Friday, 31 December 2010

Some Thoughts on Travel Chaos

Last week, while travelling back to Ireland to visit family for Christmas, I found myself caught up in what the newspapers called "Travel Chaos". Because of heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures a number of airports came to a standstill. This left many passengers stranded in airports, far from where they would have liked to have been.

During attempt number two to travel to Ireland I found myself spending the day in Heathrow airport, which meant I was able to get a first hand glimpse of this "Travel Chaos". It was interesting to note people's reactions to not being able to travel where they would wish.

One of the most common responses was summed up by a woman standing next to me in a queue at the 'Aer Lingus' helpdesk. "I just feel so helpless", she said. This was the response of many, a feeling of being completely out of control and unable to do anything about their situation. For some, this led to them getting angry with the airline and its workers. I sympathised with the woman, and agreed that it was not nice to be feeling helpless to do anything about our situation.

However, as I walked away from the helpdesk I also began to wonder whether this feeling of helplessness was such a bad thing. This sense of powerlessness that was experienced by countless fellow travellers is a reminder of something important. It is a reminder that God is God and we are not. This is something that we all need to recognise.

This may sound obvious, but it is something that we as humans desperately try to ignore. This is because we like to put ourselves in the place of God. We do not want Him ruling over us, we want to set ourselves up as rulers. We want to live as if we were God, calling the shots and doing things the way we want to.

But this bubble is burst when we realise that there are things in this world that we are completely unable to control. We can do nothing about the weather, we have no power to change it. The heavy snow and freezing temperatures that brought airports to a standstill reminds us just how weak we really are. It reminds us that we are not God, and we do not have the power to rule in His place. It is simply impossible for us. He alone has such power, He alone is in complete control over the weather (Job 38:22-24; Mark 4:35-41), and over all things which He has made. Before Him we stand helpless. He can effortlessly bring to nothing the plans and schemes of human beings. He is God and we are not.

This means that it is utterly foolish for us to think that we can rebel against Him and expect to win. We simply do not have the power. God is the Creator who is in absolute control over the whole of His creation. We are creatures who are utterly dependant upon Him for all things. The fact that our Christmas travel plans are frustrated by bad weather is a gracious reminder of this and ought to bring us to recognise our rightful place before God and give Him the honour He is due. We can try and rebel and overthrow His rule through Jesus (Psalm 2:1-3), yet God finds this laughable (Psalm 2:4) because it is ridiculous to think that the creation can fight against the Creator and win! Therefore, the wise thing to do is to submit to God's rule through His Son, the Lord Jesus (Psalm 2:10-12).

So next time we make travel plans let us make it an opportunity to remember our rightful place, that God is God and we are not. As we make plans, let us learn say with James "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." (James 4:15).

Thursday, 30 December 2010

The Dangers and Blessings of Reading the Bible in a Year

One of the most popular and most versatile plans to read through the Bible in a year was prepared by the Scottish pastor Robert Murray M'Cheyne in 1842. It consists of four readings a day from different parts of Scripture which bring the reader through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice over a year. It can also be adapted so that you read through the Bible over the course of two years. You can view the plan online here, or order a copy here.

When M'Cheyne gave the plan to his congregation it came with an introduction which outlined the dangers and advantages of reading through the Bible in a year, and some practical directions for doing so. This is a very helpful introduction and it is well worth taking the time to read through before embarking on a Bible in a year reading plan, or to whet our appetite to undertake such a plan.

I have taken the body of what M'Cheyne wrote to his congregation and have edited it to make it slightly easier to read for a modern audience. What follows is my re-wording of M'Cheyne's introduction. I have tried to keep as close to M'Cheyne's original words as possible, and to retain his imagery. Where the words, phrases or word order have become outdated I have tried to render them in a modern equivalent. So here it is, Robert Murray M'Cheyne's introduction to reading the Bible in a year:

Dangers

1) Formality – We are such weak creatures that any regular practice easily degenerates into a lifeless form. For some people, the tendency of reading the Bible in a fixed manner can create such skeleton Christianity. A characteristic sin of the last days is that people will have the appearance of godliness but deny its power (2 Timothy 3:5). Guard against this. Let the plan perish instead of letting this rust eat up your souls.

2) Self-righteousness – Some people, when they have devoted their set time to reading the Bible, and finished reading the portion assigned for that day, may be tempted to look at themselves with self-complacency. I am persuaded that there are many who are living without a divine work on their soul (unpardoned and unsanctified, and ready to perish) who diligently spend set times in both personal and family devotions. This is going to hell with a lie in the right hand.

3) Careless reading – There are few who tremble at the word of God. There are few who, in reading Scripture, recognise the voice of God, which is full of majesty. Some, because they have such a large portion to read every day, may be tempted to become weary of it, as Israel did of the daily manna, saying “Our soul loathes this light bread!”, and therefore they read it in a light and careless way. This would be fearfully provoking to God. Beware, take care that this word is not true of you: “You also said, ‘Behold, what a weariness this is!’ and you have snuffed, says the Lord of hosts.”

4) A yoke too heavy to bear – Some people may begin reading with enthusiasm for a time, and then it may later feel like a burden that is heavy to bear. They may find their conscience dragging them through the set task without relishing the heavenly food. If you find this to be the case, throw away the chains, and feed freely in the sweet garden of God. I do not desire to put a snare upon you, but to be a helper of your joy.

If there are so many dangers in such a Bible reading plan, why suggest such a plan at all? In answer to this I say the best things are accompanied with danger, just as the most beautiful flowers are often gathered from the clefts of a dangerous precipice. Therefore, let us also weigh up the advantages.

Advantages

1) The whole Bible will be read through in an ordered way in the course of a year – The Old Testament will be read through once, and the New Testament and Psalms twice. I fear that many of you have never read the whole Bible; yet all of it is equally divine: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man o God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). If we ignore some parts of Scripture we shall be incomplete Christians.

2) Time will not be wasted in choosing what portions to read – Often believers are unable to work out which part of the mountains of spices they should direct their steps towards. This question is solved at once in a very simple manner by this Bible reading plan.

3) Parents will have a regular subject upon which to examine their children – Family devotions ought to be much more instructive than they generally are. Merely reading a chapter of the Bible is often too much like water spilt on the ground. Instead, let the day’s portion of the Bible be read by every member of the family beforehand, and then draw out the meaning and application of the passage by question and answer. This Bible reading plan will be helpful for this.

It also means that when friends meet together, they have something edifying to talk about from the portions of Scripture they have been reading that day. It also means that younger Christians can also ask more mature Christians about the meaning of difficult passages, and the fragrance of simpler passages spread further.

4) The pastor will know in what part of the pasture the flock are feeding – This will enable him to speak more suitably to them on a Sunday, and to drop a word of light and comfort when he visits them from house to house, which will be more readily responded to.

5) The sweet bond of Christian love and unity will be strengthened – We will be often reminded of our dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, both here and elsewhere, who join with us in reading these portions of Scripture. We shall more often be led to agree on earth, about something we shall ask of God. We shall pray over the same promises, mourn over the same confessions, praise God in the same songs, and be nourished by the same words of eternal life.

Directions

1) The first two columns contain the passages to be read with the family. The last two columns contain the passages to be read in private. (M’Cheyne’s Bible reading plan contained four columns of readings for each day).

2) The head of the family ought to read the passage for family devotions beforehand and note the key verses, and spend some time upon them with the family asking a few simple questions.

3) Sometimes the passage for family reading might be more suitable for personal reading. If this is the case, the head of the family ought to switch the readings so that the passage for personal reading that day may be read with the family, and the passage for family reading be read in private.

4) The Psalms ought to be worked through with the family at least once in the course of a year. (M’Cheyne here recommends that the family sing through the Psalter in a metrical version of the Psalms, which had been written for such a purpose, and was widely used in the Scottish church at that time).

5) Let the conversation at family meals often be focused upon the passage read or the Psalm. Thus every meal will be edifying, sanctified by the word and prayer.

6) Let our personal Bible reading happen first thing in the morning. Let God’s voice be the first we hear in the morning. Note the key verses and pray through every line and word of them. If you mark your Bible, let it be neatly done, so as to never abuse a copy of the Bible.

7) When you meet other believers in the street or elsewhere, speak about the passages read that day, as often as you have the opportunity. This will be a blessed alternative to those idle words which waste the soul and grieve the Holy Spirit of God. If you are writing letters (or emailing or on the phone etc.) make use of what you have gathered from Scripture that day.

8) Above all, use the word as a lamp to your feet and a light to your path – your guide in perplexity, your armour in temptation, your food in times of faintness. Hear the constant cry of Jesus, the One who Intercedes for us: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17).

[The copy of M'Cheyne's introduction I have worked from can be found in Andrew Bonar's book Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M'Cheyne published by Banner of Truth.]

Wednesday, 29 December 2010

Reading the Bible in a Year or Two

It is about this time of year that many of us start making plans to read through the Bible in a year. Over at the Gospel Coalition blog Stephen Witmer has posted a very helpful little piece on a two year Bible reading plan that he prepared for his church. It has some good pointers for those of us thinking of embarking on reading through the Bible over the next year (or two).

Witmer begins by quoting these words from Scottish pastor Robert Murray M'Cheyne, who was writing to his flock about a scheme he had prepared for his church to read through the whole of Scripture in a year:
MY DEAR FLOCK,—The approach of another year stirs up within me new desires for your salvation, and for the growth of those of you who are saved. “God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.” What the coming year is to bring forth, who can tell? . . . Those believers will stand firmest who have no dependence upon self or upon creatures, but upon Jehovah our Righteousness. We must be driven more to our Bibles, and to the mercy-seat, if we are to stand in the evil day. Then we shall be able to say like David—, “The proud have had me greatly in derision, yet have I not declined from thy law.” “Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart standeth in awe of thy Word.” It has long been in my mind to prepare a scheme of Scripture reading, in which as many as were made willing by God might agree, so that the whole Bible might be read once by you in the year, and all might be feeding in the same portion of the green pasture at the same time.
Witmer's article can be read in full by clicking here, where you can also download a copy of his Bible reading plan.

Questions: Hasn't Science Disproved God?

Tuesday, 28 December 2010

Tuesday Teaching: Don't Waste Your Life (Part 4)

We come to the fourth and final talk in the current series of Tuesday Teaching posts from John Piper, "Don't Waste Your Life". Tune in next week for a new series.

Monday, 27 December 2010

"Meat indeed and drink indeed"

What is it that will sustain us as Christians? What is it that will keep our souls from withering? The answer is simple, yet is something that we easily overlook. It is the prayerful and dilligent reading of the Bible. Nothing can replace this. This is something that the great evangelist George Whitefield discovered at his conversion. Here is what he said in his own words.
Above all my mind being now more opened and enlarged, I began to read the holy Scriptures upon my knees, laying aside all other books, and praying over, if possible, every line and word. This proved meat indeed and drink indeed to my soul. I daily received fresh life, light, and power from above. I got more true knowledge from reading the book of God in one month than I could ever have acquired from all the writings of men.
Therefore, let us not run after the latest fad or book about spiritual growth. Instead let us give ourselves to the prayerful and dilligent reading of the Scriptures.

Friday, 24 December 2010

Have a Christ-Exalting Christmas

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)

Wishing all our readers a Christ-exalting Christmas from both of us here at Above Every Name. Have a great time rejoicing in our glorious Saviour.
 
 

Wednesday, 22 December 2010

"I should have died with gratitude and joy"

William Cowper, the poet, battled for the whole of his life with severe depression and mental breakdown. His despair was so severe that he came close to comitting suicide. He spoke of being struck with "such a dejection of spirits, as none but they who have felt the same, can have the least conception of. Day and night I was upon the rack, lying down in horror, and rising up in despair."

His condition became so bad that he was comitted to St. Albans Insane Assylum. In God's providence the doctor who tended him there was a Christian man. This doctor loved Cowper and continually held out hope to Cowper, despite Cowper's insistence that he was beyond hope. It is through the influence of this doctor that Cowper was converted, and found the gospel to be the thing that would sustain him through his ongoing depression, which he would battle with for the rest of his life.

Whilst staying at the assylum he opened a Bible and discovered Romans 3:25, "whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins." Here is how Cowper describes the moment:
Immediately I received the strength to believe it, and the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone upon me. I saw the sufficiency of the atonement He had made, my pardon sealed in His blood, and all the fullness and completeness of His justification. In a moment I believed, and received the gospel ... Whatever my friend Madan had said to me, long before, revived in all its clearness, with demonstration of the spirit and power. Unless the Almighty arm had been under me, I think I should have died with gratitude and joy. My eyes filled with tears, and my voice choked with transport; I could only look up to heaven in silent fear, overwhelmed with love and wonder.
(Gilbert Thomas, William Cowper and the Eighteenth Century, p. 132.)

Tuesday, 21 December 2010

The Santichrist

Have you ever noticed how different the message of Santa Claus is from that of Jesus? They are worlds apart. The gospel of Santa Claus and the gospel of Jesus Christ give us two very different Christmasses:

The Santa Claus Gospel
The message of Santa Claus is essentially this: if you are good you shall be rewarded, if you are not you won't, you will be punished. Therefore, what you need to do is to work hard at being good to recieve your reward, it is all up to you.The gifts that he gives need to be earned.

The well known Christmas song Santa Claus is Coming to Town shows us this. The first verse tells us:
You better watch out,
You better not cry,
Better not pout,
I'm telling you why:
Santa Claus is coming to town.
In other words, "you'd better get your act together and be good because Santa Claus is coming." The next verse tells us why it is so important that we do this:
He's making a list,
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out
Who's naughty and nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
You need to be good because Santa is making a list of who's been good and who's been bad, who's been naughty and who's been nice. So, you'd better make sure you end up in the right list. It's all up to us and our hard work. This is why the third verse exhorts us:
He knows if you've been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!
"Be good", this is essentially the 'gospel' of Santa Claus. However, this is not good news at all. None of us can be good, we all come to Christmas as sinners. All of us "have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), and even the good things that we do are like filthy rags before God (Isaiah 64:6). We are incapable of being "good for goodness sake!" The gospel of Santa Claus is bad news for us, it does not give us any hope.

What type of people do we become if we hold to the Santa Claus gospel? It can create two types of people. On the one hand it can produce people who think that by their own efforts they are good enough. This leads to pride, arroagance and looking down on others. On the other hand, it can produce utter despair, when people recognise the truth that they're not good enough. They cannot "be good for goodness sake", therefore there is no hope held out for them in the Santa Claus gospel.

If we let the Santa Claus gospel shape our Christmas it does not lead to a very merry Christmas. However, this is not the case with Jesus.

The Jesus Christ Gospel
The message of the Bible is very different to what Santa Claus has to offer. It gives great hope to those who know that they can never be good enough. The God of the Bible is one who justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5). That is, He declares sinful men and women, who have fallen short of His glory and deserve His punishment, to be in right standing before Him. In the words of Santa Claus is Coming to Town, He declares those who are naughty to be nice. He no longer counts their sins against them (Romans 4:7-8), and thus they can look forward to a future, not of punishment, but of enjoying the glorious blessing of being in His prescence for all eternity in a completely renewed world. This is good news!

Sinful men and women are declared to be in right standing before God, not on the basis if how hard they've tried to be good, but by the grace of God alone, shown at the cross of Christ. Jesus was "put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be recieved by faith." (Romans 3:25). That is, He is a sacrifice that turns aside God's wrath, His just anger at sin. At the cross Jesus bore the just punishment of God in the place of sinners. The just anger of God fell on Jesus instead of those who've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), so that all who trust Him would never face that punishment, but instead know that great blessing of being counted as righteous in God's sight, no longer having their sin standing against them (Romans 4:6-8).

This is the complete opposite of the Santa Claus gospel. The Santa Claus gospel tells us that we need to work in order to earn our 'gift' (which no longer makes it a gift - Romans 4:4). However, the message of the Bible is that we recieve this gift of righteousness from God simply by trusting Him who justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5). This means it is truly a gift, it is not something we must earn. Indeed, we cannot earn it, we've already seen that we can never be good enough to earn God's favour, we've already trampled His glory into the dirt by our rejecting of His good rule over us, and all we've earnt is death (Romans 6:23). But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23).

This produces a very different type of people than the Santa Claus gospel does. If we hold to the good news of Jesus it shapes us to be a humble people. We no longer have any grounds for boasting, it is excluded (Romans 3:27). We are all alike on a level playing field. All of us our guilty and deserve death for our rebellion. All are declared to be in right standing with God, not on the basis of our works, but on the basis of Christ's work on our behalf. It is all of grace. The gospel also produces a people who are joyful and confident, not despairing. We can have great confidence in the face of the future, because we have been justified, and this depends on God's work not ours. Because it is all of His work in Christ Jesus, He shall never forsake us (Romans 8:31-39), nothing can seperate us from the love He has shown us in Christ if we are His. We instead have the joyful and sure hope of glory. This is good news.

So, which gospel is going to shape your Christmas? Only one of them is truly a gospel, because only one of them truly gives us good news. Only one of them, if we let it shape our Christmas, will give us a truly merry Christmas.

Tuesday Teaching: Don't Waste Your Life (Part 3)

We come now to the third talk in this series from John Piper, "Don't Waste Your Life."

Thursday, 16 December 2010

A Wonderful Exchange

At the heart of the gospel is the glorious truth of a great exchange. Writing to the Christians in Corinth, Paul says: "For our sake [God] made [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21). As those who are in Christ, our sin has been counted to Christ and He has taken its punishment at the cross, and His righteousness has been counted to us so that we stand before God perfectly justified. The reformer Martin Luther describes this exchange in these words:
This is that mystery which is rich in divine grace to sinners: wherein by a wonderful exchange our sins are no longer ours but Christ’s, and the righteousness of Christ not Christ’s but ours. He has emptied himself of his righteousness that he might clothe us with it and fill us with it; and he has taken our evils upon himself that he might deliver us from them. Learn Christ and him crucified. Learn to pray to him and, despairing of yourself, say, ‘Thou, Lord Jesus, art my righteousness, but I am thy sin. Thou hast taken upon thyself what is mine and hast given to me what is thine. Thou hast taken upon thyself what thou wast not and hast given to me what I was not.’”
(Martin Luther, quoted in J. I. Packer and Mark Dever, In My Place Condemned He Stood.)

Wednesday, 15 December 2010

"The only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied"

What is it that truly delights you? What is it that you take pleasure in? We delight in things and seek to enjoy them because we are looking for satisfaction in them. However, Jonathan Edwards recognised that there was only one thing which which we can be truly satisfied, to look for satisfaction anywhere else is futile:
The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean. (Jonathan Edwards Works, II, 244).
If we are seeking satisfaction anywhere else it is both futile and dishonouring to God. The prophet Jeremiah speaks about this in this way: "my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, brken cisterns that can hold no water." (Jeremiah 2:13). To turn from the spring of living water to broken cisterns is both foolish and sinful. It is a rejection of the all-sufficiency and all-satisfying nature of Christ, and seeking satisfaction in other things which can never satisfy, but will only leave us thirsting more.

This is idolatory. Idolatory is seeking satisfaction in anything else besides God. It is seeking what only Christ can provide from something other than Him. It is delighting and seeking to find our enjoyment in anything above Him. This is both stupid and sinful.

So what are you delighting in today? Let us be those who, by God's grace, drink deeply from this fountain and no other.

Tuesday, 14 December 2010

Sufficient

"If God would only do a miracle, then I'd believe." How often do we hear words similar to these from non-Christian friends, family members or contacts? For many people they excuse themselves from taking seriously the truths of the gospel, by saying they need something more to convince them. If only they could see something miraculous, then they'd believe in the gospel. However, such an argument is not convincing.

In Luke 16, Jesus says that if they refuse to listen to the Bible, then even if they see something miraculous they will not be convinced. Jesus is addressing the Pharisees, who were lovers of money (Luke 16:14). In verses 19-31 he gives them a shocking warning in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man dies and is in torment in Hades (verse 22-23), upon finding himself in this irreversible torment (verses 25-26) he longs that his brothers be warned so that they might repent before they face the same (verses 27-28). The answer comes back "They have Moses and the prophets [i.e. the Scriptures]; let them hear them." (verse 29). Lazarus insists: "No,...but if someone goes to them fro the dead, they will repent." (verse 30). To which Abraham replies "If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead." (verse 31).

The Bible is sufficient for belief. We do not need anything else to convince us and to bring us to repentance. J. C. Ryle has these helpful and challenging words to say on this in his 'Expository Thoughts' on Luke:
The Scriptures contain all that we need to know in order to be saved, and a messenger from the world beyond the grave could add nothing to them. It is not more evidence that is wanted in order to make men repent, but more heart and will to make use of what they already know. The dead could tell us nothing more than the Bible contains, it they rose from their graves to instruct us. After the first novelty of their testimony was worn away, we should care no more for their words than the words of any other. This wretched waiting for something which we have not, and neglect of what we have, is the ruin of thousands of souls. Faith, simple faith in the Scriptures which we already posess, is the first thing needful to salvation. The man who has the Bible, and can read it, and yet waits for more evidence before he becomes a decided Christian, is decieving himself. Except he awakens from his delusion he will die in his sins.
Taken from 'Expository Thoughts on Luke'.

Tuesday Teaching: Don't Waste Your Life (Part 2)

We come to the second part of John Piper's series "Don't Waste Your Life". Enjoy.

Friday, 10 December 2010

Don't Assume the Gospel

What is it that excites you? What is it that excites you corporately as a church? What it is that we rejoice in and celebrate as a church shows where our priorities lie. Therefore, we must ensure that the gospel is what we are constantly rejoicing in, both individually and corporately. We never move on from the gospel. Therefore, we must never cease to let it be the centre of what we delight in. If we do not do so we begin to assume the gospel, which in turn leads to being not far from throwing out the gospel altogether. Don Carson has some helpful words of warning on this:
I have been teaching more decades now that I can count and if I have learned anything from all of this teaching, its this: my students . . . learn what I’m excited about. So within the church of the living God, we must become excited about the gospel. That’s how we pass on our heritage. If, instead, the gospel increasingly becomes for us that which we assume, then we will, of course, assent to the correct creedal statement. But, at this point, the gospel is not what really captures us. Rather, is a particular form of worship or a particular style of counseling, or a particular view on culture, or a particular technique in preaching, or—fill in the blank. Then, ultimately, our students make that their center and the generation after us loses the gospel. As soon as you get to the place where the gospel is that which is nearly assumed, you are only a generation and a half from death.

Thursday, 9 December 2010

God's Wisdom Displayed in the Cross

The cross is the blazing centre of the revelation of the wisdom and glory of God. Listen to these words from Jonathan Edwards as he describes how the wisdom of God is revealed in the seeming paradoxes of the cross:
How astonishing is it that a person who is blessed forever and is infinitely and essentially happy should endure the greatest sufferings that ever were endured on earth! That a person who is the supreme Lord and Judge of the world should be arraigned and should stand at the judgment seat of mortal worms and then be condemned. That a person who is the living God and the fountain of life should be put to death. That a person who created the world and gives life to all his creatures should be put to death by his own creatures. That a person of infinite majesty and glory, and so the object of the love, praises and adoration of angels, should be mocked and spit upon by the vilest of men. That a person infinitely good and who is love itself should suffer the greatest cruelty. That person who is infinitely beloved of the Father should be put to inexpressible anguish under his own Father’s wrath. That he who is the King of heaven, who has heaven for his throne and earth for his footstool, should be buried in the prison of the grave. How wonderful is this! And yet this is the way that God’s wisdom has fixed upon as the way of sinners’ salvation, as neither unsuitable nor dishonorable to Christ.

Jonathan Edwards, “The Wisdom of God Displayed in the Way of Salvation,” in Works (Edinburgh, 1979), II:144.