Elliott's Muses

One image, one aspect, of the atonement, has receded in our day almost into obscurity. We have been made aware of present-day attempts to preach a more gentle and kind gospel. In our effort to communicate the work of Christ more kindly we flee from any mention of a curse inflicted by God upon his Son. We shrink in horror from the words of the prophet Isaiah (chap. 53) that describe the ministry of the suffering servant of Israel and tells us that it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Can you take that in? Somehow the Father took pleasure in bruising the Son when he set before him that awful cup of divine wrath. How could the Father be pleased by bruising his Son were it not for his eternal purpose through that bruising to restore us as his children? But there is the curse motif that seems utterly foreign to us, particularly in this time in history. When we speak today of the idea of a curse, what do we think of? We think perhaps of a voodoo witch doctor that places pins in a doll made ...

As we journey closer to Easter, it is good to remember what Jesus has done for us.  This morning I read from a daily reading by Charles Haddon Spurgeon - one of the greatest preachers in all history.  Pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, England in the mid to late 19th century, he was known as the prince of preachers...and this is one of the demonstrations of why that was so. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. [2 Corinthians 5:21] Mourning Christian, why are you weeping? Are you mourning over your own sins and failings? Look to your perfect Lord, and remember, you are complete in Him. You are in God's sight as perfect as if you had never sinned; more than that, the Lord our Righteousness has clothed you with a royal robe of righteousness, which is wholly undeserved—you have the righteousness of God. You who are mourning by reason of inbred sin and depravity, remember, none of your...