“If the pastor is not the chief repenter, the Gospel is a theoretical solution to the theoretical problem of sin for theoretical sinners, if there are any present.”

- Jack Miller

Echos of Luther’s first thesis, All of Life is Repentance…

I was looking at the Convicting and Attracting work of the Holy Spirit.

You can listen to the talk here (mp3)

You can get my talk notes here (doc)

“It is not my calling to help you to have chipper feelings while the whole of creation groans. My job is to put the kind of ballast in the belly of your boat so that when these waves crash against your life, you will not capsize but make it to the harbour of heaven – battered and wounded but full of faith and joy”

John Piper, Spectacular Sins [pg. 28]

“At the all-important pivot of human history, the worst sin ever committed served to show the greatest glory of Christ and obtain the sin-conquering gift of God’s grace. God did not just overcome evil at the cross. He made evil serve the overcoming of evil. He made evil commit suicide in doing its worst evil.

Evil is anything and everything opposed to the fullest display of the glory of Christ. That’s the meaning of evil. In the death of Christ, the powers of darkness did their best to destroy the glory of the Son of God. This is the apex of evil. But instead they found themselves quoting the script of the ancient prophecy and acting the part assigned by God. Precisely in putting Christ to death, they put his glory on display – the very glory they aimed to destroy. The apex of evil achieved the apex of the glory of Christ. The glory of grace.”

John Piper, Spectacular Sins [pg. 12]

When I read this it blew me away, and this is just part of the introduction! I’m going to give a full review when I finish reading it… shouldn’t be long, it’s hard to put down!

1. God is good, sovereign and true no matter our experience.

3. Sinfulness is so ingrained in the human heart, soul and mind that weakness strengthens it and strength is laid low before it.

4. Seasons change and there is glory in every season.

5. Of all the things to treasure here friendship is of great value.

“Goodbye 2008 – you weren’t what I asked for, but I’m confident that you are what I needed.”

I remember speaking with a Christian man about his extra-marital affair from years earlier.  As he spoke about the pain of those memories I said to him “You realise that in the midst of the very worst of that, Jesus was rejoicing over you as a Bridegroom rejoices over His bride.”  He paused for a long time and said “That makes it a hundred times worse!”  I said “Yes it does.  A thousand times worse.”  We think that we manage to sin away in a corner somewhere.  No, no, no.  Just read 1 Corinthians 6:15-20 to see that we are very much united to Christ in our sin!

We stink of pig in the Father’s arms.  That’s a thousand times worse than stinking in the sty.  But it’s a million times better too.

The above from a post on the Prodigal Son, and the follow up post – Sinning really isn’t the worst thing

If you’ve never read is blog, you should.

If you live near Eastbourne, go and meet the man.

I’ve found that 1 and 2 are really easy to do, but just make things a whole lot worse.

3 and 4 are harder, but liberating and life-giving. Surrounding yourself with God’s people and trusting him, is the solution to life’s crap… even though it seems easier to do things your own way (1 and 2).

My general responses have been to sin, to be angry at God and others, and to not trust God’s purposes – yeah it’s easy to quote Romans 8:28 – I’m sure that is true, but it doesn’t look or feel that way at the moment.

I don’t have anything more to say on sin other than what Glen Scrivener has written – how should we respond to sin? Except maybe a thought from Romans 7…

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

As for responding to God, it’s the lack of trust and blindness to ‘seeing the big picture’ that expose idolatry, false motives, selfishness and sin. I guess I just want to go back and listen to CJ Mahaney on Unanswered Prayers.

• God created everything – “and it was good”

Genesis 3

• We reject God. We Sin
• Suffering enters the world. We are the cause
• DEATH, “The earth is cursed”, “nature is in conflict”, “pain in child-bearing”

Romans 8:18-25

• V.22 Creation groans as in child-birth “bondage to decay”, can’t escape
• V.23 We groan inwardly… as we wait, patiently
• V.18 Something better is coming!!

For the non-Christian, this world is as good as it gets…

But for the Christian, THERE IS HOPE!

Revelation 21:1-5 (open this one, get someone to read)

• New Creation – no more suffering

So it’s my fault? Does God not care??

Hebrews 4:15 JESUS is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, because he was tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.

Born into poverty, broken family, manual job, homeless, under military occupation, abandoned by friends, betrayed, falsely accused, mocked, beaten, tortured, murdered

JESUS CAN IDENTIFY WITH OUR SUFFERINGS

BUT, HE ALSO DEALS WITH OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM - SIN

2 Cor 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.