SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/1/2016 8:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 The Profound Expression of Christ’s Love
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 13:31-33
Message of the verses: “31 Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus
said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; 32 if
God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify
Him immediately. 33 “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You
will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ’Where I am
going, you cannot come.’”
We have
been looking at the word glory and glorified as seen in verses 31-32. Next we see that not only was Jesus glorified
through His death, God was also glorified in Him too. MacArthur adds “Through the cross, God’s
glorious nature was supremely put on display.”
Now we have mentioned in earlier Spiritual Diaries that all of God’s
attributes were seen at the cross of Christ so much was going on while Christ
hung on the cross including glory.
Before I
begin this next section I want to quote “1Co 1:25 Because the foolishness of
God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” Now we first of all see that Christ’s death
displayed God’s power. We know that
Satan and the world hated Christ and tried to destroy Him, but we also know
that they failed to do so as God manifested His power by raising up Jesus
Christ from the dead and by doing this he destroyed the power of Satan, sin,
and also death. “55 “O Death, where is
your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" 56 The sting of death is sin,
and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:55-57).”
Next we see
that Christ’s death declared God’s justice, remember justice is one of God’s
attributes and it is seen at the cross.
As we look back at 1 Cor. 15:56 we see that the sting of death is sin
and the strength of sin is the Law, and so we see from that statement that even
though God’s Law is perfect it saves no one and yet when Christ came to earth
He kept the Law perfectly and so when He died He paid the penalty for the
sinner’s violation of His Holy Law as all of us have missed the mark. The Law had to be kept by Christ so that we
can be forgiven which means that God’s justice was cared for through Christ’s
death on the cross. Romans 6:23 tells us
that the wages of sin is death, and so someone had to die and then we look at
Isaiah 53:6 which says “the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on
[Christ].”
Third,
Christ’s death revealed God’s holiness.
MacArthur writes “Never did God so clearly manifest His holy hatred for
sin than in the suffering and death of His Son.
The Father loves the Son with an infinite love. Yet when Jesus became a curse for believers
on the cross (Gal. 3:13), the Father, whose ‘eyes are too pure to approve evil,
and …can not look on wickedness with favor’ (Hab. 1:13), turned away from
Him. That caused Jesus to cry out in
agony, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? (Matt. 27:4 6).”
Fourthly,
Christ’s death expressed God faithfulness.
Let us go back to a promise that God made soon after man sinned: “15 And I will put enmity Between you and the
woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And
you shall bruise him on the heel’ (Genesis 3:15).” In keeping this promise by God it cost the
death of His Son.
Fifthly, “in
keeping with the overall theme of this passage, Christ’s death was the most
powerful demonstration of God’s love in all of history” writes John
MacArthur. He goes on “To the Romans
Paul write, ‘God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5:8).
‘In this is love,’ John added, ‘not that we loved God, but that He loved
us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins’ (1 John 4:10; cf. vv.
9, 14; Gal. 4:4-5).”
There is
one more statement that Christ made regarding His glorification and we will
look at it in our next SD which should finish this section.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I mentioned that there was a lot going on at
the cross of Christ and sometimes I don’t remember all of what went on, but I
should because all that went on at the cross and then the burial and
resurrection was the reason that I am a born-again believer in Jesus Christ and
for that I will be eternally thankful.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord to see me
through the things that will go on today and to bring glory to my Lord today
through what goes on.
Memory verse for the week:
(Romans 6:15) “15 What then?
Shall we sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? May it never be!”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “The Jews.”
Today’s Bible question:
“How much older was Aaron than Moses?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/1/2016 9:44 AM
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