Reasons 1-2/50

As I was looking through my books the other day, I stumbled upon "Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die" by John Piper. It intrigued me since I had never read it before so I took it off the shelf and started! After reading numbers 1 and 2 of the 50 reasons, I am amazed! So here are a few of the quotes that take awhile to soak in but are incredible!


Reason #1- To Absorb the Wrath of God
-"If God were not just, there would be no demand for His Son to suffer and die. And if God were not loving, there would be no willingness for His Son to suffer and die. But God is both just and loving. Therefore His love is willing to meet the demands of his justice."

-"This is what sin is-- dishonoring God by preferring other things over him, and acting on those preferences...We glorify what we enjoy most"

-"Therefore sin is not small, because it is not against a small Sovereign. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the one insulted."

-"[Propitiation] refers to the removal of God's wrath by providing a substitute. The substitute is provided by God himself. The substitute, Jesus Christ, does not just cancel the wrath; he absorbs it and diverts it from us to himself."

Reason #2- To Please His Heavenly Father
-"What Jesus did when He suffered and dies was the Father's idea. It was a breathtaking strategy, conceived even before creation." (Isaiah 53:10)

-Paradox of the New Testament- "On the one hand, the suffering of Christ is an outpouring of God's wrath because of sin. But on the other hand, Christ's suffering is a beautiful act of submission and obedience to the will of the Father." (Matthew 27:46 vs. Ephesians 5:2)

-"Oh, that we might worship the terrible wonder of the love of God! It is not sentimental. It is not simple. For our sake God did the impossible: He poured out his wrath on his ow Son--the one whose submission made him infinitely unworthy to receive it. yet the Son's very willingness to receive it was precious in God's sight."