Great Thoughts of God part 2: by JI Packer

Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.  Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.” Daniel 9:18-19

3) Those who know God show great boldness for God.
Daniel and his friends were men who stuck their necks out. This was not foolhardiness. They knew what they were doing. They had counted the cost. They had measured the risk. They were well aware what the outcome of their actions would be unless God miraculously intervened, as in fact He did. But these things did not move them. Once they were convinced that their stand was right, and that loyalty to their God required them to take it, then, in Oswald Chambers’s phrase, they ‘smilingly washed their hands of the consequences’.

4) Those who know God have great contentment in God.
There is no peace like the peace of those whose minds are possessed with full assurance that they have known God, and God has known them, and that this relationship guarantees God’s favor to them in life, through death, and on for ever. This is the peace of which Paul speaks in Romans 5:1 – ‘being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ – and whose substance he analyses in full in Romans 8.

Great Thoughts of God part 1: by JI Packer

I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: “Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, Daniel 9:4

1) Those who know God have great energy for God.
In one of the prophetic chapters of Daniel we read: ‘the people that know their God shall be strong, and do exploits’ (11:32)…. This shows us that the action taken by those who know God is their reaction to the anti-God trends which they see operating around them. While their God is being defied or disregarded, they cannot rest; they feel they must do something; the dishonour done to God’s name goads them into action.

This is exactly what we see happening in the narrative chapters of Daniel, where we are told of the ‘exploits’ of Daniel and his three friends. They were men who knew God, and who in consequence felt compelled from time to time actively to stand out against the conventions and dictates of irreligion and false religion.

2) Those who know God have great thoughts of God.
There is not space enough here to gather up all that the book of Daniel tells us about the wisdom, might, and truth of the great God who rules history and shows His sovereignty in acts of judgment and mercy towards individuals and nations according to His own good pleasure. Suffice it to say that there is, perhaps, no more vivid or sustained presentation of the many-sided reality of God’s sovereignty in the whole Bible.

In face of the might and splendor of the Babylonian empire which had swallowed up Palestine, and the prospect of further great world-empires to follow, dwarfing Israel by every standard of human calculation, the book as a whole forms a dramatic reminder that the God of Israel is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that ‘the heavens do rule’ (4:26), that God’s hand is on history at every point, that history, indeed, is no more than ‘His story,’ the unfolding of His eternal plan, and that the kingdom which will triumph in the end is God’s.

Christ Our Life: by Andrew Murray

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Romans 5:17.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:11

        We said that Paul teaches us now that our faith in Christ as our righteousness is to be followed by our faith in Him as our life from the dead. He asks (Romans 6:3), "Know ye not that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?" We were buried with Him, and raised from the dead with Him. Just as in Adam all his children died, so all believers in Christ actually died too in Him. "Our old man was crucified with Him," with Him we were raised from the dead. And now we are to count ourselves as actually "dead to sin and alive unto God."
        In very deed, just as the new life in us is an actual participation in and experience of the risen life of Christ, so our death to sin in Christ is also an actual spiritual reality. It is when, by the power of the Holy Ghost, we are enabled to see how really we were one with Christ on the cross in His death, and in His resurrection, that we shall understand that in Him sin has no power over us. We present ourselves unto God "as alive from the dead."
        Just as the old Adam lives in the sinner, even in the believer too, who does not know of the new death in Christ which he has died, even so the man who knows that he died in Christ and now is alive in Him, can confidently count upon the word, "sin shall not have dominion over you," not even for a single moment. "Reckon yourselves indeed dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus." This is the true life of faith.
As what our Lord said about our being in Him and having Him living His life in us, could only come true as the full power of the Holy Spirit is experienced, so it is here too. Paul says (Romans 8:2), "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death," of which he had been complaining that it had kept him in captivity. And he then adds "that the requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit ." Through the Spirit we enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
        Oh that God might open the eyes of His children to see what the power is of Christ living in them for a life of holiness and fruitfulness, when they reckon themselves indeed dead unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus.

Why the Cross? By Jerry Bridges

Jesus … endured the cross, despising the shame. Hebrews 12:2

At the time of Christ’s death, the cross was an instrument of incredible horror and shame. It was a most wretched and degrading punishment, inflicted only on slaves and the lowliest of people. If free men were at any time subjected to crucifixion for great crimes such as treason or insurrection, the sentence could not be executed until they were put in the category of slaves by degradation and their freedom taken away by flogging.

How could it be that the eternal Son of God—by whom all things were created and for whom all things were created (Colossians 1:15–16)—would end up in His human nature dying one of the most cruel and humiliating deaths ever devised by man?

We know that Jesus’ death on the cross did not take Him by surprise. He continually predicted it to His disciples. (See Luke 18:31–33 for one example.) And with His impending crucifixion before Him, Jesus Himself said, “What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour” (John 12:27). Jesus said He came to die.

But why? Why did Jesus come to die? The apostles Paul and Peter gave us the answer in clear, concise terms. Paul wrote, “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,” and Peter wrote, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Corinthians 15:3; 1 Peter 3:18).

Christ died for our sins. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, took upon Himself a human nature and died a horrible death on our behalf. That is the reason for the cross. He suffered what we should have suffered. He died in our place to pay the penalty for our sins.

Jesus, Creator God: by JI Packer

Hebrews 1:2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.

But in fact the real difficulty, the supreme mystery with which the gospel confronts us, does not lie here at all [he was discussing the atonement, resurrection, and Gospel miracles]. It lies not in the Good Friday message of atonement, nor in the Easter message of the resurrection, but in the Christmas message of Incarnation. The really staggering Christmas claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man–that second person of the Godhead became the “second man” (1 Cor 15:47), determining human destiny, the second representative head of the race, and that he took humanity without loss of deity, so that Jesus of Nazareth was a truly and fully divine as he was human.

Here are two mysteries for the price of one–the plurality of persons within the unity of God, and the union of Godhead and manhood in the person of Jesus. It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie. “The Word became flesh” (Jn 1:14); God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. And there was no illusion or deception in this: the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation

Christ Our Life: by Andrew Murray

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Romans 5:17

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:11

We said that Paul teaches us now that our faith in Christ as our righteousness is to be followed by our faith in Him as our life from the dead. He asks (Romans 6:3), "Know ye not that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?" We were buried with Him, and raised from the dead with Him. Just as in Adam all his children died, so all believers in Christ actually died too in Him. "Our old man was crucified with Him," with Him we were raised from the dead. And now we are to count ourselves as actually "dead to sin and alive unto God."
In very deed, just as the new life in us is an actual participation in and experience of the risen life of Christ, so our death to sin in Christ is also an actual spiritual reality. It is when, by the power of the Holy Ghost, we are enabled to see how really we were one with Christ on the cross in His death, and in His resurrection, that we shall understand that in Him sin has no power over us. We present ourselves unto God "as alive from the dead."
Just as the old Adam lives in the sinner, even in the believer too, who does not know of the new death in Christ which he has died, even so the man who knows that he died in Christ and now is alive in Him, can confidently count upon the word, "sin shall not have dominion over you," not even for a single moment. "Reckon yourselves indeed dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus." This is the true life of faith.
As what our Lord said about our being in Him and having Him living His life in us, could only come true as the full power of the Holy Spirit is experienced, so it is here too. Paul says (Romans 8:2), "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death," of which he had been complaining that it had kept him in captivity. And he then adds "that the requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit ." Through the Spirit we enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Oh that God might open the eyes of His children to see what the power is of Christ living in them for a life of holiness and fruitfulness, when they reckon themselves indeed dead unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus.

The Passion of Patience: by Oswald Chambers

Though it linger, wait for it. — Habakkuk 2:3

Patience is not indifference. Patience is an immensely strong rock, withstanding all onslaughts. The vision of God is the source of patience, because it gives moral inspiration. Moses was able to be patient, not because he had a sense of duty but because he had the vision of God: “He persevered because he saw him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). If God gives you a time of temptation in the wilderness, when there is no word from him at all, be patient. The power to endure is yours because you see God.

A person who has had a vision of God is devoted to God himself, not to any particular cause or issue. You always know if the vision you’re having is of God because of the inspiration it brings. When you see God, everything around you is energized. Everything is larger, more vibrant, more.

“Though it linger, wait for it.” The proof that we have the vision is that we are reaching out for more than we have grasped. It is a bad thing to be satisfied spiritually. We have the tendency to look for satisfaction in our experience. We think that because we’ve experienced salvation and sanctification, we have the power to endure anything. The instant we begin to think this way, we are on the road to ruin. If we have nothing more than our experiences, we have nothing. If we have the inspiration of the vision of God, we have more than we can experience.

Never let yourself relax spiritually. Press on toward your goal. “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Philippians 3:12).