Sunday, March 18, 2012

For the Lord's Day - Fourth Sunday of Lent


"There is only one sense in which it may be said that Jesus “died to sin” and that is he bore its penalty, since “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Having paid sin’s wage (or borne its penalty) by dying, he has risen to a new life. So have we, by union with him. We too have died to sin, not in the sense that we have personally paid its penalty (Christ has done that in our place, instead of us), but in the sense that we have shared in the benefit of his death. Since the penalty of sin has been borne, and its debt paid, we are free from the awful burden of guilt and condemnation. And we have risen with Christ to a new life, with the sin question finished behind us.” John Stott, The Cross of Christ, p. 270

Sunday, March 4, 2012

For the Lord's Day - Second Sunday of Lent


“Our substitute, then, who took our place and dies our death on the cross, was neither Christ alone (since that would make him a third party thrust in between God and us), nor God alone (since that would undermine the historical incarnation) but God in Christ, who was truly and fully both God and man and who on that account was uniquely qualified to represent both God and man and to mediate between them. If we speak only of Christ suffering and dying, we overlook the initiative of the Father. If we speak only of God suffering and dying, we overlook the mediation of the Son.”
~ John Stott, The Cross of Christ, p. 156.