“Remember Me When You Come Into Your Kingdom” (Luke 23:42)
As we enter the Easter weekend, I thought it worthwhile to reflect on some of the compelling truths that Easter presents to each of us. And they’re so much deeper and more profound than any Easter bunny icon. How we ever got to a pink “bunny” to celebrate the Risen Christ, I’ll never know (or care to!). But here’s some alternative thoughts from J. I. Packer, one of Christendom’s most respected writers and theologians. I’m drawing on Packer’s classic book, Knowing God, which I’m reading for the sixth time since I first acquired it in 1993. Excerpts from his book are mingled with my personal takes.
The Death of Christ
“The gospel tells us that our Creator has become our Redeemer. It implores us to be reconciled to God, “who made him who had no sin to be sin for us, that we may become the righteousness of God,” (2 Cor 5:20-21).
The basic description of the saving death of Christ in the Bible is a “propitiation” . . . that is, an act which quenched God’s justice and wrath against sinners by obliterating our sins from his sight. In so doing, Jesus shields us from the nightmare prospect of the retributive justice of God by becoming our representative substitute in obedience to his Father’s will. That solves the deepest of all human problems, that being mankind’s broken relationship with their Maker.
Packer then asks, “Do you understand this?” If you do, then you are now seeing into the very heart of the Christian gospel. Regretfully, some versions of the “contemporary gospel” never get down to this fundamental level.
The Driving Force in Jesus’ Life
If you sit down and read straight through the Gospel of Mark, your basic impression will be of a man of action: a man always on the move, always altering situations and precipitating things; working miracles; calling and training disciples; upsetting error that passed as truth . . . and confronting fashionable, modern day ir-religion that passed as godliness! And then you will see Christ walking s
traight and open-eyed into betrayal, condemnation, and crucifixion.
Your further impression will be a man who knew himself to be a divine person (the Son of God) fulfilling a messianic role (the Son of Man) . . . and who to his disciples was a confusing and awesome enigma. From there, your impression will be Christ’s messianic mission centered on his being put to death. “The high priest asked, ‘Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” . . . to which Jesus categorically replied, ‘I am.’” (Mark 14:61-62). Yet as the sent Messiah and Co-Creator of the universe, Jesus was rejected by the creatures he created . . . and sentenced to the cross.
What of Those Who Reject God?
Decisions we make in this life will have eternal consequences. “Do not be deceived (as you would be if you listened to the universalists, says Packer), God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” (Gal 6:7) Those who in this life reject God will forever be rejected by God.
What is Universalism? It’s a belief system that emphasizes that all human beings will ultimately be reconciled with God and achieve salvation based on God’s unlimited love and grace. It’s a doctrine that suggests, for example, that Judas, Christ’s betrayer will ultimately be saved. But Jesus said differently . . . “It would be better for him if he had not been born.” (Mark 14:21). Universalism flies in the face of God’s perfect love AND justice.
“On the cross, God judged our sins in the person of his Son. Look at the cross, therefore, and you will see what God’s judicial reaction to sin becomes. On the cross, Jesus lost all good that he had before; all sense of the Father’s presence and love; all sense of his physical, mental and spiritual well-being; all enjoyment of God and created things; all ease and solace of friendship . . . and in their place was nothing but loneliness and that horror of great spiritual darkness.”
So, on the adjoining cross, the criminal who said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” (Luke 23:42) was saved in the final seconds of his life. That free will option to choose our future destination is always open to each of us. But the other criminal who mocked Jesus, we can assume, passed like Judas into the loneliness and horror of eternal spiritual darkness!
What Is Peace?
“What, asks Packer, “does the gospel of God offer us? Too often the peace of God is thought of as if it were essentially a feeling of inner tranquility, a happy and carefree outlook, springing from the faulty premise that God will shield me from life’s hardest knocks. But that’s a misrepresentation of the gospel,” says Packer . . . “for God does not featherbed his children in this way and anyone who thinks he does is in for a shock.” The real peace of God . . . is first and foremost peace with God! And that final reality is achieved when one professes belief in God’s Son and his sacrificial offering on the cross. And from that commitment flows reconciliation . . . and “peace with God through Christ’s blood shed on the cross,” (Col 1:20) Then simultaneously and miraculously, one is adopted into God’s eternal family. And that’s the baseline of where the peace of God begins and ends!
What Is the Dimension of God’s Love?
The apostle Paul prays that the readers of his Ephesians letter “may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—so that we may be filled
to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3:18-19). Wow! That’s awesome . . . but there’s also a glint of mystery in Paul’s words, because the reality of God’s divine love is inexpressively great! But nevertheless, some comprehension of it can be achieved. How?
By reviewing God’s whole plan of grace that’s set forth in Scripture . . . of which the atoning sacrifice of Christ is the centerpiece. Christ’s love is free, not purchased or earned by any goodness in us. Paul wants us to catch a glimpse, however dim, of the greatness and glory of divine love that is created in Genesis . . . prophesied over and over in the OT . . . consummated in the person of Christ . . . and ultimately fulfilled in the annals of Revelation where the apostle John records what he hears in heaven’s throne room.
“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be there God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making all things new,’” (Rev 21:3-5).
“The gospel,” says an old German sage, “is only in-effective when it’s too late!” Someone you know and love needs to hear the gospel message before it’s too late. Make it simple and uncomplicated! Take some risk and introduce Jesus to someone who does not know him . . . and celebrate the peace of and with God this Easter season.
Tom
Excerpts quoted from: Knowing GOD, J.I. Packer, 20th Anniversary Edition, Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL 60515. (Pgs. 189-197)
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