Heartland Family Productions
Monday, October 18, 2010
The Power of the Cross - Part One
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Thank God for the power of the Cross to change lives. I love the old, old story of Jesus and His love. Don’t you?
It’s the power of the Cross that transformes women's lives. It’s the power of the Cross that is transforming my life. It’s the power of the Cross that is transforming your life and can transform the lives of those that you love that you carry on your heart.
Oh God, forgive us for ever losing the wonder of the Cross. You never get past the Cross. You never get enough of it, and you never get to the point in your life where you don’t need all that it means.
He’s our life. Death brings life. That’s the amazing mystery that those in the Old Testament didn’t understand, but now is revealed to us. Thank, thank, thank the Lord for the Cross.
The Lord has raised up those women “for such a time as this.” The first time I visited there, I came away, and I said, “Every Christian women needs to go to prison.” There’s such a freedom and a sweetness and a richness and a fullness of God’s presence in those women.
We want the end result, but we don’t necessarily want the process that it takes to get that—the process of brokenness, humility, emptiness, utter awareness of need. Most of those women have it, and there’s a radiant sweetness that I envy. I want to see God do that in my own life.
So let me ask you to turn in your Bible if you have it there. If you can see, if we have enough house lights that you can see, I want you to see the text in your own Bible—Romans chapter 11. The book of Romans, chapter 11, the last paragraph beginning in verse 33.
As you’re turning there, I want to do something that is rather brave, I think, and that is to give you a two-sentence synopsis of the whole book of Romans so you can get a sense of where this passage falls.
Now, at the risk of really oversimplifying, let me just say that the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans are those in which the apostle Paul lays out the basic doctrines of our faith—the sinfulness of man, the amazing grace of God, and the salvation that is possible for us through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That’s the first 11 chapters. The last five chapters—chapter 12 through 16—Paul makes practical application of everything that has just preceded and asks, in effect, how are we to live in light of all that we’ve just seen?
So the first 11 chapters are “the what.” The last five chapters, beginning in 12:1, are the “so what?” We need to know the what, and then we need to ask the so what? What does this mean for us?
Chapter 11, verses 33 through 36, the paragraph we’re going to look at for these next moments, is a bridge between these two sections. Now, before I go to that paragraph, let me just pull in a little tighter into the book and give you a little bit more of the context, because it’s going to make this passage shine like the awesome jewel that it is.
In chapters 9 through 11, which are chapters you’re probably never memorized, they’re chapters you don’t hear preached on often enough, but in chapters 9 through 11 leading up to this paragraph, the apostle Paul explores the mysteries of God’s sovereign, electing grace—God’s plan for redeeming both Jews and Gentiles.
He talks about Israel’s past, present, and future role in God’s great redemptive story. He explains how in God’s sovereignty, the Jews’ rejection of Christ is actually the means of Gentiles—that’s most of us in this room—coming to accept Christ.
The Jews rejected Him. That has provoked us to accept Christ. Then he talks about how in His great mercy, God will yet fulfill His true plan for Israel in spite of their rejection.
Now, again, I just way oversimplified those chapters, and there are Pastor Piper and others who can do far more justice to them than I just did. But as you read these complex chapters, you realize this is not the way we would have written the story.
It’s not the way we would have scripted it. You see in those chapters how God is able to make even the unbelief and rebellion of men serve His final, eternal purposes. And you scratch your head and go, “How did God come up with this?”
We would have never scripted it this way. But God scripted it this way. It’s His way. It’s His story.
Last month I celebrated my 50th birthday, and I’ve been planning this for about 10 years, looking forward to it. Those of you who have heard Revive Our Hearts have probably heard me say that my goal since I was a little girl has always been to be a godly, old lady.
I have this picture in my mind of what a godly, old lady looks like. I don’t know if I’ve actually ever met this picture in my mind, but I have found that the getting old part comes easier than the getting godly part.
But I’ve been so looking forward to this marker in my life, and I took some time in Colorado. I was out there for about a week (applause!)—Colorado, where are you? (more applause!)—there they are! It’s a beautiful state.
One day I went Jeeping with some friends in the mountains of Colorado. I had not done that before, and it was an amazing experience.
We were on these mountain trails, winding higher and higher up these mountain passes, up at one point to 13,000 feet. You can hardly breathe up there—that’s where airplanes fly!
Here we were in this Jeep. Some of these trails were steep; they were treacherous; there were some hairpin turns. If you got too close to the edge and looked over, it could be really scary.
This was quite an experience for us. And then, you get to the top, and you look down, you look around, and you’re just awestruck by the beauty and the magnificence of the view below.
Well, I thought of that trip as I was meditating in recent days on this passage in the book of Romans. In Romans 1 through 11, it’s like hiking or Jeeping up this steep mountain trail. There are some difficult passages, and it’s tough climbing at points. But then you get to the end of chapter 11, and the apostle Paul is as if he has reached the summit.
He looks at where he’s come from, and he sees this awesome view, the view of God’s sovereignty, His electing mercy and grace, His eternal plan, and Paul pauses to contemplate it all.
And he’s speechless! It’s as if there are no words to explain what he sees—the magnificence of it all—there’s no way to fully grasp the depths below.
Words fail when he tries to explain it to others. It’s as if he’s grasping for words, and then it causes him to break out into this hymn of praise, to sing the doxology, and that’s when we come to Romans 11, verses 33 through 36.
“What in the world does all of this have to do with being a true woman?” - Stay tunred by Part Two