Jesus

Only Four Days into the New Year and the Dead Horse Is Beaten

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'Pentecost' by Joseph Ignaz Mildorfer After 2005’s year of chaotic Scripture study, I thought I’d go left-brained and run through the M’Cheyne Bible reading plan for 2006. While I didn’t expect an immediate revelation from a more orderly approach to the Bible this year, the Holy Spirit still revealed an insight in January 2nd’s reading of Acts 2 that caught me by surprise.

Ah, Acts 2. Pentecost. With my noggin still filled with visions of late 2005’s tenuously friendly Godblogosphere discussion of the cessation or continuation of the charismatic gifts, I was nonetheless struck by Peter’s quoting of Joel:

But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:

‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.'”
—Acts 2:14-21 ESV

What Peter chooses to include here is telling. Typically, when the OT is quoted in the NT, the NT writer distills the OT passage down to its barest essential quote. But in the case with Peter at Pentecost, rather than stop at the Last Days uttering of prophetic words and visions, he includes Joel’s revelation of the Day of the Lord, then closes with calling on the name of the Lord for salvation.

I contend that Peter’s inclusion of the Day of the Lord section lends credence to a continuing of the gifts. The time period Peter gives in his Joel quote sets the stage for the charismata from the day of Pentecost to the Day of the Lord. If the charismata that Peter is attempting to explain expired (as cessationists believe) with the passing of the apostles or with the closing of the canon, neither of those two events—even by cessationist accounts—corresponds to the Day of the Lord. Even if one reads this with Preterist glasses, the apostle John lived thirty years past the fall of Jerusalem.

I found this intriguing. I hope you will, too.

Choosing Barabbas

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But they all cried out together, “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas”— a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder.
—Luke 23:18-19 ESV

Give Us Barabbas by Charles HornThose in the crowd knew the reputation of the man called Barabbas—as well as the reputation of the innocent man who stood in contrast to him on Pilate’s dais. They knew that Barabbas had victimized others through robbery, murder, and general thuggery. The other man, however, had taught them, healed them, given them hope, and relentlessly pointed them to God.

Today, we look back on the trial of Jesus and ask the question, How could they choose Barabbas?

Good Friday is probably the closest thing we Christians have to a day of reckoning. We consider the cross and think about our own failings, meditating on the acts of selfishness that led us to pound the nails into the Lord of Life’s hands. Good Friday is good for the soul.

Sunday comes and we bask in the joy of an empty tomb, of death smashed, of the Enemy destroyed. The stone that lay across the heart of each of us has been rolled away. Life has overcome.

Then comes the day after, the Monday that follows—and we revert to choosing Barabbas.

We choose Barabbas when we ignore the cries of the poor, choosing instead the siren song of the plasma TV and home theater system. We choose Barabbas when we gossip about celebrities and envy their Hollywood lifestyles. We choose Barabbas when we let the words of God gather dust in favor of the latest chart-topping bestseller. We choose Barabbas with the hurtful and vulgar words we elect to speak to those around us. We choose Barabbas when we view others as an inconvenience. We choose Barabbas when we think, I am the master of my own kingdom.

You and I chose Barabbas two thousand years ago, but we don’t have to choose him today. This side of history, this side of the cross of Jesus Christ, there is a more excellent choice. No more do we have to choose Barabbas.

Come to the foot of the cross and die. Take up your cross daily and live. Choose Jesus.

{Full-size image: “Give Us Barabbas” by Charles Horne, 1909.}

The Message of Salvation in a Nutshell

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Frederick Hart's 'Ex Nihilo Fragment Five'A few days ago, I posted The Christian Walk in a Nutshell. Well, after someone in another forum asked to sum up the message of salvation, I decided to answer with as terse a layout of that message as I could—right from the Bible. I hope all who visit this blog will find this very simple (and easily memorized) collection of passages to be helpful in sharing with others:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God….
—Romans 3:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
—Romans 6:23

This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
—Revelation 20:14b-15

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
—Romans 5:8

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
—John 3:16-18

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
—John 14:6

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
—Acts 2:38

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
—2 Corinthians 5:17

And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.
—1 John 5:11-13

{All passages taken from the English Standard Version of the Bible.
Photo: Frederick Hart‘s “Ex Nihilo, Fragment Five”}