John Murray in his excellent book Redemption - Accomplished and Applied speaks on active and passive obedience:
"The truth expressed rests upon the recognition that the law of God has both penal sanctions and positive demands. It demands not only the full discharge of its precepts but also the inflication of penalty for all infractions and shortcomings. It is this twofold demand of the law of God which is taken into account when we speak of the active and passive obedience of Christ. Christ as the vicar of his people came under the curse and condemnation due to sin and he also fulfulled the law of God in all its positive requirements. In other words, he took care of the guilt of sin and perfectly fulfilled the demands of righteousness. He perfectly met both the penal and the preceptive requirements of God's law. The passive obedience refers to the former and the active obedience to the latter."
I can recall my first reading of this, and the realization of the fullness of Christ's salvation of his people! The active obedience of Jesus refers to his life of obedience to God and the entire law. His passive obedience refers his death on the cross (as in passion). I wad struck by the reality that Christ has fulfilled all that is required of us. He's fulfilled it all! This quote states that the law has two parts, the first are the 'positive demands': the law states what God requires of us. We are utterly unable to fulfill these commands in our corrupted nature, yet they are still required of us because God is both holy and just. The second part of the law is the 'penal sanctions', that is, the punishment we are to receive if we do not fulfill the demands of the law. We've already stated that we do not, even can not, fulfill what the law demands, thus we are deserving of the punishment. Jesus has fulfilled this as well.
The first part of the law Jesus satisfies in his active obedience, the second part in his passive. And God the Father accounts both of these to those who are in Christ.
What a full salvation our Triune God has given us. What a glorious Savior Jesus is. I pray that my heart will be moved by the fullness of this salvation, and that my affections will be upon Jesus because of his great salvation.
Friday, May 24, 2013
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Singleness and Sweet Providence
It is well known to those who are dear to my heart that I yearn to be a wife and a mother. I am often frustrated by the stage of life that I am currently in. I desire to have a godly husband, but said man is not pursuing me. And what can I do? Sometimes it feels like nothing. Nothing. Sitting. Waiting. Becoming more and more frustrated. Where is hope? Is there hope? Oh my soul, rest. For your Father is sovereign! And he is good!
John Piper, in a sermon that has been beneficial and paradigm shaping, says, "A Christian woman does not put her hope in her looks. She puts her hope in the promises of God... She looks away from the troubles and miseries and obstacles of life that seem to make the future bleak, and she focues her attention on the soverign power and love of God who rules in heaven and does on earth whatever he pleases. She knows her Bible, and she knows her theology of the sovereignty of God, and she knows his promise that he will be with her and help her strengthen her no matter what. This is the deep, unshakable root of Christian womanhood. And Peter makes it explicit in verse 5. He is not talking about just any women. He is talking about women with unshahakable biblical roots in the sovereign good of God- holy women who hope in God."
Father, root my heart in the sweet truth of your sovereignty and your goodness!
Why can we have hope, dear women of God,
Do we have hope? Is there somewhere to turn?
Yes. Far more hope than we could have imagined. A safer rock than we could have wished. For we have God who is both sovereign and who is good.
He is sovereign. All things are in his control. Not a thing happens apart from his plan. It will often not look how we have desired, but God is working all things for His glory, and we find our highest happiness in the glory of God.
He is good. How do we know so? We look to the cross of Christ, and there we see that God has given up his only Son so that we may be justified, sanctified, adopted, glorified. He is the Father who gives us bread when we ask for bread, and not a stone. And we objectively know so when we look to the cross.
He alone will satisfy, and only fully in eternity. I continually forget this, that there will be no point in this life when I will be fully satisfied. There will be points of great joy - but those will only serve to point me to the fleeting pleasures of this life and to yearn for heaven. And God is kind, and allows us to experience satisfaction in Him and joy in creation in this life. Yet that deep yearning at the core of who I am will not be filled before I see my Lord. That is because He alone will fill that deepest desire. There are times when I am led to deep sadness knowing that I will likely carry 60 more years of yearning. Yet I can rejoice knowing that there will be a day, and there will be all of eternity, when I will be satisfied!
John Piper, in a sermon that has been beneficial and paradigm shaping, says, "A Christian woman does not put her hope in her looks. She puts her hope in the promises of God... She looks away from the troubles and miseries and obstacles of life that seem to make the future bleak, and she focues her attention on the soverign power and love of God who rules in heaven and does on earth whatever he pleases. She knows her Bible, and she knows her theology of the sovereignty of God, and she knows his promise that he will be with her and help her strengthen her no matter what. This is the deep, unshakable root of Christian womanhood. And Peter makes it explicit in verse 5. He is not talking about just any women. He is talking about women with unshahakable biblical roots in the sovereign good of God- holy women who hope in God."
Father, root my heart in the sweet truth of your sovereignty and your goodness!
Why can we have hope, dear women of God,
- When we yearn for a godly husband.
- While we wait to bear children.
- When our husband is not who we thought he was.
- When our friends desert us.
- When our bodies break down.
- When the children we have yearned for so desperately cause us far more pain than we think we can bear.
Do we have hope? Is there somewhere to turn?
Yes. Far more hope than we could have imagined. A safer rock than we could have wished. For we have God who is both sovereign and who is good.
He is sovereign. All things are in his control. Not a thing happens apart from his plan. It will often not look how we have desired, but God is working all things for His glory, and we find our highest happiness in the glory of God.
He is good. How do we know so? We look to the cross of Christ, and there we see that God has given up his only Son so that we may be justified, sanctified, adopted, glorified. He is the Father who gives us bread when we ask for bread, and not a stone. And we objectively know so when we look to the cross.
He alone will satisfy, and only fully in eternity. I continually forget this, that there will be no point in this life when I will be fully satisfied. There will be points of great joy - but those will only serve to point me to the fleeting pleasures of this life and to yearn for heaven. And God is kind, and allows us to experience satisfaction in Him and joy in creation in this life. Yet that deep yearning at the core of who I am will not be filled before I see my Lord. That is because He alone will fill that deepest desire. There are times when I am led to deep sadness knowing that I will likely carry 60 more years of yearning. Yet I can rejoice knowing that there will be a day, and there will be all of eternity, when I will be satisfied!
Someone tell me I am sufficient! What Justification has to do with Pride and Freely Loving Others
I see it when I'm disappointed that I didn't get a run in. I see it when I fall short of someone's expectations. I see it when I don't get the attention I want. I see it when no one tells me how beautiful I am that day.
I am yearning for someone to say that I am sufficient - nay, more than sufficient. I am yearning for someone to declare that I am excellent in all of my attributes (saying it out loud is painful). And I bet you are as well.
Surely this yearning shows itself in different ways. Yet from my short human experience, and my interactions with others, I am convinced that we are all, some silently and some aloud, crying out for this.
This desire, of course, affects our relationships. I can't freely love you as I ought (to see what I mean by loving you as I ought - check out my post on His glory, the Cross, and My Affections). I can't love you simply because I am caught up in receiving from you what I need, that is, the affirmation that I am sufficient. I am too busy thinking of what I can say or do to please you. Or, if I know that I do not meet your standards, I am distracted by that reality, heading down the pathway to despair. I am not in a state of mind that desires your good.
So what does justification have to do with this? Justification is the forensic declaration by God the Father that I am righteous. This is not because I am actually righteous, but because he sees my sins as having been placed on Jesus on the cross, and Christ's righteousness on me (a beautiful doctrine called Double Imputation). The article of justification is paradigm shifting, and here is one of the ways: In the reality of justification, I realize first that I do not measure up to the standard that God the Father has set before me. I fail. I do not measure up, I cannot measure up. I am condemned. Take a moment to let that blow sink in. It's heavy, but it's true, and against the reality of our depravity the brightness of justification shines. The second thing I am shown is that Jesus measured up for me! Christ did two very important things: He died on the cross for our sins. In doing so, he took the sins of the elect upon himself, and he absorbed the whole wrath of God (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 3:25). This is referred to as the passive obedience of Jesus. He also lived a perfect life of obedience to the law in place of his elect (Matthew 5:17). This is known as the active obedience of Jesus. If we are in Christ, God the Father sees us as having perfectly fulfilled the law. His wrath is no longer upon us. God the Father, the only one who sees and knows reality, yea- the one who declares what reality is, has declared that in Christ we are seen as righteous in His sight - He declares that we have met his standard in Christ. There is no other standard to which we must rise.
Practically, this means that in interacting with a dear friend, or a stranger for that matter, I no longer have to try to impress them in order to try to achieve their favor. I already have the favor of God the Father upon me because he sees the righteousness of Christ upon me. I am free to seek your needs, and to love you as I ought. I am free to live for your good and no longer selfishly for my own.
How far I am from actually living in light of this truth. Praise God for his sanctifying work in his children. An excellent little book called The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness written by Timothy Keller has been the source of most of these thoughts. I highly recommend it.
Sources: The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness by Timothy Keller
I am yearning for someone to say that I am sufficient - nay, more than sufficient. I am yearning for someone to declare that I am excellent in all of my attributes (saying it out loud is painful). And I bet you are as well.
Surely this yearning shows itself in different ways. Yet from my short human experience, and my interactions with others, I am convinced that we are all, some silently and some aloud, crying out for this.
This desire, of course, affects our relationships. I can't freely love you as I ought (to see what I mean by loving you as I ought - check out my post on His glory, the Cross, and My Affections). I can't love you simply because I am caught up in receiving from you what I need, that is, the affirmation that I am sufficient. I am too busy thinking of what I can say or do to please you. Or, if I know that I do not meet your standards, I am distracted by that reality, heading down the pathway to despair. I am not in a state of mind that desires your good.
So what does justification have to do with this? Justification is the forensic declaration by God the Father that I am righteous. This is not because I am actually righteous, but because he sees my sins as having been placed on Jesus on the cross, and Christ's righteousness on me (a beautiful doctrine called Double Imputation). The article of justification is paradigm shifting, and here is one of the ways: In the reality of justification, I realize first that I do not measure up to the standard that God the Father has set before me. I fail. I do not measure up, I cannot measure up. I am condemned. Take a moment to let that blow sink in. It's heavy, but it's true, and against the reality of our depravity the brightness of justification shines. The second thing I am shown is that Jesus measured up for me! Christ did two very important things: He died on the cross for our sins. In doing so, he took the sins of the elect upon himself, and he absorbed the whole wrath of God (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 3:25). This is referred to as the passive obedience of Jesus. He also lived a perfect life of obedience to the law in place of his elect (Matthew 5:17). This is known as the active obedience of Jesus. If we are in Christ, God the Father sees us as having perfectly fulfilled the law. His wrath is no longer upon us. God the Father, the only one who sees and knows reality, yea- the one who declares what reality is, has declared that in Christ we are seen as righteous in His sight - He declares that we have met his standard in Christ. There is no other standard to which we must rise.
Practically, this means that in interacting with a dear friend, or a stranger for that matter, I no longer have to try to impress them in order to try to achieve their favor. I already have the favor of God the Father upon me because he sees the righteousness of Christ upon me. I am free to seek your needs, and to love you as I ought. I am free to live for your good and no longer selfishly for my own.
How far I am from actually living in light of this truth. Praise God for his sanctifying work in his children. An excellent little book called The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness written by Timothy Keller has been the source of most of these thoughts. I highly recommend it.
Sources: The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness by Timothy Keller
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