worshippers who magnify God through the gladness of radically obedient lives. #GPfHG
12. Prayer is calling on God for help; to show He is gloriously resourceful & we are humbly & happily in need of grace. #GPfHG
13. The task of Christian scholarship is to study reality as a manifestation of God's glory, to speak about it with accuracy and to savor the beauty of God in it. #GPfHG
14. The way to magnify God in death us by meeting death as gain. @johnpiper on Philippians 1:21-23 #GPfHG
15. It is a Christian duty, as you know, for everyone to be as happy as he can [in God]. - CS Lewis #GPfHG

To get this book in pdf form, learn more about it, or perhaps buy a copy go here.