The cross was not a commercial bargain with the devil, let alone that tricked and trapped him; nor an exact equivalent, a quid pro quo to satisfy a code of honor or technical point of law; nor a compulsory submission by God to some moral authority above him from which he could not otherwise escape; nor a punishment of a meek Christ by a harsh and punitive Father; nor a pronouncement of salvation by a loving Christ from a mean and reluctant Father; nor an action of the Father which bypassed Christ as Mediator. Instead, the righteous, loving Father humbled himself to become in and through his only Son flesh, sin and a curse for us, in order to redeem us without compromising his own character. The theological words satisfaction and substitution need to be carefully defined and safeguarded, but they cannot in any circumstances be given up. The biblical gospel of atonement is of God satisfying himself by substituting himself for us.

It gets better...

The concept of substitution may be said, then, to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives that belong to God alone; God accepts penalties that belong to man alone.

This is the essence of the biblical gospel. May we never waver in announcing, appropriating, and applying it in the totality of our lives.

Well, one of those nights as I woke up, I decided I was going to put God on trial. I said, "Lord, what gives? Why are you doing this to me? What's the problem?" I was so frustrated and uncomfortable.

But then, almost immediately, I remembered what happened last summer to my three year-old, Isaac.

We were out to dinner and afterward, he tripped on his sister's foot and fell face-first into one of the booths at the restaurant. Blood started to gush from the center of his forehead from a gash about an inch-and-a-half long. Of course, we rushed him to the hospital. By the time we arrived, the pressure had stopped the bleeding, but it was clear that he would need stitches. 

I thought this would be no problem. The bleeding had stopped, the nurse had numbed the pain without recourse to a needle, and Ike was happy as a clam. But then the nurse came to prep him for the stitches...

She wrapped him in a bed sheet like a mummy, strapped him into a stretcher used for people with spinal cord injuries, put him on a gurney, and with the nurse, my wife and I were told basically to lay on top of him while the doctor closed the wound.

The kid went BALLISTIC. Even though he had been properly anesthetized, he apparently felt the pressure of each of the six stitches going in and out of his forehead. And the entire time, as he was foaming at the mouth and gagging, he just kept repeating to us, "Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop."

Our response was to comfort and reassure him that this was all for his good, that we were allowing this to happen to him because we love him: "It'll be over soon. You're going to be okay. The doctor's going to make you all better." 

Now as I said, it was the memory of this experience that rushed into my mind as I suffered on my bed as I argued with the Lord, and I thought, "Wait a second. You are not smiting me. You are not a sadist. You love me. You are my loving heavenly father - a far more loving parent than my wife and I combined." So I thought. "This can't be happening because you don't love me, but precisely because you do!" It changed everything.

Christian, this is the God you serve. The God who's given you all good things to enjoy, NOT LEAST, his only son, Jesus Christ, to come and rescue you.

...who take shots because of what they'll do to get people's attention....I just applaud my friends who are willing to tear off the roof to get somebody on a mat to Jesus....Meanwhile, while our teenagers are going to hell, we might be tempted to criticize someone's methodology, we align ourselves more closely with the Pharisees who were sitting on the front row to try to see how Jesus would heal the man versus rejoicing that somebody got healed today.

In other words, if the methodology has brought about a conversion (and let's assume it's genuine), the methodology is above criticism. It has proved itself as an appropriate means of gospel communication.

The room filled with amens and this affirming follow-up from Mark Driscoll:

If people meet Jesus, is there a wrong way to do that? Every pastor would say God works in spite of me by his grace, and that just shows how powerful the gospel is. So to critique the man and his method is only to make the gospel more glorious.

I have to say that in light of how intelligent and generally faithful to the essentials of the gospel Driscoll has been throughout his ministry, I found this comment surprising. It is what is philosophically called a consequentialist argument - the ends justify the means - a form of argumentation that is never biblical.

If a person meets Jesus through an ungodly methodology or ungodly motives, we can (and should), like the Apostle Paul, celebrate the fact that the gospel has been preached and that people are saved. In Phil 1:15-18, he says, "Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice."

According to this passage, does the gracious consequence of the preaching of the gospel suddenly turn envy and rivalry and selfish ambition and the desire to afflict the apostle into good things? Is Paul saying, "Don't criticize these men because, after all, Christ is proclaimed"? Of course not. He is going to go on in Chapter 2 to call every Christian to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit.

Clearly, Paul was not a consequentialist. No consequence, no matter how gracious, can sanctify a method or motives that do not comport with the biblical standard. The ends never justify the means. And although they can bring into sharper relief how the power of the gospel can overcome wicked methodology and wicked motives, the ends can never make that methodology and motivation righteous. So even though Driscoll is right to say that the man and his method can make the gospel more glorious, he's wrong to suggest that there is no wrong way for a person to meet Jesus.

So instead, let's say this: "I am glad that people are being genuinely converted even through inappropriate methodology and impure motives. What a testimony to the gospel's power!" But let's also say, "Nevertheless, let us never adopt the methods or motives that function to undermine the very gospel we are called to preach."

3/21 Tweak muscle in back

3/22 Wear a 15 lb. backpack for twelve hours

3/23 Lift weights for back

3/24 Wear a 15 lb. backpack for twelve hours

3/25 Tweak muscle in back

3/26 Agony

I don't know how it happened exactly, but my orthopedic doctor and physical therapist say I have bulging discs (plural) in my neck that are aggravating various nerves from my right shoulder to my fingertips. My arm is numb, weak, achy, and often sharply painful. Twice I almost shed tears. Twice I went to the ER. And I began to fantasize about a way to amputate, looking with longing at the butcher block in my kitchen.

But I've got to tell you that the Lord has used it to significantly increase my prayer life. And I don't mean just for relief and healing (though there's been plenty of that!). But it's that my weakness has put me in a posture to pray about everything. It's been a wonderful time to draw near to Christ.

So let me encourage you with language I'm stealing from John Piper - Don't Waste Your _____ (fill in the blank). Don't waste your suffering, no matter what it is. Make the most of this strange gift from the hand of God. For in our weakness, his strength is made perfect.

Oh, and don't forget to pray I'll get better. After all, as Doug Wilson recently reminded me, Paul prayed that the Lord would remove the thorn in his flesh. He didn't pray for two thorns.

1. Love is being willing to have your life complicated by the needs and struggles of your husband or wife without impatience or anger.

2. Love is actively fighting the temptation to be critical and judgmental toward your spouse, while looking for ways to encourage and praise.

3. Love is the daily commitment to resist the needless moments of conflict that come from pointing out and responding to minor offenses.

4. Love is being honest and approachable in times of misunderstanding, and being more committed to unity than you are to winning, accusing, or being right.

5. Love is a daily commitment to admit your sin, weakness, and failure and to resist the temptation to offer an excuse or shift the blame.

6. Love means being willing, when confronted by your spouse, to examine your heart rather than rising to your defense or shifting the focus.

7. Love is a daily commitment to grow in love so that the love you offer to your husband or wife is increasingly selfless, mature, and patient.

8. Love is being unwilling to do what is wrong when you have been wronged but to look for concrete and specific ways to overcome evil with good.

9. Love is being a good student of your spouse, looking for his physical, emotional, and spiritual needs so that in some way you can remove the burden, support him as he carries it, or encourage him along the way.

10. Love means being willing to invest the time necessary to discuss, examine, and understand the problems that you face as a couple, staying on task until the problem is removed or you have agreed upon a strategy of response.

11. Love is always being willing to ask for forgiveness and being committed to grant forgiveness when it is requested.

12. Love is recognizing the high value of trust in a marriage and being faithful to your promises and true to your word.

13. Love is speaking kindly and gently, even in moments of disagreement, refusing to attack your spouse's character or assault his or her intelligence.

14. Love is being unwilling to flatter, lie, manipulate, or deceive in any way in order to co-opt your spouse into giving you what you want or doing something your way.

15. Love is being unwilling to ask your spouse to be the source of your identity, meaning and purpose, or inner sense of well-being, while refusing to be the source of his or hers.

16. Love is the willingness to have less free time, less sleep, and a busier schedule in order to be faithful to what God has called you to be and to do as a husband or wife.

17. Love is a commitment to say no to selfish instincts and to do everything that is within your ability to promote real unity, functional understanding, and active love in your marriage.

18. Love is staying faithful to your commitment to treat your spouse with appreciation, respect, and grace, even in moments when he or she doesn't seem to deserve it or is unwilling to reciprocate.

19. Love is the willingness to make regular and costly sacrifices for the sake of your marriage without asking anything in return or using your sacrifices to place your spouse in your debt.

20. Love is being unwilling to make any personal decision or choice that would harm your marriage, hurt your husband or wife, or weaken the bond of trust between you.

21. Love is refusing to be self-focused or demanding but instead looking for specific ways to serve, support, and encourage, even when you are busy or tired.

22. Love is daily admitting to yourself, your spouse, and God that you are not able to love this way without God's protecting, providing, forgiving, rescuing, and delivering grace.

What got me thinking about this subject was a story I read from Modesto, CA about a 41 year-old teacher who resigned his job and left his wife and kids to move into an apartment with his 18 year-old student lover. The teacher said, "In making our choice, we've hurt a lot of people. We keep asking ourselves, 'Do we make everyone else happy, or do we follow our hearts?'" 

Maybe this is "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" taken to an unanticipated (and unholy) place. Or maybe it's cultural relativism come home to roost ("this is true for us"). Or maybe, just maybe, the language of following our hearts is a disguise for our own idolatry - a way of justifying and rationalizing running our own lives. I'm inclined to think it's a combination of all three.

In the Garden, Jesus prayed, "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me." That's what his heart wanted. It wanted escape. It wanted not to endure the pain and shame of the cross, the unbearable suffering of experiencing his father's holy wrath. He saw the freight train coming and didn't want it to run him down. But Jesus went further. "Nevertheless," he said, "not my will, but yours be done." In this sense, it was Jesus' will to avoid the cross ("not my will"). Instead of listening to his heart he told it to shut up. This is the way of the Christian faith. Not following our heart's every inclination no matter where it takes us, but allowing our heart to be ruled by something, or better, someone outside it.

There is a lesson to be learned here; namely, you don't have to be an apostle to share the gospel effectively with others. But it does help to have some tools in your toolbox.

One simple, straightforward, clear, and brief tool is called, "DO - DONE." I don't know who made it up. All I know is that I didn't. And it's quite good. Here's how it goes...

Every religion in the world is a DO religion - do these good things or do these religious activities and God will accept you or you'll achieve inner peace.

But Christianity is a DONE religion. God sent his son, Jesus, to live the life you could never live and to die the death you deserved to die in order to bring you to God. He did what you could never do for yourself.

Becoming a Christian involves turning from DO to DONE. Turning from trying to save yourself through your own efforts and goodness to submit to what Jesus has done for you on the cross.

DO - DONE. Simple. Clear. Straightforward. Brief. One of many tools for communicating the gospel wherever you go.

Instead, if you're looking for the closest modern parallel to New Testament sorcerers, look no further than the world of the health, wealth, prosperity preacher. Now I know it seems like a strange parallel to draw, but when you understand what magicians really were during the days of the early church, the comparison is all but obvious. Consider this scholarly definition of ancient magic:

Magic is defined as that form of religious deviance whereby individual or social goals are sought by means alternate to those normally sanctioned by the dominant religious institution....[G]oals sought within the context of religious deviance are magical when attained [by] the management of supernatural powers in such a way that results are virtually guaranteed (David Aune quoted in David G Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles [Eerdmans, 2009], 88).

So you have religious deviance, supernatural power management, and guaranteed results. If that doesn't sound like the health, wealth, prosperity preachers, I don't know what does. They say, "The gospel is aimed at your prosperity (prosperity is the goal). You get prosperous through the powerful words you speak (there's the management of supernatural powers). And your results are guaranteed."

Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn and the rest of their kind might not be wearing pointed gray hats whilst standing on hills whilst shooting lightning from their fingers, but they are sorcerers nonetheless. They are the new sorcerers - conjuring their counterfeit gospel with counterfeit miracles at the expense of hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

This is so counter-intuitive. Everything inside of you says that if you are going to be right with God, if you are going to be acquitted in the divine courtroom, you've got to earn it. So when you hear that it is the one who does not work who's justified, it feels a little strange to you.

Every day, you wake up sensing that you need to make up for what you've done or to perform double for the deed you failed to do. You and I wake up, and without thinking about it, jump onto the treadmill of working for our justification, of working for our acceptance with God. But why would we do this? Answer: we forget Rom 4:5 - that God justifies the ungodly. And if God justifies those who are not godly - those who have not amassed a stellar spiritual resume, those who have all kinds of strikes against them - if God justifies the ungodly, then working for justification makes absolutely no sense. Why work for something you don't have to work for?

So stop working. Quit your job. Forget about beefing up your resume to be acceptable to God. Instead, don't stop believing in the one who justifies the ungodly, the one who justified you.

Last week, Wretched launched "The Biggest Project," which is aimed at the distribution of "The Biggest Question" - 250,000 copies worldwide! The goal of the project is "to educate, inform, and alert as many individuals as possible to the most important truth on earth: who they are, who God is and how they can be reconciled to him." Not bad, don't you think?

If you'd like to get involved in practical ways, go here, and then pray like crazy that the Lord would use "The Biggest Question" to bring many people to faith in Christ.

Here's a clip to whet your appetite: