Category: Matthew

A “Christian” of Leafy Show (Matthew 21:18-22)

American’s knowledge of figs is generally limited to Fig Newtons, so some knowledge of fig trees is especially helpful here. But before we get on that highway I want to emphasize the sense in which I use “helpful.” You don’t need to be an expert on ancient customs and practices to read your Bible. If you carefully read your text, and have a thorough knowledge of Scripture you can read with confidence. You will make greater strides in understanding if you steep your mind in the Old Testament rather than a book about old customs. Nevertheless, such knowledge can be helpful.

It is March/April. A fig may be putting out leaves at this time and if there are leaves it is certain that there is an early, edible fruit bud. This bud will fall off and the better fruit will be ripe in June. This is why Mark says that it “was not the season for figs (Mark 11:13).” This is why Jesus didn’t go to another tree. This tree was an early bloomer, it stood out. Jesus is on the highway to Jerusalem and Figgy’s Diner had a light flashing “open.” Jesus pulls off the highway, but the doors are locked and the place is desolate. This tree flirts fruit, but only gives leaves. R.T. France comments, “Its precocious show of foliage promised, but did not provide.”

That information is helpful, but much more helpful are texts like this:

Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved. Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird— no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them till none is left. Woe to them when I depart from them! Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow; but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter. Give them, O Lord— what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels. Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death. —Hosea 9:10-16 (ESV)

The fig tree is often a metaphor for Israel. Fruit is expected, but Israel proves fruitless. John the Baptizer said “even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees (Luke 3:9).” Jesus is the lumberjack. This miracle is the only miracle of judgment, of cursing, we see Jesus do, and it plops itself right here after Jesus purges the temple, and before he has a showdown with the priests. The point? There are lots of leaves, but no fruit, so the axe is coming down.

Are you a “Christian” of leafy show? Like Adam and Eve do you try to hide behind leaves of your own making? Church attendance, Bible study, small group participation, zestful singing, being involved in lots of Christian activities and programs can be nothing more than leafy show. How do you know if you are producing bitter leaves or sweet fruit? Here is a question to help you answer that question; do you approach things like prayer, Bible study, the worship gathering, as leaves to show, or streams to tap your roots into? Do you say of the things listed above, “I do…,” or “I need…”?

When Flood Insurance Drowns You (Matthew 21:12-17)

Instead of receiving light the crowds “see” by projecting darkness. A war horse is perceived instead of a donkey. Instead of a carpenter with His motley crew made up of the likes of fishermen, a tax collector, and perhaps most recently two former blind beggars, they see a commander with SEAL Team Six; they see David and His mighty men. But instead of riding into the royal city and purging if of Romans, Jesus comes to the Temple and purges it. Jesus is angry. Check. They wanted that. They wanted a flood, it was just that the waters were not flowing where they wanted them to be channelled. Instead of sweeping away the filth of pagan Romans, it was cleansing the Temple.

The Jews had the basic ingredients right, they just fuddled the recipe and mixed it according to their own whim. All the right puzzle pieces were there, no foreign ones were mixed in, they were not trying to make syncretic pagan Messiah. They were guardians of the Old Testament puzzle box, no foreign pieces allowed, but they hammered the right pieces together to make a Picasso/Frankenstein Christ after their own marred image. They tried to fill in fulfillment. Like Joseph they say, “No, your hands are crossed! The other way, the other way!” Blessing and curse are falling, but this time the darkness and flood fall on Goshen.

Jesus is angry at sin. In contrast the leaders are sinfully angry. True worship finally happens in the Temple, and the leaders get mad. How many American churches would Jesus walk into angry? How many churches would be angry if Jesus walked into them? I’m afraid that many American churches should be afraid. We have built levees of religiosity to make us feel secure in our city of sin, but they only allow the flood waters to rise higher. By our acts of piety we want to merit. And merit we shall have. Salvation is by grace. Judgment is by merit. “Mount Zion Church” is below sea level, she is below the Dead Sea, and a flood is coming. Beware of playing with holy things. Better to sin in the dark than against the light.

How do we know if we are above the flood plain? How do we know if we are on the true Zion of God? Here is a good diagnostic question: Does our “worship” lead to prayer? If prayer is used as nothing more than a curtain drop to change the props on stage—beware! If the atmosphere of all your religious activity actually wars against prayer—beware! Does the worship gathering of your church birth desperation, confession, joy, repentance, and faith expressed to God in prayer? If not, you may find your communion cup to be full of a vintage you can’t stomach. Your cup may indeed overflow, but the cup of salvation will have been replaced with a cup of wrath that you will drown in.

Shaking the Bee Hive (Matthew 21:1-11)

During His ministry Jesus uses only two modes of transportation, foot and boat. When He is on land, Jesus always uses foot. I have to qualify this because when Jesus is on water He mostly uses boat but occasionally uses foot as well. Jesus has walked all the way to Jerusalem and now, just prior to entering the city, He sends His disciples to fetch a donkey. Jesus isn’t tired. He is making a statement.

Imagine a young man in a long distance relationship going to meet her parents for the first time. Twenty miles outside of the city he parks his rust bucket lemon and rents a car that says intelligent and safe, being sure to conceal the green Enterprise logo. What is doing? He wants to make a statement, but it’s a false one. Or consider the teenager who rents or borrows the expensive ride for a formal. Likewise, a statement is being made and that statement is, “Me!” Jesus rides into town to make a statement, but unlike my examples, Jesus isn’t being deceptive, nor is He being shallow and vain. He is being humble. Jesus is saying He is King, but He is a humble King. He has come to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.

None are ever so humble, yet none are ever so kingly. Don’t miss the Lion for the Lamb. Say that when the US invaded Iraq in 2003 she went with the intent to make her a United States territory. The American flag was raised, the pledge now their pledge, the president now their president. Weeks in Qusay Hussein strolls into town with a motorcade, with red, black, and white flags waving, and crowds shouting, “Save us! Allah bless the son of Sadam.” Even if the followthrough is laughable, such actions wouldn’t be taken lightly.

What is the charge that the Pharisees charge Jesus with in their own courts? Blasphemy. But what charge do they bring before Pilate? Insurrection. Jesus previously used smoke when He came to Jerusalem (John 7:1-11), but now He grabs the bee hive, shakes it up, and spreads His arms to accept the stings.

The crowds see a war horse where there is a donkey. Indeed Zechariah 9 speaks of Jesus defeating our foes. The irony is that Jesus as He comes humbly, mounted on a donkey will defeat our greatest foes. The Lion as Lamb delivers, saves, and conquerors.  Hosanna!

Son Blindness (Matthew 20:29-34)

If someone is blind to the Sun, they cannot see anything. It is only by seeing the Sun, in a sense, that one can see anything else. We don’t see illuminated objects except by the reflection of light. If you cannot behold anything by the greatest light, lesser lights will prove insufficient.

The crowd doesn’t see the Son, and Son blindness is total blindness. A physically blind man who sees the Son, sees more than a spiritually blind man who can see the Sun. Spiritual sight is superior to physical sight. A child of God who knows that Yaweh created the heavens sees them more clearly than the most brilliant astronomer. Certainly, by God’s grace, an astronomer can learn things that we do not, things that could further fuel our worship, but the believer has an epistemological trump card he can always play, “Yes, but I know the one who made that star and why He ultimately made it.” The unregenerate astronomer may be able to tell us all kinds of whats, and hows, but only a child of God knows the ultimate why. Certain archeologists could stun you with their knowledge of Stonehenge and how it relates to light, solstices and such, but dig up some chap that was alive and participated in whatever it was that went on there, resurrect him, and he has that trump card. His knowledge may be far less sophisticated and exact, but he knows why.

When you make an idol of creation, when you make it god, you end up enjoying it less, not more. If someone tries to enjoy a hammer as a screwdriver, they will enjoy it less. When you try to make creation god, you don’t see creation as it is. It isn’t illuminated by the Son. They don’t see that all things are from, through, and to the Son. The light comes from Him, and is reflected back to His glory. If you are blind to the Luminous, you cannot behold the illuminated. Thus the superiority of spiritual sight.

Satan most deeply labors to blind us not from the blazing Sun at the center of our solar system, but the all glorious Son at the center of the universe. Before these blind men see, they appear to have already received the greater sight.

[T]he 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. —2 Corinthians 4:4-6 (ESV)

If you see the Son, even if you remain blind until the kingdom fully comes, you see everything more clearly.

The emanation or communication of the divine fullness, consisting in the knowledge of God, love to him, and joy in him, has relation indeed both to God and the creature: but it has relation to God as its fountain, as the thing communicated is something of its internal fullness. The water in the stream is something of the fountain; and the beams of the sun are something of the sun. And again, they have relation to God as their object: for the knowledge communicated is the knowledge of God; and the love communicated, is the love of God; and the happiness communicated, is joy in God. In the creature’s knowing, esteeming, loving, rejoicing in, and praising God, the glory of God is both exhibited and acknowledged, his fullness is received and returned. Here is both an emanation and remanation. The refulgence shines upon and into the creature, and is reflected back to the luminary. The beams of glory come from God, are something of God, and are refunded back again to their original. So that the whole is of God, and in God, and to God; and he is the beginning, and the middle, and the end. —Jonathan Edwards

Directional Challenge (Matthew 20:17-28)

Jesus is heading south to Jerusalem, down to the cross. But Matthew and Jesus tell us that He is going up to Jerusalem. Did Jesus miss His turn? No, Jerusalem is always up. Psalms 120-134 are “Songs of Ascents.” These would be sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem for the feasts. Jesus and the disciples may have very well be singing them on their journey to Jerusalem for the Passover. Remember when the kingdom divided after Solomon into the northern kingdom of Israel and southern kingdom of Judah? This gives you the lay of the land. The majority of Israelites, before the split, would head south toward the Temple, singing Songs of Ascent. This is because Jerusalem was spiritually up. It was also up in elevation, drastically so from Jericho, which, being situated near the Dead Sea, the lowest spot on earth, is one of the lowest cities on earth at over 800 feet below sea level. Jerusalem in contrast is over 2500 feet above sea level.

So down (directionally) is up (in elevation). But up (in elevation) is down (humiliation). But ultimately down (humiliation) is up (glorification). This is true for Jesus, and that is why it is true for us. At the cross, Jesus sets the standard for greatness. He stoops to serve, and He stoops to the lowest depths.

There was no abasement ever so deep as Christ’s was, in a double regard. First, None ever went so low as he, for he suffered the wrath of God, and bore upon him the sins of us all; none was ever so low. And then in another respect his abasement was greatest because He descended from the highest top of glory; and for Him to be man, to be a servant, to be a curse, to suffer the wrath of God, to be the lowest of all – Lord, wither doest Thou descend? —Richard Sibbes

Jesus does just set the standard for us, He sets it for us. The cross is not only the standard, it is the source of all human greatness. He gave His life as a ransom. His death purchased us and delivered us from our bondage. Christ set an example for us, but His example empowers us to follow. The most important thing to know about following Jesus, are the steps you cannot take. We cannot go to the cross as He did. But because of His greater service, we can do lesser acts, empowered by His, that point others to the only one who is truly great.

Many today want to emphasize the cross only or mainly as a moral act to be replicated, an example to be followed, rather than an atonement in our place, but if there is no redemption, then the example is ludicrous. Tim Keller illustrates,

Imagine that you are walking along a river with a friend, and your friend suddenly says to you, ‘I want to show you how much I love you!’ and with that he throws himself into the river and drowns. Would you say in response, ‘How he loved me!’ No, of course not. You’d wonder about your friend’s mental state. But what if you were walking along a river with a friend and you fell into the river by accident, and you can’t swim. What if he dived in after you and pushed you to safety but was himself drawn under by the current and drowned. Then you would respond, ‘Behold, how he loved me!’ The example of Jesus is a bad example if it is only an example. If there was no peril to save us from—if we were not lost apart from the ransom of his death—then the model of his sacrificial love is not moving and life-changing; it is crazy. Unless Jesus died as our substitute, he can’t die as a moving example of sacrificial love.

Underlying Christus Exemplar is penal substitutionary atonement.

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. —1 Peter 2:21-24 (ESV)

Christ’s atoning service makes ours possible and makes it potent. The cross is the standard and the source; every lesser sacrifice points to the greatness of His.

[W]hoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. —1Peter 4:11 (ESV)

Grumbling at Grace (Matthew 20:1-16)

If you are honest with yourself you cry out with the first hour laborers, “Hey, not fair!” Jesus, as Nathan did David, causes us to indict ourselves. This is what this parable reveals about every fallen son of Adam—we hate grace! Adam wanted to be like God, and he wanted to be like God because he did something.

Douglas Wilson uses the following illustration. Say it is family movie night. Your wife is getting the movie ready, the children are getting situated just right, and you go to the kitchen. You make one of your children a big bowl, the biggest bowl of ice cream they have ever had. What do your other children say? “Hey!” The first child looks at their siblings with a insincerely confused look that asks, “What’s the big deal? The universe is as it should be. Shalom has come.” So you go back into the kitchen to make each of the protestors even bigger bowls. What then does the first child say? “Hey!” The issue isn’t the amount of ice cream in his bowl, but the amount in everyone else’s. The issue is the same as that of the “man” in Matthew 19:16-22, namely, covetousness, which is idolatry (Ephesians 5:5).

The point of this parable isn’t that heaven is a communist regime where everyone gets one scoop. The first hour-ers complain that they have been made equal but really they haven’t. The point here isn’t equality. It’s more radical than that. The point is that the last are first and the first are last. One group gets paid a Benjamin per hour, while another gets seven and a quarter. Things are not equal. But things are just. The first hour-ers think they are demanding justice, but really they are grumbling against grace. They howl, “We deserve grace too, No! we deserve more grace!” But that is as nonsensical as a child throwing a temper tantrum saying, “But I wanted a square circle!” Deserved grace isn’t even on the level of a mythical creature. God could create a unicorn should He desire to do so. Deserved grace however is a logical impossibility. As soon as grace becomes deserved it un-defines itself.

What is the point? Those who receive the most grace, receive the most grace. No one can bark against that. If it is justice you desire, you may have it, hot and eternal. So, next time you worship with God’s little ones, look around. Is there anyone there that it would bother you if they got a bigger bowl of ice cream from the Father?

If you are properly seeking the reward, this means you are seeking the biggest possible thing God could give you—Himself. This means when God glorifies Himself in being gracious to the least, you get exactly what you want—God glorified. It does not matter where the grace is dumped. God is glorified, and thus, you are satisfied. There is no grumble in your stomach. There is no grumble in your mouth. Grace anywhere, is grace everywhere to little ones.

Our Mutation and God’s Creation (Matthew 19:27-30)

When Adam said, “Hey, you gave her to me,” that wasn’t a good thing. We cannot blame our sin on the Giver or His gifts. Every gift God gives is good. It’s our grimy little hands that mess things up in the reception. Sin mutates. Contra DC Comics and MARVEL, mutations aren’t cool. Sin takes life and makes it death. It perverts good things into bad things.

Awareness of this causes some to be hyper-hesitant to speak of rewards. They feel two tensions; one between God’s glory and idolatry, the other between grace and merit. But does a gift, or a reward given necessarily cause you to love the gift more than the giver? If you have a wedding ring I hope you answer in the negative. Likewise, have you ever received a “reward,” that you thought was so disproportionate to any service rendered that it spoke more to the giver’s generosity than to your greatness?

Any reward we receive will come to us as grace upon grace. Let me show you with a barrage of texts.

[Y]ou yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5)

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

[W]ork out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13)

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21)

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:8)

You are being built by God to offer sacrifices, sacrifices that are then acceptable to God through Jesus, you are given a new heart, a heart that loves God and His law, God prepares opportunities for obedience and sets them before you, He equips you with everything you need to do that work, He works in us that which is pleasing in His sight, and makes His grace abound to us, and then, following and flowing from all of that, when we obey, He rewards it! That smells of merit as much as a Pepé Le Pew smells like an expensive cologne.

Say you get this lavish grace—overwhelmed with God’s generosity you are becoming generous. One way you are generous is that you want your son to be generous. You seek to graciously teach him about grace. You want your little tike to share to the glory of God. By God’s grace, your son shares his favorite Hot Wheel. But the friend destroys the borrowed wheels by eating them or something. Your son responds with grace. In joy you take him to buy a new favorite. Your son might mistake this for merit.

Your son grows in years and grace, and when a visiting missionary comes to town in need of a vehicle, your son offers up his ’96 Ford Tarus. The car gets totaled, and again your son responds with grace. This time you go and buy him one of three Lamborghini Venenos, with a 3.5 million dollar price tag. When this happens there is no chance that your son mistakes this reward for merit. He just thinks that his dad is nuts, but in a way that is really good for him.

When you get to heaven and hear, “Well done, now what shall I give you? Hmmm… here is a new earth, every inch radiating with the greatest of glory, the only glory there really is, Mine. And here are new eyes so that you don’t miss any of it. Also, that new heart that I gave you before; now you won’t have to worry about sin marring any of its affections. No, your joy will be able to soar without limits and without fear of heights. And here is a new brain to think and meditate on this new creation,”—when you see that your reward isn’t just earth size, that is to say a 6 followed by 21 zeros tons size, but a new earth dense with the glory of God size, which is to say infinite, then you will reply, “We are unworthy servants (Luke 17:10),” and “Worthy are you (Revelation 4:11).”

We render molecular size service and receive cosmic size rewards. The point isn’t our greatness but His. Why does God reward us so? Jesus.

Sin mutates, but God creates, and He recreates, and He always pronounces over His work, “Good!” In the new earth when He rewards, we won’t have to worry about that reward becoming an idol. This is because our hands, and everything attached to them won’t be grimy any more. We will enjoy things fully, and this means enjoying them unto Jesus’ glory.

God himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is the highest good, and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased. God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion of their souls. God is their wealth and treasure, their food, their Life, their dwelling- place, their ornament and diadem, and their everlasting honour and glory. They have none in heaven but God; he is the great good which the redeemed are received to at death, and which they are to rise to at the end of the world. The Lord God is the light of the heavenly Jerusalem; and is the ‘river of the water of life’ that runs, and ‘the tree of life that grows, in the midst of the paradise of God.’ The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what will for ever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting feast. The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things; they will enjoy the angels, and will enjoy one another; but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in any thing else whatsoever that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what shall be seen of God in them. —Jonathan Edwards

The Blessed Brought and the Cursed Comer (Matthew 19:13-26)

In all three synoptic gospels Jesus’ blessing the children is followed by the account of the “rich young ruler”. Noticing that these two incidents are paired is both helpful and hurtful. It is helpful in that it makes you look for a connection. It is hurtful because you prematurely label this man. Matthew wants to grab you with something easily overlooked, “behold, a man.” You don’t learn that this man is young and rich till much later. You only learn that he is a ruler from Luke. You have just seen children brought to Jesus, and now you see a man come.

The other gospels are helpful in creating even more contrast. In Matthew Jesus says, “little children;” how little are they? In Mark He takes them in His arms (Mark 10:16). In Luke it is said that they are “bringing even infants to Him (Luke 18:15).” These children have to be brought to Jesus, they cannot come otherwise, and the kingdom is made of such.

Critically dependent children are brought to Jesus and are blessed. A self-reliant man comes to Jesus and is cursed. If you are truly blessed it is because you were brought.

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day (John 6:44).”

When Jesus says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom note carefully the disciples question. They don’t want to know how a rich man then can be saved. They want to know how anyone can be saved. Jesus says that man cannot act; man must be acted upon. Man must be brought. God, by the Spirit must bring you to His Son, and then in the Son, you are brought to God as Father.

Hydrogen to Helium (Matthew 19:1-12)

1 + 1 = 1—this is the formula for marriage. Marriage is God turning two hydrogen into one helium. It’s fusion. But first, marriage is fission. A man must leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife. Family ties are near strongest. They have a-bomb power; fission power. Marriage is stronger. Marriage has star power; fusion power.

Marriage is held together by the strongest glue—Trinitarian strength glue. Only the triune God could be the author of such a mystery as 1 + 1 = 1. God made man in His own image and He made man male and female. One way that man images forth God is in marriage. There are many junk illustrations for the Trinity (water in three forms, clovers, an egg, etc.) but there is only one authorized metaphor. Marriage, though a limited analogy, it is an analogy after all, is a legitimate one, the best one (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:3).

How permanent is marriage supposed to be? As permanent as the Triune God. One man, one woman, forever, till death do them part and usher them fully into the eternal reality of which their earthly marriage was just a shadow. Anything less isn’t marriage, it’s “mar-age.”

Let not man do fission where God has done fusion. When you toy with divorce you need to know you are playing with a nuclear warhead. You can’t seek to undo God’s work without the effects being cataclysmic.

Beyond 2 × 10 to the 30th Power (Matthew 18:21-35)

1 denarius = 1 days wage.

1 talent = 6,000 denarri or over 16 years of labor.

10,000 talents = over 160,000 years of labor.

Our debt is cosmic, our sins so weighty they make galaxies look miniscule. Your smallest sin is more weighty than the sun. The sun’s mass is estimated at just shy of 2 × 1030 kg. That is a 2 followed by 30 zeros! The sun is so massive it accounts for approximately 99.8 percent of the mass in our solar system. Yet, the sun is finite. Your sins are infinite. They are committed against a God who is infinitely worthy of glory, of obedience, of love. Sin is that big a deal because God is that big a deal.

Whatever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23). Think how many seconds of your existence you live without faith. That is how often you live in sin. Ponder how even your every good work is only purified as it is offered up to God through Christ (1 Peter 2:5). You have committed galaxies of sins, with each sin more weighty than a star. Feel the weight of your sins that make the universe comparatively shrink to the size of spinning electrons.

But this is a weak effort to show you the scale of our sins. The best place to look is not up into heavens, but down here on earth at a tree and a naked bleeding Christ hanging on it, under a dark sky.

Truly it [the gospel] is the greatest and purest testimony against sin. Though sinners find favor from the Gospel, sin finds none. The Gospel is not the least indulgent to the least sin. —Ralph Venning

How massive are our sins? The only possible way that our debt could be cancelled, is if the infinitely glorious and beloved Son of God takes on human flesh, achieves all righteousness in our place, and suffers the full wrath of God for our sins. For God to create a star is easy. He need only speak. But to ransom man, God must bleed.

At the cross now you see not only the expanse of your depravity, but the exhaustiveness of God’s grace. And if you say you’ve tasted of this grace, you will be forgiving (1 John 3:10, 15; 4:7, 11; 4:19-21).

More than someone will ever sin against you, they sin against God. God is always the most offended party in sin. When against you, man’s sins are all earth size. Most are pebbles, you should generally just overlook those in forbearance and love. Sometime our brother’s sins are boulders. When boulders are tossed you should confront your brother per the house rules Jesus had just given. If they repent, you must forgive them, for this is beyond comparing boulders to stars.