“The Ironies of the Cross: The Man Who Is Utterly Powerless Is Powerful” ~D.A. Carson

Matthew 27:32-40

“…Yet here was Jesus, glibly talking about destroying & building a temple in three days…What kind of supernatural power would that take? Yet here Jesus hangs, utterly powerless, on a Roman cross. The sting of mockery turns on this bitter contrast between Jesus’ claims to power & his current transparent powerlessness. Once again, the mockers think they are indulging in fine irony. Jesus claimed so much power, so very much power; now witness his powerlessness…
But the apostles know, & the readers of the Gospels know, & God knows, that Jesus’ demonstration of power is displayed precisely in the weakness of the cross…
Under the terms of the old covenant, the temple was the great meeting place between a holy God & His sinful people. This was the place of sacrifice, the place of atonement for sin. But this side of the cross, where Jesus by His sacrifice pays for our sin, Jesus Himself becomes the great meeting place between a holy God & His sinful people; thus He becomes the temple, the meeting place between God and His people… It is in Jesus’ death, in His destruction, & in His resurrection three days later, that Jesus meets our needs & reconciles us to God, becoming the temple, the supreme meeting place between God & sinners…
Here is the glory, the paradox, the irony; here, once again, there are two levels of irony. The mockers think they are witty & funny as they mock Jesus’ pretensions & laugh at his utter weakness after he claimed he could destroy the temple & raise it in three days. But the apostles know, & the readers know, & God knows, that there is a deeper irony: it is precisely by staying on the cross in abject powerlessness that Jesus establishes Himself as the temple & comes to the resurrection in fullness of power. They only way Jesus will save Himself, & save His people, is by hanging on that wretched cross, in utter powerlessness. The words the mockers use to hurl insults & condescending sneers actually describe what is bringing about the salvation of the Lord. The man who is utterly powerless – is powerful.”

D.A. Carson, Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus

http://www.christianity.com/home/christian%20living%20features/11628400/page1/

http://theresurgence.com/a-day-with-dr-don-session-5-video

taken aside from the multitude - Robert Murray M’Cheyne

“When Christ begins a work of grace in a soul He takes that soul aside from the multitude. As long as a man is in the midst of a merry crew of wicked companions he cannot hear the still small voice of Jesus. The jarring strife of the political discussion or the giddy laugh of wanton revelry often drowns altogether the Word of Jesus, so that when He visits a soul in mercy He draws it aside from the multitude. By some sickness He brings the soul into the loneliness & gloom of a sick room. Or He brings in the hand of death, & the bereaved soul sits alone & in silence. Lover & friend are put far from him & his acquaintance into darkness.
This world is like a busy auction room, crowded in every part. One thing after another is put up for sale, every eye is fixed. One bids, & then another bids higher, all is noise & bustle & confusion. If you would talk to a man you must take him out of the sale room. You say, ‘Come aside with me. I have somewhat to say to thee.’ Just so does Jesus. Unconverted souls are plagued in the busy bustling sale-room of the world. All eyes are fixed on worldly goods, all voices raised to bid for them.
But Jesus draws some men aside & says, ‘Come aside with Me. I have somewhat to say unto thee.’ Christ has done this with some of you. You have been drawn aside, some of you have been brought into the loneliness of the sick room, some into the chamber of death. You have been alone with Christ. Now I have a question to ask you: What has Christ said to you in your loneliness? And what have you said to Him?”

Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Be Opened!

"Lay hold on eternal life" - Charles H. Spurgeon

“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called…” - 1 Timothy 6:12

“According to the text, you have to “Fight the good fight of faith.” Every now and then you will get an ugly knock, a bruise, a bleeding wound from your enemy. What are you to do? Always lay hold on eternal life again, and it will strengthen you, stanch your wounds, and make you once more strong in the day of battle. I would have you think much of this.

If you believe in Christ, there is a life within you, like the life of God, which will never die; a life within you which will bring you to stand before the glorious throne of Christ, “without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” Do not, therefore, ever give up hope. Do not be staggered by what you may have to suffer here. In the midst of all the agony of the way, stay your heart upon God, and upon the gift He hath given you. “Lay hold on eternal life.” If between here and heaven you could be burned as a martyr every day, it would be worth your while to bear it, laying hold on eternal life.

If between here and heaven you had nothing to bear but the cruelty of men, and the unkindness of the enemies of Christ, you should bear it right manfully, and even joyfully, because you can say, “I know in myself that I have in heaven a better and an enduring substance." Even here I have a life which the world did not give me, and cannot take from me; therefore I hold to it still, and I comfort myself with this sweet thought, that it is mine, the gift of God to me. It bears me up amid seas of grief. ‘My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever’ (Psalm 73:26)”

- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Lay hold on eternal life

http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols37-39/chs2226.pdf

Definition of the term 'faith' or what a saving, justifying faith believes in? – John Calvin

“We need to have a clear definition of the term ‘faith’, for without it this teaching will be of no value to us…
When Paul speaks of faith, he does not mean having a vague sense that there is a God reigning in heaven, but of knowing God to be our Father. We can be assured of this because of the promises He has made. We can be joined & united to the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that all He has is ours & that we have share in it because we are members of His body…

There is, however, a point here which will be of great help to us, & that is to know how Abraham believed in God. Which this, we conclude. If Abraham had simply believed that there was a God in heaven, this could not have justified him, for the pagans believe as much. Or, if Abraham had simply believed that God was the Judge of all the earth, it would not have sufficed. But God said to Abraham, ‘Abram, I am thy shield, & thy exceeding great reward’, and ‘I will be a God unto thee, & to thy seed after thee’, and He also said that all nationts would be blessed in him (Gen. 15:1; 17:7). God spoke thus with Abraham & testified that He counted him a member of His family, one of His own children, & that He would be his God. When Abraham accepted this promise, he was justified. How is this? Well, when God presented Abraham with His bounty & grace, Abraham believed & accepted God’s Word. Thus, his salvation was completely secure.

Now we have a much clearer idea of what it means to be justified by faith. It does not mean we possess a vague notion that God exists, but rather, that we know Him as our Father & our Saviour, since He reveals Himself thus in His Word, & grants us a guarantee of it in the Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we are united & joined to God. Although we are wretched creatures, full of wickedness, He will still accept us as His own & find us pleasing in His sight. This is only possible because our Lord Jesus Christ mediates between God and man. Having such a promise, we must rest upon it entirely and not doubt that God will be favorable to us to the end. When we call upon Him, we must find all our refuge in Him, leaving the world behind us and pressing on in the hope of eternal life. This is having faith, & this is being justified! This is how our father Abraham believed. Without this, we cannot be Christians. For until we know what the gospel is really about (as Paul says in Rom. 10:14), we cannot call God our Father. We cannot, he says, call upon a God we have not heard of or believed in. And how can we possibly know Him unless He is revealed to us? Thus, we need faith to go before us. And how do we get faith? By hearing, says Paul (Rom. 10:17). Therefore, we need to be taught the gospel, otherwise we cannot have faith.”

– John Calvin, the true children of Abraham
John Calvin’s sermons on Galatians

The doctrine of human depravity and the love of God - Dr. Ichabod Spencer

“We love Him because He first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19

“The doctrine of human depravity has been called gloomy & dreadful. Aside from the gospel so it is. And unbelievers under the gospel (simply because they were unbelievers) have recoiled from its conviction, from coming down to the humble place it assigns to them. But with the gospel, if our hearts will only believe it, this truth about our entire depravity has a most glorious bearing. It helps to explain to us the love of God. He did not love us because we deserved it. He did not love us because He saw among the defilements of our character some lingering traces of holiness, some spots of light & promise, which won Him to our relief…

God loved us in our depravity, in our entire depravity. When we see this, the glorious truth brings us up to a vast elevation above the groveling of such sentiments as attribute the love of the Deity for us to His discernment of some excellencies in us which deserved His love. He made no such discovery. He loved us without it. He loved like a God…God loved us – not from the lingering attractions of our character, but from the adorable grace of His own kindness. We believing in the entire depravity of man, have this high idea of God. We carry out His love to a different thing, to an altogether different sphere of action. We make His love itself a different thing – heaven-high above all the conceptions of it which a man can ever entertain who believes that God loved us because He saw something in us to be loved. It is foundation of this love of God, on this fixed & settled conviction of its unequalled nature, that believers love Him.”

- Dr. Ichabod Spencer, We love Him because He first loved us,
The life and sermons of Dr. Ichabod Spencer, volume Three

“We love the saints because we know where they are going” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“A Christian is a man who has a new test for everyone and everything. When he meets a person for the first time he does not look at his clothing, he does not look at his general external appearance. That is the carnal way of judging people. He does not ask himself, Where has he come from, what school has he attended, what is his bank balance? Those are no longer his questions or his tests. He is interested in one thing only now. Is he a child of God, is he my brother in Christ? Are we related?

A good story is told in connection with Philip Henry, the father of Matthew Henry the Commentator. He and a certain young lady had fallen in love with each other. She belonged to a ‘higher’ circle of society than he did, but the young lady had become a Christian, and therefore social standing no longer counted with her or constituted any kind of obstacle to their marriage. Her parents, however, were not pleased, and expostulating with her they said, ‘This man Philip Henry, where has he come from?’, to which she gave the immortal reply, ‘I don’t know where he has come from, but I know where he is going’. We love the saints because we know where they are going. They and we are marching together to Zion. We belong to the same Father, to the same household, to the same family; we are going to the same home and we know it. Some of us are very difficult and very trying, and very unworthy, but, thank God, because we are God’s children we are travelling together towards our heavenly home; and we know that the day will come when all our faults and blemishes and spots and wrinkles will disappear and we shall all be glorified and perfected together, enjoying the same glorious eternity.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, sermon ‘Tests of Christian Profession’; sermon text: Ephesians 1:15,16;
an Exposition of Ephesians, volume 1: God’s Ultimate Purpose

http://www.mlj-usa.com/mlj.nsf/(PRODUCTS-BYCODE-WEB)/MLJB.2720

http://www.mlj-usa.com/mlj.nsf/(PRODUCTS-BYCODE-WEB)/MLJ.MP01EC

“On what principle God claims you” - Dr. Ichabod Spencer

"But I say the claim of the Deity to us is more frequently based on redemption than on any other principle. This is the most usual argument by which He would make us feel our obligations to Him. We cannot now enter into this article. A full examination would require a volume. But if you will notice, as you read your Bible, on what principle God claims you, you will find it the principle of redemption more frequently than the principle of creation even. It has been said that the most perfect right is that of creation; that God has more entire right over us because He created us, than for any other reason. I will not say that His right, based on creation, is not perfect, but I do say it is not more perfect than His right based on redemption, & is not so often mentioned in His Word. The principle of redemption forms even the very preamble of the moral law, the system which embraces everything of holiness: I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage (Exodus 20:2). And this redemption, you know, was typical of the spiritual deliverance of Jesus Christ. It is similar to the argument of the apostle: Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God (1 Corinthians 6:20).”

- Dr. Ichabod Spencer