No suit of apparel is by God thought good enough for the soul, but that which is made by God himself, and that is that curious thing, the body. But oh! how little is this considered, namely, the greatness of the soul. Tis the body, the clothes, the suit of apparel, that our foolish fancies are taken with, not at all considering the richness and excellency of that great and more noble part, the soul, for which the body is made a mantle to wrap it up in, a garment to clothe it withal. If a man gets a rent in his clothes, it is little in comparison of a rent in his flesh; yea, he comforts himself when he looks on that rent, saying, Thanks be to God, it is not a rent in my flesh. But ah! on the contrary, how many are there in the world that are more troubled for that they have a rent, a wound, or a disease in the body, than for that they have for the souls that will be lost and cast away. – John Bunyan, The Greatness of the Soul
Matthew 16:21-28 & Satanic Vandalism
The disciples have received a canvas and they recognize the silhouette. “That’s the king,” they confess. Now Jesus wants to make the silhouette a portrait; He wants to fill in the lines. Peter has received revelation from the Father that Jesus is the Christ, now He is receiving further revelation as to what that means from the Christ. Jesus tells them, “You see a crown, but do you notice its thorns? You see a throne, but do you see that a cross undergirds it?”
Peter is ready to receive the canvas and its silhouette, but he wants to paint a mustache over God’s Mona Lisa. He thinks he can improve upon God’s masterpiece. Peter has the right picture. He has been given a paint by numbers sheet. Number 2 is royal blue, and number 1 is supposed to be blood red. Peter wants to improvise. No longer content to be the disciple he wants to be the rabbi. He decides everything should be royal blue. But Jesus says red is a “must.” The masterpiece of God’s kingdom has a lot of blood red in it, and Jesus tells His disciples that no one else can paint it. He must bleed to paint this glory.
Trying to paint over the cross and keep the Christ is satanic vandalism. In the wilderness Satan tried to offer Jesus the world without the cross. Peter is acting here as Satan’s disciple, not Jesus’. Many have tried to keep the glory without the gory, but the paint won’t stick. Blood red is the primer for Jesus’ work of new creation.
Now let me fill in some lines. Some act like they keep the cross, but they hollow it out, and then cover it with precious metal. No more blood. Many that deny that Jesus was paying the penalty for sins in the place of sinners to reconcile them to God will affirm many other truths about the cross, but the paint wont stick. Deny ransom, deny propitiation, deny substitution, and whatever cross you may embrace, it ain’t Jesus’. The cross is the crux, and the crux of the cross is penal substitutionary atonement. This is crucial to God’s masterpiece.
If a child were to paint over a revered piece of artwork in a museum with their crayons, this is one time when daddy and mommy would’t praise their creativity. When an aspiring adult artist does this, it isn’t ignorant creativity, its damnable vandalism. Don’t expect the Father’s accolades when you try to paint by different numbers. This is an instance where creativity is best termed heresy.
Tolle Lege: King’s Cross
Readability: 1
Length: 230 pp
Author: Tim Keller
King’s Cross is classic Keller. That means this is a good book. King’s Cross is adapted well from a sermon series through the Mark. The book doesn’t read like a collection of sermons, and picks up only on keys texts. This is a great book for a believer or an unbeliever; both can profit from it. It is an even better book for a believer to go through with an unbeliever. The story of the gospel is clearly, faithfully, freshly, and insightfully told. If that is not an enticing book recommendation, then it should be.
Something happened in the garden—Jesus saw, felt, sensed something—and it shocked the unshockable Son of God. What was it? He was facing something beyond physical torment, even beyond physical death—something so much worse that these were like flea bites by comparison. He was smothered by a mere whiff of what he would go through on the cross. Didn’t he know he was going to die? Yes, but we’re not talking about information here. Of course he knew that; he had told the disciples so repeatedly. But now he is beginning to taste what he will experience on the cross, and it goes far beyond physical torture and death. What is this terrible thing? It’s at the very heart of Jesus’ prayer here. He says, “Take this cup from me.”
WTS Books: $14.53 Amazon:$17.30
The Pilgrim: Faith vs. Presumption
The design of Satan is to tell the presumptuous, that their presuming on mercy is good; but to persuade the believer, that his believing is impudent bold dealing with God. I never heard a presumptuous man in my life fay that he was afraid that he presumed ; but I have heard many an honest, humble foul say, that they have been afraid that their faith has been presumption. -John Bunyan, The Jerusalem Sinner Saved
Matthew 16:13-20 & Damnation by Imagination
When asked who people say Jesus is, the disciples only give the “good answers.” They don’t include the bad ones; they don’t mention the Pharisees’ blasphemous accusations of Jesus’ casting out demons by Beelzebul. Yet, none of the “good answers” are good enough. You can’t get partial credit on this test. This is a true or false question. Jesus is a prophet, but saying He is Elijah or Jeremiah doesn’t count for even 33%. The crowds are in awe of Jesus, and they flunk. “Who do you say Jesus is?” This is the one question test that everyone either eternally passes or fails.
There is a contrast here, but not between the crowd’s awe-filled speculations and the Pharisees’ jealously-filled accusations; it is between the crowd’s opinions and the disciples’ confession. It does not matter how great you think Jesus is, if you think Him to be less than He is. Drop Him the slightest notch and you will find yourself falling endlessly into a bottomless pit.
Imagine you are talking on the phone with your wife. You use the most flowery language to express your endearment to her, you press the limits of poetry to convey her beauty, but you do this using another woman’s name and attributes. It matters not how highly you praise her blond hair when it’s brown. Think Jesus less than He is, and He is not flattered.
Do you believe in Jesus, or do you believe in the Jesus you believe in? An imaginary Jesus produces only imaginary salvation. This ain’t Peter Pan; just because you believe it don’t make it fly. We do not preach faith in faith. We do not preach, “believe and you can fly.” We do not preach, “believe and you will be saved.” We preach Christ and Him crucified. We preach, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!”
“Oh, I believe in the Jesus of the Bible. I believe that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Ok, let me push a bit. What does that mean? If you can’t fill in the lines, you’re still trying to fly using your own magic fairy dust.
If you rebut that Peter didn’t understand everything his confession meant I would retort, “You can be confused with Peter, but can you understand with him?” Sure, Peter didn’t understand everything this meant, but he did understand truth as to what it meant, and this truth was being given to him by Jesus’ Father. The confession that saves is a confession that is understood, and it is understood because it is revealed by the Father. Any thing less than this, is at best, damning.
The Pilgrim: If I Had a Thousand Gallons of Blood
CHR. This was a revelation of Christ to your soul indeed; but tell me particularly what effect this had upon your spirit.
HOPE. It made me see that all the world, notwithstanding all the righteousness thereof, is in a state of condemnation. It made me see that God the Father, though he be just, can justly justify the coming sinner. It made me greatly ashamed of the vileness of my former life, and confounded me with the sense of mine own ignorance; for there never came thought into my for there never came thought into my heart before now that showed me so the beauty of Jesus Christ. It made me love a holy life, and long to do something for the honour and glory of the name of the Lord Jesus; yea, I thought that had I now a thousand gallons of blood in my body, I could spill it all for the sake of the Lord Jesus. -John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress
Matthew 16:1-12 – Don’t Ride with Stupid
You’re riding in the back. Driving the car is a politician. Acting as navigator and “back-seat driver,” annoying the politician thoroughly, is an intellectual. They hate each other. You are on the interstate heading from San Antonio desiring to reach Corpus Christi. Just outside of San Antonio you see the typical green sign with white lettering that reads, “Corpus Christi – 137 miles.” Signs update you of the closing distance at several intervals. As you get closer you see a sign that reads, “Corpus Christi, Exit I-37, right lane, 3 miles.” Shortly, more signs read the same, except the numbers slowly countdown, “2, 1, ¾, ½, ¼.” Surprisingly, your seemingly competent driver and navigator pass the exit and continue south on I-69 towards “Nowhere, TX” missing Corpus Christi – “the body of Christ.” You ask, “What are you doing? You missed your exit.” “No we did not, we haven’t seen any signs.” “What! There have been plenty, they are green and white along the side of the road!” The politician exclaims, “I hate green signs and pay no attention to them. I’m looking for a sign in the heavens.” “I do not agree with you about the green,” interrupts the intellectual, “I hate signs with white lettering, but you are right on one count, I too am looking for a sign in the heavens.”
You are riding with a Sadducee and a Pharisee. Although they hate each other, there is a deep kind of stupid that unites them. Discontent that heaven has come down, they want an aerial banner to give them driving directions. With their arrogant noses turned up, they look only to the heavens – this is a deadly way to drive.
Like a wise parent Jesus tells us, “Don’t ride with stupid. They can’t get you to Corpus Christi, the body of the Christ. They always take a wrong turn.” This isn’t judgmental arrogance, its recognizing danger. It is recognizing the fool of Proverbs and avoiding him as instructed.
The Pharisees can interpret the sky regarding weather, but their spiritual barometers are broke. They don’t sense the force heaven is exerting downward. They don’t realize the sky is falling. There are signs, “signs of the times,” Jesus calls them, but they are blind to the green and white that the Authority has posted. They don’t want to bow to the authority, they want to be the authority. They want to be the teachers and make Jesus wear the dunce hat.
It does not matter if you turn up the volume for the deaf, or get a bigger screen for the blind. To believe, man needs not a miracle on the outside, but on the inside. Say you are a morning person and your spouse is not. You want them to know the glory and joy of a fresh bright morning. So you turn the lights on and commence whistling a tune. This unleashes their fury. You reason, “They love the day, so more light will make them love the morning.” To the previous day’s exercise you add throwing open the room darkening shades to let the blazing morning sun burst in. There is more light, but you discover you can’t make a morning person by more light. More light only exacerbates the problem.
There must be light within as well as without. Fallen man does not need new signs, he needs a new heart.
This is why we should avoid Pharisees and Saducees, for if the blind lead the blind, they never reach Corpus Christi, they will never confess, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
The Pilgrim: Tainted Love
I still see sin, new sin, mixing itself with the best of that I do; so that now I am forced to conclude, that notwithstanding my former fond conceits of myself and duties, I have committed sin enough in one duty to send me to hell, though my former life had been faultless. -John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress
Matthew 15:29-39 – Healing in the Hands of the King
We have seen many healing summaries like the one in vv. 29-31, and Jesus just fed the 5,000 in the previous chapter, so why revisit these themes? The greatest danger we face every Sunday is not a failure to learn something new, but a failure to remember something old. As Luther said, the gospel must be beat into our heads continually. We must visit the same themes again and again because we forget. There is a feast for us here too. The feast we must partake of daily; God’s miracle Manna for us in our wilderness.
Yet, there is something distinct about this summary, and the feeding of the four thousand. Jesus has left the area of Tyre and Sidon and headed back to Galilee (Matthew 15:21, 29); so He has withdrawn from Gentile country, right? The acute reader among Matthew’s original audience would ask which side of Galilee Jesus is on. Mark informs us that He is in the region of the Decapolis. The Decapolis was a league of hellenized cities that were predominately southeast of Galilee. Jesus is still in Gentile country. Matthew brings this out when He says this crowd, “glorified the God of Israel.” The messianic feast is for the Gentiles too (Matthew 8:11). The kingdom has dawned, and its salvation is sweeping up the Gentiles too.
So these healings and the feeding are to be linked with the healing of the Gentile woman in Matthew 15:21-28. She came to Jesus crying out for the “Son of David,” to have mercy. She bowed before Him and called Him “Lord”. Why would a Canaanite woman come to a Jewish King – for healing? When the Jewish Messiah came, Isaiah foretold the effects of His rule:
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert (Isaiah 35:5-6).
Adam was a king under God. He was given dominion over the earth. He was told in Genesis 2:15 to work and keep (guard). Because of Adam’s presence the garden was to be safe and flourish. But Adam didn’t protect the garden. He let the dragon in. Now everything, instead of flourishing, is wilting. Because of Adam’s sin we are not safe, we are under the dragon’s sway. Because of Adam’s sin, we are not flourishing, all of creation is in a state of chaos.
But Jesus comes as the second Adam (Romans 5:14, 17). As Adam’s disobedience resulted in de-creation, Jesus’ obedience results in new creation. All things are put under His feet. He is undoing the curse and putting all things right. Jesus comes into our wilderness, and instead of making food for Himself, becomes God’s miracle Manna for us. The desert is blooming! Things are again becoming safe. Things are flourishing. Even death itself is working backwards.
In The Lord of the Rings, Aaragon the long awaited king saves Minias Tirith, the great city of men. The salvation he brings the city comes because he chose a deadly path. He does not look like a king, he has lived as a wanderer. How was the city to know their king? It was said, “The hands of the King are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known.”
When black breath blows
and death’s shadow grows
and all lights pass,
come athelas!
come athelas!
Life to the dying
In the king’s hand lying!
Our King came disguised. He rode a donkey, not a mighty stead. He took the deadliest road, defeated the dragon, and conquered death. How are we healed? From where does our healing come? It is in the hands of the King. Those hands had to become incarnate. They had to take on flesh, be pierced, and let blood. Blood so precious, it is making all safe. Blood full of life causing all to flourish.
The Pilgrim: Christ Himself Is the Christian’s Armoury
Christ Himself is the Christian’s armoury. When he puts on Christ, he is then completely armed from head to foot. Are his loins girt about with truth? Christ is the truth. Has he on the breastplate of righteousness? Christ is our righteousness. Are his feet shod with the Gospel of peace? Christ is our peace. Does he take the shield of faith, and helmet of salvation? Christ is that shield, and all our salvation. Does he take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God? Christ is the Word of God. Thus he puts on the Lord Jesus Christ; by His Spirit fights the fight of faith; and, in spite of men, of devils, and of his own evil heart, lays hold of eternal life. Thus Christ is all in all. -John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress
No Other Boast 