Sunday's Hymn: Marvelous Grace of Our Loving Lord

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,
Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all my sin.

Sin and despair like the sea waves cold,
Threaten the soul with infinite loss;
Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold,
Points to the refuge, the mighty cross.

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide,
What can avail to wash it away?
Look! there is flowing a crimson tide;
Whiter than snow you may be today.

—Julia H. Johnston

Other hymns, worship songs, or quotes for this Sunday:

• The Book My Mother Read at The Happy Wonderer
• They Taught Him to Love Jesus at The Outspoken Tulip

Selected Reading, May 9, 2020

This week’s reading recommendations. 

Christian History

10 Things You Should Know about the Church’s Historic Creeds and Confessions
Ten reasons to love the historic creeds and confessions.

Christine de Pizan - Theologian and Mother
A biographical sketch of Christine de Pizan, the first professional woman writer in France, who was also a single mother (Simonetta Carr).

Book Recommendations

Why I Keep Returning to an Old Book on Atonement
Randy Newman writes: “The Atonement examines our Messiah’s death and resurrection through a multifaceted lens of New Testament words—covenant, sacrifice, Day of Atonement, Passover, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, and justification. The cumulative effect fits well under the banner, ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.’ Indeed, Morris’s work is both worship-inducing and sanctification-accelerating.” 

I’ve been recommending this book for years. I’m not sure how many people I actually convinced to read it, but you really should read The Atonement by Leon Morris!

Mother’s Day Book Giveaway!
If you are on Facebook, you can enter this giveaway of the four books (so far) in the Good Portion Books series. But you need to hurry! (And while we are on the subject, here’s an interview with Jenny Manley, author of The Good Portion: Christ, one of the two new books in the series out this spring.)

Theological Term of the Week: Baptism of Jesus

baptism of Jesus
An important historical event in the life of Jesus in which he was baptized by John the Baptist at the beginning of his public ministry. Accounts of this event are recorded in all four gospels. 

• In scripture:

  [13] Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. [14] John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” [15] But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. [16] And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; [17] and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:13–17 ESV)

• From the ESV Study Bible notes on Matthew 3:15:

  Jesus’ baptism inaugurates his ministry and fulfills God’s saving activity prophesied throughout the OT, culminating with his death on the cross (cf. John 1:31–34). In so doing, Jesus also endorses John’s ministry and message and links his mission to John’s. Although he needed no repentance or cleansing, Jesus identifies with the sinful people he came to save through his substitutionary life and death (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21).

Learn more:

1. Bible Study Tools: Baptism of Jesus (includes the accounts from all four gospels)
2. Got Questions: Why was Jesus baptized?
3. Ligonier Ministries: Jesus Baptism in the Jordon
4. Jonathan Pennington: Why Did Jesus Need to Be Baptized?
5. Alistair Begg: The Baptism of Jesus (audio)

Related terms: 

• ascension of Jesus
• deity of Christ
• incarnation
• resurrecton of Jesus
• temptation of Jesus
• Transfiguration
• triumphal entry

 1 From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof

Filed under Person, Work, and Teaching of Christ

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