Gospel.com Blog

Today’s devotional comes from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. In it, he explores the true source of our atonement: Jesus’ death:

Beware of the pleasant view of the fatherhood of God: God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That thought, based solely on emotion, cannot be found anywhere in the New Testament. The only basis on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ. To base our forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us to His favor is through the Cross of Christ. There is no other way! Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary. We should never take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our sanctification in simple faith, and then forget the enormous cost to God that made all of this ours.

Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace. The cost to God was the Cross of Christ. To forgive sin, while remaining a holy God, this price had to be paid. Never accept a view of the fatherhood of God if it blots out the atonement. The revealed truth of God is that without the atonement He cannot forgive— He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God through the atonement of the Cross. God’s forgiveness is possible only in the supernatural realm.

Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is small. Sanctification is simply the wonderful expression or evidence of the forgiveness of sins in a human life. But the thing that awakens the deepest fountain of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven his sin. Paul never got away from this. Once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vise, constrained by the love of God.

Do you take time to regularly reflect on what the death of Jesus made possible for you?

Today’s devotional is from Ron Hutchcraft Ministries’ daily A Word With You series. In it, Ron challenges us—even those of us who have grown up with and lived in Christian communities for years—to rethink the simple message of the Gospel:

From the first sin in the Garden of Eden to the lie you told or the person you hurt today, God has minced no words telling us the penalty, “You will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). And the devil’s lie to Adam and Eve went like this: “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). He’s been trying to get people to believe that lie ever since. He wants you to think that somehow you can escape the death penalty for your sin when God said that penalty is irrevocable.

But in His love, He set in motion a way that the death penalty you and I deserve (the Bible calls that hell) could be paid without us being away from Him forever. A blood sacrifice – someone with no sin of His own to pay for, dying in your place. And there’s only one someone who meets that qualification. That is the Son of God. He came, as the Bible says, “to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26). Is it any wonder God says then, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).

You can’t get rid of your sin by earning it, by doing good things. You can’t inherit God’s forgiveness from a Christian family or pick it up by osmosis from just being around Christian things your whole life. Your only hope of getting clean, of getting to heaven, is the cleansing power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Not Christianity. Jesus. The question is, have you ever thrown yourself on His mercy and said, “Jesus, only by the blood You shed for me can I be clean before God. Please, Lord, this day, carry away the garbage of my life in Your precious blood.” And He will do it if you ask.

And why wouldn’t you? Why would you risk one more day carrying in your soul the guilt of your sin and its awful death penalty? Why, when Jesus carried it for you on the cross so you would never have to carry it again! If you’re ready to be forgiven, if you’re ready to be clean through what Jesus has done for you, tell Him that today, “Jesus, I’m Yours.”

Read the full devotional at Ron Hutchcraft Ministries. If you like Ron’s message and style, there’s a lot of great content to browse through at his site, including the A Word With You archives, many articles about difficult life issues, and more.

Was the timing of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion significant?

The crucifixion took place during the Jewish celebration of the Passover feast, which commemorated God’s sparing of Israel’s firstborn sons during their captivity in Egypt, and their subsequent rescue from slavery. It’s not too difficult to see the thematic connection between Christ’s sacrifice and the events of the first Passover.

But Mart De Haan, writing at the Been Thinking About blog, observes that the timing of Easter holds even more connections to the Old Testament calendar if you dig deeper into the story. He sees a strong tie between Easter and the Jewish spring feasts:

In addition to fulfilling the mysterious predictions of prophets, Jesus showed how deeply his life was rooted in the annual celebrations of Israel.

…the fulfillment of [feast and holiday] patterns like this combine with the mysterious prophecies that predicted Messiah’s death (i.e Isa 53; Dan 9:26) to give us a compelling and convincing statement that the Passover Lamb was all that Jesus claimed to be– and far more.

It’s an interesting exploration of Easter from a fresh angle, and a reminder that there’s a lot of depth to the Easter account that isn’t obvious to a modern reader, but which would’ve been quite apparent to a contemporary audience. If this sort of Bible trivia fascinates you, RBC Ministries has an online booklet that goes into more detail about the annual cycle of feasts in the Old Testament.

Zechariah is the second-to-last book in the Old Testament. It’s far from the longest book in the Bible, and Zechariah is far from the most famous prophet. But the book of Zechariah is incredibly important to the overarching theme of the Bible: its prophecies clearly and plainly predict the coming of Jesus Christ.

The prophet Zechariah is believed to have carried out his ministry at the same time as Haggai, who we looked at last week. It was a dark time for God’s people; in the aftermath of a long captivity in a foreign land, it was unclear what the future held for the remnant of Judah.

But in an uncertain time, Zechariah’s preaching rang out with hope and the promise of restoration. In chapter 12, Zechariah predicts a trying future—but promises that God will preserve His people through it:

The LORD will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the LORD going before them.

But beyond these general prophecies, the book of Zechariah is sprinkled with predictions that seem to point strongly at Christ and His saving work. Early in the book, God promises that He will “bring my servant, the Branch”; later comes a reference to God as “the one they have pierced”, and even a mention of thirty pieces of silver!

Zechariah’s clear hints about Jesus Christ make it a fascinating book to read, and especially appropriate as Easter approaches. It’s also filled with very memorable imagery, evocative descriptions of angels, and a strong message of reassurance. For all its import, it’s only 14 chapters long—consider adding it to your Lent reading list this week!

If somebody challenged you to defend your belief in the resurrection of Jesus on Easter, what would you say?

Is there any evidence that the Resurrection actually historically happened? Why should anybody believe that the Easter story isn’t a fairy tale cooked up by early Christians?

There’s no event more miraculous or important in the entire Bible than Jesus’ resurrection, and so it’s natural that skeptics would focus their challenges on the Resurrection story. And in fact, Christians should be honest and forthright in asking themselves: why do I believe in Jesus and the Easter story?

The FaithFacts ministry specializes in laying out evidence and answers in response to tough questions about Christianity, and their collection of evidence for the Resurrection is excellent reading at this time of year. Without overplaying their hand, they lay out a compelling case that reasonable people can and should take the Easter story seriously. So whether you’re looking for help in answering a critic’s charges, or want to find answers that will address your own honest questions about Jesus and the Resurrection, see if FaithFacts’ case makes sense to you.

No one would argue that Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies is easy. In fact, it might just be the hardest of his commands. I know from time to time I’ve wondered—did he really mean all of our enemies?

In this article Delve into Jesus discusses what it means to love our enemies:

The love of which Jesus speaks is not a feeling in any sense of the word. It is a decision resulting in action. It is a choice you make that has nothing whatsoever to do with how you feel, and quite often, occurs in spite of a feeling to the contrary. This kind of love judges the needs of a person but never the person themselves, and responds according to the gravity of the need, never the character of the person. [...]

This is the kind of love that Christ demands – not a feeling, but rather a spirit of service, selflessness and humility. It is the ability to give to others with no regard to what they can do to repay you, what they feel for you or what you feel for them.

Jump over to the site to read the rest of the article from Delve into Jesus.

As part of the Christmas celebration celebration, many of us will read through the Christmas story again (you can find it in Luke 2:1-20). And although the written part of story is relatively short, it’s full of little touches. It’s easy to confuse the details of the Biblical account with other pop culture renditions.

Perhaps some of us (myself included) have taken it for granted that Jesus was born in a stable; however, the Gospel writers never mention exactly where Jesus was born—just where he was laid afterward. It’s just one of those details built into the mythology surrounding the Christmas story that we take for granted.

You can read more misconceptions over at ChristianAnswers.net. Here’s a few more:

Did Mary ride a donkey to Bethlehem? Perhaps, but there are various other possibilities. The Bible doesn’t say how she got to Bethlehem. It only says that she came with Joseph.

Did Mary arrive in Bethlehem the night she gave birth? The Bible does not suggest this. They could have arrived weeks earlier. God’s Word simply states, “while they were there [in Bethlehem], the days were accomplished that she should be delivered” (Luke 2:6). Arriving in town well before her due date would make more sense.

This week on Gospel.com we’re looking at The Transfiguration, that awesome event in which Jesus shone like the sun, spoke with Elijah and Moses and was blessed by God. The apostles’ terror is understandable.

Read the story of the transfiguration from Matthew 17v1-9.

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.

And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.

But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”

Turning water to wine… walking on water… healing the sick and raising the dead. All are activities attributed to Jesus during his ministry—but did they really happen? Isn’t it more likely that these are myths invented (or at least embellished) by his followers?

A new blog post at Faith Facts presents ten reasons to take those miraculous stories seriously, rather than chalking them up to the imaginations of Jesus’ disciples. Lots of links and Scripture references to explore there—and if you’re interested in reading more about Jesus’ miracles, see their more thorough page about the importance of Jesus’ miracles.

One of the more debated events in history is the death and resurrection of Jesus. You can find books and web sites devoted to proving that it did happen, that it didn’t happen, and every variation inbetween.

For Christians, the truth of the resurrection is rather important and worth some serious study.

Answering the question, Can Any scientist today accept that Jesus was resurrected is the ministry of Scibel. The article begins from this assumption:

No one can be certain of all the details of any past event, but here is how it could have happened if all the four accounts are accurate from the viewpoint of their respective sources.

The article is replete with diagrams like the one to the right and does an thorough job of detailing the resurrection from each account given in the bible. If you’ve always wondered how it all happened and why each gospel account seems different this article should help explain some of the reasons why.

From Delve Into Jesus is an article titled, Why did Jesus have to die? The question is an extremely valid one. If Jesus is God and could do all things, then why did he have to die? Here’s the article summary:

When we sin, God’s perfect justice requires that we pay the price. This price is too high for any man to pay for it would require perfect sacrifice, which we cannot do. Jesus Christ took our place and died on the cross to pay the debt because He loves us.