Monday, October 12, 2009

Christ bought every good thing and every bad thing that turned for good...

Convicting. Very.

- Excerpt taken from Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper

"Why is this the case? Because for redeemed sinners, every good thing-indeed every bad thing that God turns for good- was obtained for us by the cross of Christ. Apart from the death of Christ, sinners get nothing but judgement. Apart from the cross of Christ, there is only condemnation. Therefore everything that you enjoy in Christ- as a Christian, as a person who trusts Christ- is owing to the death of Christ. And all your rejoicing in all things should therefore be a rejoicing in the cross where all your blessings were purchased for you at the cost of the death of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
One of the reasons we are not as Christ-centered and cross-saturated as we should be is that we have no realized that everything-everything good, and everything bad that God turns for the good of his redeemed children- was purchased by the death of Christ for us. We simply take life and breath and health and friends and everything for granted. We think it is ours by right. But the face is that it is not ours by right. We are doubly undeserving of it.
1) We are creatures, and our Creator is not bound or obligated to give us anything- not life or health or anything. He gives, he takes, and he does us no injustice ( Job 1:21).
2) And besides being creatures with no clain on our Creator, we are sinners. We have fallen short of his glory (Romans 3:23). We have ignored him and disobeyed him and failed to love him and trust him. The wrath of his justice is kindled against us. All we deserve from him is judgment (Romans 3:19). Therefore every breath we take, every time our heart beats, every day that the sun rises, every moment we see with our eyes or hear with our ears or speak with our mouths or walk with our legs is, for now, a free and undeserved gift to sinners who deserve only judgement."

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