If you have a passion to learn about God so you can love Him and serve Him all the days of your life, there is an abundance of resources available online, all at no cost.
This is one of the benefits of being alive in this age of technology. God has not only given us His Word, but He has also provided gifted teachers who have written books that explain the meaning of His Word.
One such book is John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die. Click here to get your free copy in Epub, Mobi (Kindle) or PDF format.
I love this book and read it repeatedly, usually at this time of year, as Good Friday and Easter Sunday draw near.
Jesus came to die. He made that clear: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
And why did Jesus come to die? For at least 50 reasons. And Reason #1 is explained succinctly, thoroughly, and biblically in Chapter 1 of Piper’s book:
“To Absorb the Wrath of God.”
The fury and anger of God is not a popular topic these days. Never has been. Never will be. Yet when you read the whole Bible, you find it repeatedly. And not just in the Old Testament. John the Baptizer was a judgment preacher. So were the Apostles. And so was Jesus.
Jesus spoke much about God’s grace, mercy, and kindness. “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). And He also said much about His wrath and judgment. “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).
I recently read the book of Hebrews. What a great letter! We don’t know who wrote Hebrews. Whoever did had a balanced view of God. There is so much truth in this book about God – who He is, what He has done through Jesus, and what He will do for His people who persevere in the faith and resist the temptation to jump ship.
I’ve also been listening to John Piper’s sermons on Hebrews (there are 52 of them, all available for free at desiringGod.org). I especially like the sermon on Hebrews 10:26-31 entitled, “Woe to Those Who Trample the Son of God.”
Here’s the text:
26 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
And here are some of Piper’s comments on this text:
“Whatever your view of God, the Creator of the universe and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, if it does not include this (God’s judgment), it is a distorted, unrealistic view. God is a God of vengeance, and to fall into his hands is a terrifying thing.
“It is honest and loving and wise to tell people the truth about the wrath of God.
“Now this is a portrait of God . . . that our strange age does not want to hear, and does not believe is helpful or true. For most people today, God, if he is there at all, is there to thank after a close call and to question after a tragedy.
“So we need to hear this text and do a reality check on our view of God. Terrifying expectation of judgment . . . fury of fire . . . consume the adversaries . . . rendering punishment worse than death . . . repaying vengeance . . . with terrifying hands. That too is the truth about God.”
My favorite comment above is this: “It is honest and loving and wise to tell people the truth about the wrath of God.” Oh, that more pastors and evangelists would understand that sentence.
And if it is honest and loving and wise to tell people about God’s wrath, it must also be true that it is honest and loving and wise for us to study God’s wrath.
Here’s one surefire way to increase your gratitude for and enjoyment of God’s love: please join me in spending more time studying His wrath. As we will soon see, the Bible teaches that there is an inseparable relationship between the two. The better we understand His wrath, the more we will understand His love.
Do you want to live a life of greater praise and worship of God for His priceless gift of salvation? Then spend much time learning what God has saved us from – and at the top of that list is His wrath.
Here’s a wonderful verse to get you started:
“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
Jesus died to be “the propitiation for our sins.” What does the word “propitiation” mean? “It refers to the removal of God’s wrath by providing a substitute. The substitute is provided by God himself. The substitute, Jesus Christ, does not just cancel the wrath; he absorbs it and diverts it from us to himself. God’s wrath is just, and it was spent, not withdrawn.” (Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, page 21).
Wow! That is amazing. That is incredible. The wrath of God hangs over our heads like a storm ready to be unleashed. Because of our sin, we deserve that wrath, because “God’s wrath is just.” When Jesus died, God’s wrath was “spent, not withdrawn.” It was removed from us. But it didn’t just disappear into the sunset. It was diverted from us and poured out on Jesus.
God must punish all sin. His holiness, justice, and righteousness demand that. (And all sin will be punished, either in the lake of fire or on the cross.) God cannot just look the other way. When Jesus died, He absorbed the full force of God’s wrath “in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).
That’s the meaning of “propitiation.” And that is how God both loved us and satisfied His justice.
“Let us not trifle with God or trivialize his love. We will never stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness of our sin and the justice of his wrath against us. But when, by grace, we waken to our unworthiness, then we may look at the suffering and death of Christ and say, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the [wrath-absorbing] propitiation for our sins.” (Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, page 21).
I trust you’ll find these comments helpful as you prepare your heart to celebrate the goodness of God on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Why not spend the next two weeks preparing for Good Friday and Easter Sunday by reading John Piper’s book? Each chapter is a short yet meaty 2-page explanation of selected verses that teach a specific reason for the God-glorifying, salvation-providing death of Jesus.
Also, to listen to (and/or read) John Piper’s sermon quoted above, visit:
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/woe-to-those-who-trample-the-son-of-god
To listen to (and/or read) the rest of Piper’s 52 sermons on Hebrews, visit:
https://www.desiringgod.org/series/hebrews/messages
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