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. 

                     

Entries by rebecca (4086)

Thursday
Mar202008

Gospel List 1

Disciples-visit-tomb.jpgWhat is the gospel?

  • It is “…Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David….”  (2 Timothy 2:8)
  • It is “the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light.” (2 Timothy 1:10)
  • It is the preaching or proclaiming of Christ. (Philippians 1)
  • It is the unsearchable riches of Christ. (Ephesians 1:7-13)
  • It is the word of truth. (Ephesians 1:13)
  • It is the promise of God to Abraham that “In you shall all the nations be blessed,”  which, of course, refers to Christ and his work. (Galatians 3:7-14)
  • It is the revelation of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1:11-17)
  • It is the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
  • It is that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8)
  • It is the word of the cross. (1 Corinthians 1:17-18)
  • It is the preaching of Jesus Christ. (Romans 16:25)
  • It is the naming of Christ. (Romans 15:20)
  • It is the word of Christ; it is the good news that Jesus is Lord and God has raised him from the dead. (Romans 10:5-14)
  • It includes the truth that “God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 2:16)
  • Is was “promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures.” (Romans 1:2)
  • It is “concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord…” (Romans 1:3-4)
  • It is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16)

What I’ve done here is look at every mention of the gospel in Paul’s epistles, searching for clues to the content of the gospel in the statements made about the gospel. If you feel this list comes out of the blue, read the comments here.

I intended to hold this post until after Easter, since I’ve been more or less taking this week off from blogging. (Most of the poetry posts were queued up beforehand, waiting to publish automatically. All I’ve been doing each day is adding the links to other posted poems and correcting my misspellings and other goofs.) But I’ve changed my mind. After all, Easter is, first and foremost about the gospel, the good news that the Son of God came down and lived among us, died for our sins, was buried and then raised again on the third day.

Thursday
Mar202008

Poetry of the Cross: Praise for the Fountain Opened

Let’s continue the poems with two by William Cowper himself, who was the subject of yesterday’s cross poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The first one is not a poem of the cross, but rather, one that sets the stage for the cross poem. But first, let me quote a bit from an earlier post on Cowper’s life.

After [Cowper’s] 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.
And that’s exactly what you’ll find in this first poem from Cowper—the conviction that he was beyond God’s forgiveness.
LINES WRITTEN DURING A PERIOD OF INSANITY

Hatred and vengence -my eternal portion
Scarce can endure delay of execution -
Wait with impatient readiness to seize my
Soul in a moment.

Damned below Judas; more abhorred than he was,
Who for a few pence sold his holy Master!
Twice betrayed, Jesus me, the last delinquent,
Deems the profanest.

Man disavows, and Deity disowns me:
Hell might afford my miseries a shelter;
Therefore Hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all
Bolted against me.

Hard lot! encompassed with a thousand dangers;
Weary, faint, trembling with a thousand terrors,
I’m called, if vanquished, to receive a sentence
Worse than Abiram’s.

Him the vindictive rod of angry Justice
Sent quick and howling to the centre headlong;
I, fed with judgment, in a fleshy tomb am
Buried above ground.

What changed that for him? It was reading the scripture while in the asylum, especially one verse, 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.
Here’s what William Cowper says about his conversion experience.
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 now you know the background to one of Cowper’s best known Olney Hymns:
XV. PRAISE FOR THE FOUNTAIN OPENED. Zechariah xiii.1.

There is a fountain fill’d with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
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, as vile as he,
Wash’d all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransom’d 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.

Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing thy power to save;
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 form’d by power divine,
To sound in God the Father’s ears
No other name but thine.

You’ll find all of Cowper’s Olney Hymns, several of them cross-centered, here.

More Poetry of the Cross

You are welcome to join me in my celebration of Poetry of the Cross if you wish. Just post a cross-centered poem any day of this week (or every day of this week) and send me the link to your poem. I’ll link back to your poem in the next Poetry of the Cross post.
Wednesday
Mar192008

Poetry of the Cross: Cowper's Grave

From Elizabeth Barrett Browning about another British poet, William Cowper, whose sad life I’ve written about here and here. The short story behind this poem is this: William Cowper was a believer who suffered from some kind of mental illness and lived much of his life in hopelessness. In his melancholy episodes, which were long lasting, he was convinced that he had been forsaken by God. This is Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s reflections on his life and afterlife.
 
It is about Cowper, yes, but more than that, it is a poem of the cross of Christ.
Text not available
 

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