christmas destruction

want to know what christmas is all about? here’s something you probably won’t hear in the latest jingle on the radio or read in your trendy shopper’s guide to christmas or, unfortunately, maybe not even have preached in your church:

“Until we realize that there is something in us – something in the world – that needs to be destroyed, we will miss the meaning of Christmas.” (David Platt, “He Came…to Destroy the Devil” sermon, 12.6.2009)  

christmas is about destruction! merry christmas!

this is a quote from david platt’s message last week, december 6 (“He Came…to Destroy the Devil”) in which he unpacks 1 John 3:8b – “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” he actually looks at this verse and this clear reason why jesus came within the broader context of 1 John 2:28-3:10. 

don’t miss this great series titled, “He Came.” the church is taking a look at the many verses in the bible that explicitly declare why jesus came. so far they have covered the following:

He Came…

• “To Free the Captives” (11.29.2009 – preached by bart box, not david platt)
• “To Destroy the Devil” (12.06.2009)
• “To Serve the Helpless” (12.13.2009)

check it out…

free will

“The fallen human will is free the way a skydiver is free until he discovers he has no parachute.” – John Piper

god comes to end our life (and the gospel comes to kill us)

“We are frequently told that the church is in the business of ‘life transformation.’ However, both the problem and God’s solution are greater than we ever imagined. God does not come to improve our life, but to end it; not to transform the ‘old Adam,’ but to kill it and to raise us together with Christ in newness of life. Our transformed life will never be trasnformed enough to pass through God’s judgment safely, but ’salvation is from the Lord’ (Jonah 2:9).”

- Michael Horton, “The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World,” p. 60

“The gospel comes not to help us get our act together, fixing us up for a night on the town, making us more respectable to ourselves or to others. Rather, it comes to kill us and make us alive as completely new creatures. Not a new and improved self, but a self buried and raised with Christ, is the gospel’s message of genuine transformation.”

- Michael Horton, “The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World,” p. 78

we are saved by works (christ’s, not ours)

“We are indeed saved by works – and not by good intentions – but by works that are perfect, complete, and perpetual to every command. However, it is Christ’s works, not ours, that have secured the eternal inheritance for us.”

- Michael Horton, “The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World,” p. 74

no such thing as surface-level sin

“Sin does not lie on the surface; ‘deep down’ it is even messier. Our hearts have committed sins that our hands haven’t gotten around to yet [emphasis mine]. It is from the heart that our perversity ascends to God and out to our neighbors (Matthew 12:33-37). ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked – who can know it?’ (Jeremiah 17:9)”

- Michael Horton, “The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World,” p. 58

the ultimate crisis

“We may have problems in our marriage, child rearing, stress at work, low self-esteem, and worries about our health or the financial market. However, the ultimate crisis facing us is summarized in Romans 1:18: ‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth…[This crisis] could be solved by nothing less than God’s becoming flesh, fulfilling the law and bearing the sentence for its violations in our place, which is the focus of all of Scripture.”

- Michael Horton, “The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World,” p. 39

good news

i am curently reading michael horton’s latest book, “The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World.” it is a great book that will challenge you and shake up your idea of what the gospel (i.e., “good news”) is really all about. here’s an excerpt:

“It is interesting that the biblical writers chose the word ‘gospel.’ The heart of most religions is good advice, good techniques, good programs, good ideas, and good support systems. These drive us deeper into ourselves, to find our inner light, inner goodness, inner voice, or inner resources. Nothing new can be found inside of us. There is no inner rescuer deep down in my soul;  I just hear echoes of my own voice telling me all sorts of crazy things to numb my fear, anxiety, and boredom, the origins of which I cannot truly identify. But the heart of Christianity is Good News. It comes not as a task for us to fulfill, a mission for us to accomplish, a game plan for us to follow with the help of life coaches, but as a report that someone else has already fulfilled, accomplished, followed, and achieved everything for us. Good advice may help us in daily direction; the Good News concerning Jesus Christ saves us from sin’s guilt and tyranny over our lives…”

(horton also wrote “Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church,” which i would highly recommend.)