|
Listen to sermons at FreeGraceRadio.com
|
“The Manifold Wisdom of God” Salvation by the Crucified God Galatians 4:4-6
The thrice holy God, by infinite wisdom and grace, determined to procure the salvation of his elect by the most unlikely means imaginable, by the humiliation and death of his own dear Son. Salvation by the crucified God displays “the manifold wisdom of God” which astonishes the very angels of heaven. How it ought to astonish us!
Strength in Weakness When Christ came to accomplish his great work of redemption, he did not appear in greatness, power, and glory. He emptied himself, made himself of no reputation, and appeared in weakness, poverty, and shame (2 Corinthians 8:9; Galatians 4:4-6; Philippians 2:6-8). God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. And God determined that Christ’s weakness and humiliation be the means by which he would overthrow his enemies and redeem his people. Our Lord Jesus Christ overcame the tempter’s power in the wilderness after he had fasted forty days and forty nights. The mighty Captain of our Salvation resisted Satan’s assaults in the Garden, when his own heart was overwhelmed with sorrow. The woman’s Seed crushed the serpent’s head in death. And God our Savior snatched us from the pit of destruction by going down to the pit of death for us! God has brought strength out of weakness, greatness out of reproach, and glory out of ignominy. Christ’s shame, reproach, and ignominious death as the sinner’s Substitute is the only means by which sinners can be raised from the depths of sin and death to the heights of righteousness and eternal life!
Exaltation by Humiliation The wisdom of God made Christ’s humiliation the means of our exaltation. Divine wisdom made Christ’s descent from heaven the means of our ascending to heaven. The wisdom of God made life the fruit of his death. The death of Christ was the only means by which we could have eternal life. The death of One who is God is the only means by which we could have life in God. Our acceptance into God’s favor arises out of Christ’s dying under God’s wrath. Our blessing arises out of Christ’s being made a curse for us. Our innocence arises from Christ’s being made our guiltiness. Our righteousness arises from Christ’s being made sin for us! As sin reigned unto death over God’s own dear Son, grace reigns unto eternal life to us by the death of God’s Son.
God’s Gospel The gospel we preach, the message of God’s free and sovereign grace flowing freely to chosen sinners through the accomplished redemption of Christ, is truly God’s gospel. It reveals the glory of God's grace and mercy and the honor of his justice and holiness, proclaiming that God is just, and yet the justifier of all who trust Christ. — “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound!”
Don Fortner
|
Pastor Fortner’s
|