day thirty-four: preparation for palm sunday

"This Palm Sunday, let your cry of "Hosanna!" become your joyful shout of "Maranatha!"

Expectations.

How many times have your high expectations of others gotten you into big trouble and disappointment?! You had high expectations of another, yet when that person did not live up to your expectations you grumbled, felt anger, were discouraged, and decided that you would think twice about expecting anything from someone again. We all become disillusioned (and oftentimes demanding!) when we have expectations of others and they do not come through.

This is even true of our expectations of God. Sometimes, in God's mysterious providence, he does what he knows to be best for us, yet we do not understand (Romans 8:28). We have expectations that we think God should live up to, but we have yet to begin to understand that

God's ways are so much higher than our ways!

God works all things out for our good, for our best, yet we fail to trust his thoughts and ways and remember that even our highest expectations that we have of God, if different from his will, are never high enough!

Isaiah 55:8-9: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Remember, as the Apostle Paul teaches, that

"No eye has seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him."

We should be cautious of placing high expectations on others, but when it comes to God, I think we need to be reminded that our so-called "high expectations" are never high enough!
Today, we shall look at the high expectations of the crowd when Jesus rode on a donkey into Jerusalem in John 12:12-23, and how these high expectations were simply not high enough."

- Charles Riggs

day thirty-three: new creation

"This present world characterized by sin, misery and the rule of the deceiver must end in the death of God's Son, in order that the new world to come characterized by holiness and the awesome presence of God could be fully realized. The third day of the old world would begin the first day of the new world! The old creation began to come to an end, as the new creation dawned on the third day! The resurrection of Jesus didn't merely occur on the first day of the week (Luke 24:1), but it was literally the first day of the new creation characterized by resurrection life!"

-C.R. Biggs

day thirty-two: the trinity at work on the cross

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:14)

"The very essence of the Godhead, that God is one God eternally existing in three Persons, who are joyfully and eternally united in a holy fellowship, could never have been apprehended apart from this great work of redemption. Theologians like to distinguish between the ontological Trinity and the economical Trinity. The ontological Trinity refers to who God is in his essential being; the economical Trinity refers to how this essential nature works itself out in the mighty acts of God.

No act of God in all of history could have been better designed to display the wonder of the ontological Trinity than the work of redemption. In this work, we see how the Father relates to the Son, planning out a mighty task for him alone to accomplish (John 10:18), delighting in his perfect obedience to that plan (Luke 3:22; John 10:17), and rejoicing to glorify him as the only Redeemer and Mediator between God and men (John 17:5; I Timothy 2:5), the unique and marvelous God-Man, the One who alone holds the keys to Death and Hell (Revelation 1:18), the Possessor of the only Name which is above all names (Philippians 2:9-11). We see how the Son delights to render perfect obedience to the Father, giving glory to him (John 4:34; 17:4; I Corinthians 15:25-28). We see how the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and how his delight is to testify, not of himself, but of Christ (John 14:16-17,26; 15:26). The very nature of God is Trinitarian.

And we could never have understood the ontological inter-Trinitarian relationship as we do now, if God had not displayed himself economically through redemption: the Father planning, the Son accomplishing, and the Spirit applying that blessing which contains in itself all blessings (cf. Ephesians 1:3-14)."

- Nathan Pitchford

day thirty one: what His death accomplished

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

"In his death, Jesus destroyed the powers of the devil; bound the strong man; judged and drove out the prince of this world; ransomed, redeemed & delivered us from the power and penalty of sin; freed us from the curse of the law; demonstrated our sinful depravity in the need for his death for our salvation; demonstrated the love of God for us, in that while we were sinners he died for us; demonstrated ultimately the righteousness of God to punish our sins upon his Son instead of simply ignoring them; absorbed God's wrath upon himself, turning it away from his people; and reconciled us to God.

Jesus' flesh was the curtain torn, giving all his people access to the Holy of Holies, the presence of God. Through his death we are forgiven, justified, cleansed, and made right with God. He died that we might live, and as long as we gather for communion we proclaim his death until he comes."

- Eric Costa

day thirty: all history is redemptive

The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. (Hebrews 1:3)


"What is the superlative way in which God might be displayed for who he is? Find the answer to that question, and you will discover the goal toward which all of history is striving together. Fortunately, the scriptures do not leave us ignorant of this unifying theme; it is nothing other than God’s mightiest act of all: the redemption of his people. All of history is redemptive history; because redemption is the greatest display of God’s essential nature that could have been formulated in the mind of God. Hence, matters related to the accomplishment of redemption are unexceptionally the great events of history and at the same time the great revelations of God. Consider the Old Testament redemptive accomplishment par excellence: the exodus from Egypt. This one mighty act displayed the power and glory of God in a superlative degree. All other gods were found out to be impotent imposters; all of creation was shown to be in the almighty hand of God, ready to do his bidding, no matter how impossible the task; God’s mercy, elective love, covenant faithfulness, and just wrath against sin, poured out on a spotless substitutionary sacrifice, were seen more clearly than ever before. And this great display of who God is was also the most pivotal event in the history of God’s people.

Great events in history, in proportion as they are great, are also great displays of God’s nature.What then is the pinnacle of all history, and the ultimate display of who God is? The central moment of all history, the greatest display of God’s eternal glory, indeed the very reason that God made the world and worked out all of history to bring things just to that point – to the fullness of time, to the minutely and flawlessly prepared stage for the mightiest of all acts – that central moment was the eternal Son of God’s taking on human flesh, accomplishing a perfect obedience, and offering himself up as a substitutionary sacrifice to accomplish eternal redemption for those whom the Father had given him. And this pivotal moment of all history was also the unparalleled display of God’s nature. God, who had been revealing himself in various ways in past ages, revealed himself fully and perfectly when he sent his Son into the world (Hebrews 1:1-3; John 1:18). The greatest display of God’s nature consists in Christ’s accomplishing redemption. And the pinnacle of Christ’s redemptive work, in fact the moment for which he came into the world (John 12:27), occurred nearly two thousand years ago on Good Friday.

The cross is both the greatest event in all of history and the mightiest display of God’s nature. Let us pause on this Good Friday to reflect on some ways in which we can apprehend the nature of God by beholding the wonder of the cross."

- Nathan Pitchford

day twenty nine: a hymn to Christ

In what torn ship soever I embark,
That ship shall be my emblem of thy Ark;
What sea soever swallow me, that flood
Shall be to me an emblem of thy blood;
Though thou with clouds of anger do disguise
Thy face, yet through that mask I know those eyes,
Which, though they turn away sometimes,
They never will despise.
I sacrifice this Island unto thee,
And all whom I loved there, and who loved me;
When I have put our seas 'twixt them and me,
Put thou thy sea betwixt my sins and thee.
As the tree's sap doth seek the root belowIn winter, in my winter now I go,
Where none but thee, th' Eternal root
Of true Love, I may know.
Nor thou nor thy religion dost control
The amorousness of an harmonious Soul,
But thou wouldst have that love thyself: as thou
Art jealous, Lord, so I am jealous now,
Thou lov'st not, till from loving more, Thou free
My soul: who ever gives, takes liberty:
O, if thou car'st not whom I love
Alas, thou lov'st not me.
Seal then this bill of my Divorce to All,
On whom those fainter beams of love did fall;
Marry those loves, which in youth scattered be
On Fame, Wit, Hopes (false mistresses) to thee.
Churches are best for Prayer, that have least light:
To see God only, I go out of sight:
And to 'scape stormy days, I choose
An Everlasting night.

- John Donne

day twenty eight: Christ, our advocate

Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. (Hebrews 7:23-25)

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for[a] the sins of the whole world. (I John 2:1-2)

Jesus Christ, as High Priest, is our "advocate" according to the writer of Hebrews. The idea here is not just that of a High Priest standing before God on behalf of the people. Although that certainly is a part of the picture here. But the true meaning of the word "intercede" goes beyond what is understood in high priesthood. It has a deeper meaning taken from the ancient judicial system. When a person is brought before a high king or a magistrate, he is not able or fit to represent himself. He needs someone who can speak for him as "advocate".

Literally, the fate and image of the defendant is seen in the advocate. If the advocate is brilliant and convincing, then all of the benefit of that is brought upon the one needing defense. The defendant in other words, is IN the advocate as we are IN Christ.

As our atoning sacrifice, Christ stands in our place. He does not beg for mercy on our behalf. Instead, he demands justice as the One who has already paid the price for our sin. As our advocate, He says in affect, "Father, my friends here are guilty, but because of my atoning sacrifice for them on the cross, I do not ask for mercy, I ask for Justice. Your very nature and divine justice demand that you not punish them twice for the same sin. I have paid the price, therefore the only just thing to do is to accept them and renew them!"

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and JUST and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)