Rebecca Stark is the author of The Good Portion: Godthe second title in The Good Portion series.

The Good Portion: God explores what Scripture teaches about God in hopes that readers will see his perfection, worth, magnificence, and beauty as they study his triune nature, infinite attributes, and wondrous works. 

                     

Tuesday
Apr242007

Car Wash Blues

305688128_3de3e3ddb1.jpgThis weekend I did my spring cleaning of the car.  I sprayed off the winter’s accumulation of grime and the spring’s muddy splashes, and then spent the last couple of days admiring my sparkling vehicle.  

This morning when I went out to drive youngest son to school, here’s what I found:  A very large bird (or so I assume) had done his business down the driver’s door from top to bottom.  It was too late to take care of the problem before I left, so I had to take special care while driving, double checking before I pulled out into traffic just in case there was an approaching tractor-trailor hidden behind the dried bird business on my window.

Since this wasn’t really something I could take care of with a spray bottle of Windex and a paper towel, I stopped by the car wash on my way home.  It’s is a busy place this time of year, and I took my place in line to wait my turn.  Eventually, I made it to the front of the line, with a couple of cars waiting behind me.  Just as the bay in front of me emptied, a black BMW sedan whipped in from out of nowhere and squeezed himself in front of my car, taking his turn ahead of me and everyone else who had been waiting.  It was a maneuver as admirable for it’s slickness as it was deplorable for it’s rudeness.
 
I did nothing. Neither did the other waiting drivers. What do you do when someone’s that blatant in their disregard for waiting line etiquette? 
 
But there was an interesting buzz among the other drivers, as if we were instant friends as we washed our cars. I had a story to tell when I got home, and the doo is gone. Would I really want things any other way?
Monday
Apr232007

Purposes of Christ's Death: Ephesians 2:14-16

This is another reposting from a series of posts examining the statements of purpose that scripture gives us regarding the death of Christ You can find the other posts from this series by clicking on the purposes of Christ’s death label at the end of this post.

The text examined in this post is Ephesians 2:14-16:

For He Himself is our peace, who made both {groups into} one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, {which is} the Law of commandments {contained} in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, {thus} establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. (NASB)
The purpose statement here is “so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, {thus} establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.” In Christ’s death, God  intended to bring two hostile groups together and to reconcile them to each other and to himself.

I suppose the first thing we need to do is determine who are the two groups referrenced.  The context tells us that these are the Jewish people and the Gentiles.
Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” {which is} performed in the flesh by human hands— {remember} that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (vs. 11-13)
The terms Gentiles, Uncircumcision, separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, without God in the world, and formerly…far off all refer to those who were not part of the nation Israel—or the Jews, or the Circumcision.

The covenants (or the Law of commandments) served as a line of demarcation between the two groups, and was a source of enmity or hostility, because it excluded those who did not come under the umbrella of the nation Israel. Christ’s death, however, took away the hostility between the two groups by what the NASB calls “abolishing in His flesh the enmity, {which is} the Law of commandments {contained} in ordinances”.  The dividing effects of the law —the enmity—is nullified in Christ’s death, because the new covenant established in Christ’s blood includes all those of faith, both Jew and Gentile. There is no longer a demarcation line based on national allegiance.

In the new order brought into being in by the death of Christ, there is not longer hostility between the Jews and all other people, but the two groups can be joined together to make “one new man”. This one new man is a new kind of corporate entity made up of all those–from the Jews and from the Gentiles—who are in Christ. Joining both Jews and Gentiles as one corporate group united in Christ establishes peace between the two formerly hostile groups.

Through the cross both groups are also reconciled “in one body” to God. The meaning of in one body is a bit unclear. It could mean the same thing that is meant when is says that the two groups are made into one new man, or it could mean that they are both united together with Christ’s one body in His death. The context could be used to support either one of these options. Either way, the point is that the groups are reconciled to each other and also reconciled to God through Christ’s death on the cross.

A little side note on the term barrier of the dividing wall in verse 14: Many commentators take this to be an allusion to the wall separating the Gentiles from the inner courts of the temple in Jerusalem. However, Leon Morris,  in The Atonement: Its Meaning and Significance, says that “It would be too much to say that Paul is writing about this wall.” Whether this exclusionary wall is what Paul is referring to or not, that there was such a wall tells us something about the deep division between Jew and Gentile under the ordinances of the law.

One of the purposes of Christ’s death was to break down the division of hostility between the Jews and the Gentiles, to reconcile them to each other, gathering them into one unified entity, and to reconcile both Jew and Gentile together to God himself.

 

Sunday
Apr222007

Sunday's Hymn: William Cowper

el036.pngWilliam Cowper’s childhood was full of difficult things, and he was not what we would call a resilient child. As an adult, he suffered from depression and tried to commit suicide several times over the years. After his first suicide attempt, he became convinced of his own deep sinfulness and that he was under God’s wrath, but along with this he also became convinced that his sin, especially his suicide attempt, was so offensive to God that there was no way for him to be forgiven of it.  

The conviction that he was beyond God’s forgiveness drove him even deeper into despair and he was sent to a mental asylum.  In the asylum, he was under the care of Dr. Nathaniel Cotton, who held out hope of God’s forgiveness to Cowper, but Cowper remained unconvinced.
 
What finally convinced him? It was reading the scripture while in the asylum, especially one verse from Romans. Quoting from John Piper’s account of Cowper’s life in Insanity and Spiritual Songs in the Soul of a Saint:
… he turned again to the Bible and the first verse he saw was Romans 3:25: “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.”
Immediately I received the strength to believe it, and the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone upon me. I saw the sufficiency of the atonement He had made, my pardon sealed in His blood, and all the fullness and completeness of His justification. In a moment I believed, and received the gospel ….
So when you read the words of Cowper’s most well-known hymn, set them against that background.  Because Cowper had felt so fully the despair of the condemnation of his sin, he understood in a deeper way than most that his only hope was in the one sacrifice that turns away God’s wrath—the “propitiation … in his blood.”
 

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.
Washed all my sins away, washed all my sins away;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.
Be saved, to sin no more, be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
And shall be till I die, and shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.

Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy power to save,
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.
Lies silent in the grave, lies silent in the grave;
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.

Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, unworthy though I be,
For me a blood bought free reward, a golden harp for me!
’Tis strung and tuned for endless years, and formed by power divine,
To sound in God the Father’s ears no other name but Thine.

(Listen: Piano or Choctaw singers.) 


Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

Have you posted a hymn this Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I’ll add your post to the list.