God our Father

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. (1 John 3:1)

We must remember that we were rebels, objects of God's wrath, and on death row. We should never lose sight of this fact, for it is the contrast between what we once were and what we have become by His grace that makes our sonship so amazing.

Bridges suggest five fatherly responsibilities that God has assumed toward His children:

• God provides for us. "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus' (Philippians 4:19)
• God Protects us. "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows" (Matthew 10:29-31)
• God encourages us. "You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry" (Psalm 10:17)
• God comforts us. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
• God disciplines us. "Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness" (Hebrews 12:10)

Gift of God

Bridges starts off this Chapter by asking us, "How do we get faith?" I believe that faith is a gift of God.

Pauls writings are filled with descriptions of our spiritual condition before we became belivers. Ephesians 2:1-3 is one of the most complete ones:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

The first thing Paul says is that we were dead, meaning spiritual death. We were totally unresponsive to the God of Scripture. Spiritually dead people cannot receive and embrace the gospel. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:14, "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Paul then goes on and says we followed "the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient." This is a reference to Satan. I know for me I don't like to think that I was a follower of the Devil, but that is what the Bible says.

Next, Paul tells us that we were gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature. Paul describes this nature in Romans 8:7-8: "The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God."

Here are some words of Charles Wesley. He was a famous Methodist hymn writer from way back..

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night;
Thine eye diffused a quick'ning ray;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell of, my heart was free;
I rose, went forth, and followed thee

Paul's Great Exchange

In Philippians 3, Paul speaks of the loss of his religious credentials. Bridges points out that any confidence in one's own religious attainments in the issue of salvation is not only useless, but down right dangerous.

Paul exchanged his righteousness through keeping the Law for Christ's righteousness that comes by faith. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, God exchanges our sin for Christ's righteousness. We see that our own efforts at righteousness are, at bottom, only sin because they fail to measure up to the perfect righteousness required by God's Law.

Bridges states that he believes that human morality, rather than flagrant sin, is the greatest obstacle to the gospel today.

One thing I struggle with at times and I know many people do is, I tend to have a natural drift toward a performance-based relationship with God. We know we are saved by grace through faith -- not by works. We need to learn and remind ourselves every day that God's favor -- His blessings and answers to prayer 00 comes to us not on the basis of our works, but on the basis of the infinite merit of Jesus Christ.

I pray that we may clearly see that in the unsearchable riches of Christ and in the right standing with God that comes from those riches, we have both the assurance of eternal life and God's favor in this life.

Right Standing With God

Bridges starts off by saying that the most important question we all face is: How can a sinful man or woman come into a right relationship with an infinitely holy and just God?

After all, Jesus said, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" Suppose a person lives his entire life experiencing nothing but prosperity and happiness, yet dies without a right relationship with God. What has he gained? Actually, he has lost everything.

For us, justification means that God has forgiven all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight.

Romans 3:21-26. "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." It is through faith in Christ, then, that we experience God's justifying act and enter into a right relationship with Him.

When it comes to justification through faith, Paul is like a dog with a bone. He will not let go. He keeps hammering away on the truth that justification is through faith, not works. He says, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law."

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

Here is a hymn from the Rock of Ages and one from the Solid Rock which I like.

Nothing in my hands I bring.
Simply to the cross I cling.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
No merit of my own I claim,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name

As we come to Christ, then, empty-handed, claiming no merit of our own, but clinging by faith to His blood and righteousness, we are justified. We pass immediately from a state of condemnation and spiritual death to a state of pardon, acceptance, and the sure hope of eternal life. Our sins are blotted out, and we are "clothed" with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

I want to end with a paragraph that the Princeton Seminary theologian B. B. Warfield wrote:

There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We mst always be accepted for Christ's sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His "blood and righteousness" alone that we can rest.

Reconciliation

Reconciliation, by definition, assumes a previous state of alienation and hostility caused by the offensive actions of one or both parties.

This Chapter for me is by far my favorite. As I look back on my life through the good and bad times, I can truly say the only reason I am at the place I am today is because of the pure act of God's grace and mercy on me.

I would not be in the place I am today if it was not for God's act of reconciling us to Himself through the death of His son.

So, in this chapter Bridges tells us a story about a boy named Justin. Justin basically got in trouble and was disciplined by his parents. He was prideful and sinful and decided that he would move out because he wanted a "life." Long story short, after leaving his family to live with his friend he began to realize what he had lost. His heart began to change, and he missed his family and had realized what he had done. After a few weeks, Justin went back to his house and apologized to his parents for the way he had acted and rebelled against them. He had realized that they disciplined him the way they did because they loved him.

The story of Justin's reconciliation with his parents illustrates to some degree our reconciliation to God. In his case, the alienation from his parents was due entirely to his own sinful rebellion. Though he blamed his parents, the whole thing was solely his fault.

Just like Justin, it is our sin that has separated us from God. The only difference is Justin's reconciliation to his parents was due to his change of heart, his attitude of repentance, and his actions of acknowledging his sin and asking their forgiveness.

But in our case we were powerless to do anything. (Romans 5:6) We could not help ourselves; nor would we even want to do so, left to ourselves. As Paul wrote in Romans 8:7, "The sinful mind is hostile to God." In our natural state, not one of us would want to be reconciled to God.

Bridges reminds us that the good news of the gospel is that God Himself took the initiative by sending His Son to die in our place to satisfy His justice and absorb His wrath. He did more than that. He did all that was necessary to secure our reconciliation, including our change of heart.

Another thing that is good news would be the fact that our reconciliation to God is permanent and eternal. Because Christ accomplished it for us, there is no possibility it can ever be undone. For the sake of Christ, God will always accept us.

So far this book has helped remind me of so many things. Every work of Christ is directed toward God and though I will fail over and over I must continue to strive to do the same. It is His Law that was obeyed, His justice that was satisfied, His wrath that was propitiated, His holy presence from which our sins were removed, His curse from which we were redeemed, and alienation from His divine presence that has been reconciled.

His Wounds My Ransom

When most people hear the word, “ransom”, they generally think of kidnapping. The word ransom has not always been associated primarily with kidnapping. In the Bible times a ransom was the price paid to gain freedom for a slave.

Jesus said He would give His life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)

In Hebrews 9:15, it tells us that Jesus “died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”

Bridges then asks us, “What does it mean to be set free from sins committed under the first covenant?”

Bridges then goes on and tells us that, the apostle Paul answered this question in Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”
Christ shed His blood and gave His life as a ransom to redeem us from this curse. We must remember that as Jesus hung on the cross bearing the curse in our place and experienced unimaginable agony, and He did all of that in our place.

God is transcendent in His majesty and sovereign in His authority. Every sin, even if it small in our eyes, is an assault on that authority. God has commanded us to be holy as He is holy. Therefore, each sin is an insult to His character.

Bridges reminds us that we should not try to justify God for the exactness of His Law or the severity of its sanctions. After all, God is God; He is the Creator. He is the One who brought the whole universe into existence by His spoken command. He is the One on whom each of us depends for life and breath. He is the One who has the absolute right to establish the rules of the game, the laws by which we are to live. And He is the One who has the right to attach sanctions to those laws for breaking them.

The primary purpose of the Law, is not to curse us but to lead us to Christ.

Knowing that Christ paid our ransom price, Bridges asks us to whom the ransom was paid? It was paid to God acting in His capacity as Judge. It was God’s justice that Jesus satisfied. It was His cup of wrath that Jesus emptied. And it was His curse that Jesus bore as He paid our ransom price.

His Wounds Have Paid My Ransom

The Scapegoat

A scapegoat is one who is made to bear the blame for the actions of others or for events he did not cause.

The greatest scapegoat in all of history is the Lord Jesus Christ.

God has given each of us a conscience. In sinful or self-righteous people the conscience is to some degree “hardened”, meaning it is relatively insensitive to sin or its own self-righteousness. But in a growing Christian the conscience becomes more and more sensitive to violations of God’s Law.

For me, I have felt over the past years that my conscience has shown me not only particular sins in my life, but, my overall sinfulness.

Sometimes it is hard for me and I find it difficult to believe that God would no longer remember each offense I have done. This is where that I must by faith see Jesus bearing my sin and carrying it away forever from the presence of God.

Bridges reminds us about a story from the Old Testament about the scapegoat carrying away the sins of the people that have been laid on its head, and then reminded me that this was an accurate picture of what Jesus did with my sin. Even so, Christ’s work on my behalf is greater still.

In Isaiah 43:25, God says, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

Psalm 130:3-4 states the same truth, “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.

Why Jesus is Our Scapegoat

1. Jesus bore our sins at Calvary
2. Jesus died in our place the death we deserved to die
3. Jesus, in bearing the sins of God’s people makes our salvation a reality even though we are not worthy