In Christ Alone

March 4, 2020 Ken Winter

Since last week’s post looked at the “Amazing Grace” that our Lord extends to us, i thought it would only be right this week to look at the “amazing cost” of that amazing grace.

Some of us are in the midst of the season of Lent. These days leading up to Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday are a time of prayer and fasting set aside to remember and reflect on the great price our Savior paid for our sin — and that our salvation came at great cost to Him.

If we approach Good Friday thinking that Jesus was a victim of the religious leaders, or the Roman rulers, or the crowd, or even Judas Iscariot, we will have missed the fundamental truth. Jesus was never a victim! Jesus was always the Victor! The cross was never an infliction upon the Son, it was an instrument of the Father. Jesus was not crucified because of the religious leaders’ treachery, the Roman rulers’ impotence, the crowd’s endorsement or Judas Iscariot’s betrayal, though all of them are accountable before God for their treacherous actions. If those individuals had the ability or the power over God to do anything contrary to His divine purpose, then He wouldn’t be very divine! If the Sovereign, Almighty God can be defeated or manipulated by any of His creation then He is neither sovereign nor almighty. As a matter of fact, He would no longer be God if His creation had power over its Creator. As Peter said, “God knew what would happen, and His prearranged plan was carried out” (Acts 2:23).

Peter spoke those words on the Day of Pentecost. Empowered by the Holy Spirit that “ordinary fisherman” stood up and boldly declared the truth of Christ alone. Many of those to whom Peter was speaking would have been in Jerusalem the day that Jesus was crucified. Some of them may have even been in the group that cried, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” But even though not all of them would have been a part of the group that called for Christ’s crucifixion, Peter still said to all of them, “you nailed Him to a cross and killed Him” (Acts 2:23).

i would venture that with that statement he got everyone’s attention. He could say it because everybody in that crowd was involved in the crime against Jesus that brought Him to His death. The essence of the crime against Jesus was not the ending of His physical life. The essence of the crime against Jesus was the rejection of the Father in Jesus' life. In essence, their acceptance or rejection of Jesus would be a referendum on their acceptance or rejection of the Father. They could not profess to follow the Father and reject the One He had sent and endorsed. So Peter recounted all of the ways that the Father had endorsed His Son for the accomplishment of His purpose through His prearranged plan.

Jesus was handed over to be crucified on the grounds of blasphemy. He claimed to be the Son of God (Luke 22:70-71). He claimed that the Father was endorsing Him as Messiah (Luke 22:67-69). But the Jewish rulers rejected this role of the Heavenly Father in Jesus' life. They called Jesus a blasphemer. Therefore, if a person rejects the true role of the Father in the life of Jesus, that person votes for the charge of blasphemy. And to cast your vote on the side of blasphemy – to reject the Father's endorsement of Jesus – is to say in your heart, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" That was true then, and it is just as true now.

Perhaps you would ask, how did the Father endorse Jesus?

1. The Father endorsed Jesus every time He performed a miracle, a wonder or a sign. "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, hear Him!" (Luke 9:35) Peter declared that it was the Father who did the " . . . signs through Him, as you well know." He was "publicly endorsed” by the Father and, don’t miss this, Peter emphasized that the Father Himself did the miracles through Jesus (Acts 2:22). It was the power of the Father working in and through the Son to heal the sick and still the storm and cast out demons and raise the dead. While He was on the earth, the Father gave Jesus as the Son of Man the fullest endorsement any “human” ever had. He gave him His Spirit "without limit" (John 3:34).

2. The Father further endorsed Jesus by planning His death for the sins of His people. i would venture that few of us have ever thought of Christ’s crucifixion as the Father’s endorsement! But the reality is that the Father planned the suffering and death of Jesus so that forgiveness of sins could be preached to all the nations (Isaiah 53). The difference between the Father's plan to crucify Jesus and Pilate's plan to crucify Jesus was that Pilate was dismissing and rejecting Jesus as a mere pretender, whereas the Father was honoring His Son as the Servant of the Lord and the Savior of the world. The Father planned the death of Jesus not to disown Him or dishonor Him or reject Him, but to glorify Him as the perfect, flawless Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. The Father's plan for Jesus to die was not an indictment like the plan of the Jewish leaders, but rather, an endorsement of His infinite worth so that He could save the Jew and the Gentile alike.

3. The Father endorsed Jesus by raising Him from the dead. That day, Peter preached, “{you} killed Him. But God released Him… and raised Him” (Acts 2:23-24.) You voted “no” against Jesus. But the Father voted “YES” for Jesus. You denounced Him, but the Father endorsed Him. You killed Him, but the Father raised Him. Peter fully intended for the crowd to feel the clash between their rejection of Jesus and the Father's acceptance of Jesus; their defamation of Jesus and the Father's affirmation of Jesus. What matters here ultimately is not that they killed a Man, but that their words and actions bore witness to the fact that they are against God.

Now this was a shocking and stunning thing for the people to hear and extremely hard to admit. These were religious people that Peter was addressing. They were moral people. They were worshiping people. They were people who knew hundreds of verses in God's Word by heart. And he was telling them that their minds were totally at odds with God. They claimed to know God. They claimed to love God and worship God and follow God. And Peter told them that they were diametrically opposed to God. They were “anti-God”.

The test of whether we are “anti-God” or not is not whether we say we believe in God, or whether we say we know God, or love God, or serve God. The test is whether we embrace God the Father’s endorsement of Jesus. If we say we know God but reject the Father's endorsement of Jesus as the worker of miracles; if we say that we know God but reject the Father's endorsement of Jesus as the Passover sacrifice that takes away sin; if we say we know God and reject the Father's endorsement of Jesus by raising Him from the dead, then we don't really know God. In fact we are against God. We are “anti-God”.

This is what cut those listening to Peter to the heart. They saw that in their zeal “for” God they had been against God. We need to understand this today! Because in our “live-and-let-live” pluralistic society hardly anyone would dare say to another person, "You claim to know God, but in fact you are “anti-God”; you are against God." Why? Because you do not embrace God the Father’s endorsement of Jesus. Jesus is the test of all true knowledge of God. Are we with the Father in His endorsement of Jesus by raising Him from the dead, or are we against Him?

4. The Father endorsed Jesus by seating Him on His right hand and putting all His enemies under His feet. Peter quotes the prophecy of King David who foresaw that God the Father would exalt the risen Messiah to His right hand and give Him a place of rule and supremacy over every other person and power in the universe (Acts 2:34-35, quoting Psalm 110:1). This endorsement of Jesus exposes the ultimate horror of rejecting Him. In rejecting Jesus, not only have they rejected the One whom the Father declared to be Messiah by raising Him from the dead; they have also rejected the One whom the Father declared to be the Lord of the universe by exalting Him to His right hand.

5. The Father endorsed Jesus as the only One worthy to receive the Holy Spirit and pour Him out in full portion upon sinners who repent. The Father has given Jesus the privilege of pouring out the Holy Spirit and clothing His people with the Spirit's power from on high (Luke 24:49).

What is at stake here and at every point in this message that Peter was bringing to the crowd is God the Father. The Father endorsed Jesus as the Worker of miracles on the earth. The Father endorsed Jesus as the Perfect Sacrifice for sins. The Father endorsed Jesus as the Risen Messiah. The Father endorsed Jesus by exalting Him to be Lord of the universe. To reject Jesus is to repudiate the Father! To vote “no” on Jesus is to oppose God the Father. That's the issue. And that is what pierced their hearts! (Acts 2:37)

The question before the crowd back then is the same question before all people today. Do you join God the Father in His affirmation of Jesus, or do you stand against Him in the life of Jesus? The Father had a prearranged plan – a plan that could only be accomplished through Christ alone. And the Father has a plan for our lives – a plan that can only be accomplished through the Son that He sent in order for that plan to be fulfilled. Join with the Father in His affirmation of His Son, and follow His Son in the journey of your life… trusting Him to fulfill His plan for His glory… His plan in Christ alone.

Excerpt from Until He Returns, Ch. 7

In Christ Alone

In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! - who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe.
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save;
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied –
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine –
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand:
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.

Songwriters: Stuart Townend & Keith Getty