Tripp: "Jesus shamed shame on the cross..."

Justifying grace frees you from the paralyzing burden of guilt. No longer do we have to live in regret, dragging the heavy load of our past sins into our present and future. No longer do we have to hide in fear of the hammer of God’s anger coming down on us. No longer do we have to do the burdensome work of denying, minimizing, and hiding our sin, working to make our sin feel in our hearts as less than sinful. No longer do we have to defend our righteousness when people near us lovingly confront us with wrong. Redeeming grace has freed us from these burdens.

No longer do we have to carry the burden of shame. Jesus shamed shame on the cross, so that we would no longer live in bondage to it. In the eyes of the one with whom it eternally matters, we are no longer stained, no longer dirty, and no longer scarred by sin. Because of justifying grace our record is spotless and we are righteous in God’s eyes. We don’t have to go slump-backed through life, protecting ourselves from onlookers as if we are rejected, unwanted, and unworthy. We are children of the King, his door is open, and we are welcomed. Shame died on the cross of Jesus Christ; why should we let it rule us any longer?

Paul David Tripp, Do You Believe?: 12 Historic Doctrines to Change Your Everyday Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 329.

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John Stott on the "old man" and the "body ruled by sin" in Rom 6 v 6

There are, in fact, two quite distinct ways in which the New Testament speaks of crucifixion in relation to holiness. The first is our death to sin through identification with Christ; the second is our death to self through imitation of Christ. On the one hand, we have been crucified with Christ. But on the other we have crucified (decisively repudiated) our sinful nature with all its desires, so that every day we renew this attitude by taking up our cross and following Christ to crucifixion. The first is a legal death, a death to the penalty of sin; the second is a moral death, a death to the power of sin. The first belongs to the past, and is unique and unrepeatable; the second belongs to the present, and is repeatable, even continuous. I died to sin (in Christ) once; I die to self (like Christ) daily. It is with the first of these two deaths that Romans 6 is chiefly concerned, although the first is with a view to the second, and the second cannot take place w...

Boice: “... the federal way of dealing with us was actually the fairest and kindest of all the ways God could have operated. ”

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Repackaging the gospel? It's more like obscuring the gospel!

Preface : I recognize this post may make me unpopular with some, but I think it is an important issue to blog about here. I’ve had time to reflect on this video and in my opinion, I think what is in this video raises some questions. This gentleman featured below is slotted to speak at the SBC's 2020 Pastors' Conference and it prompted me to think more about this illustration. I want to note that I don't know him and I have no personal issue with him. I assume he is a brother in the LORD. Having said that, I see some significant issues here that relate to this type of preaching being clear on the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, it appears to be obscuring it in my observation. Concern: Should the SBC or churches, in general, be in the habit of holding this up as a good and healthy example? Let's think about it some together. (Watch this clip below here first.) Context: The clip was posted to stand on its own a...

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