Mosaic (Mar 29)

May your meditations on this Good Friday draw you nearer the heart of our Savior.

Grace & Peace,

Amber

Content: This Week…

Five Things
On my Shelf
In Articles (curated content just for you)
In Snapshots
Previously on Mosaic

Five Things: On the Death of Christ in 1 Pet 3:18

Today we remember the horrors of the cross. We reflect on the crown of thorns, the nails, and the spear. We consider the shouts, the jeers, and mockery of the God-man, whose heart surrendered to the will of the Father with utter willingness to obey until the end.

In the face of suffering, Peter wrote to the early church, "for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit" (1 Pet 3:18). He reminds them of what Christ endured and accomplished in the cross. It's a beautiful summary for us.

1 He suffered once

One time. The perfect sacrifice. In contrast to the the Old Testament sacrifice on the yearly Day of Atonement, Christ's sacrifice was sufficient and complete; he died once for all (Rom. 6:10). There is no other offering to be made, no other way to earn salvation.

2 The perfect for the imperfect

Christ died as our substitute. We are a sinful people and have desperately fallen short of our created image. What follows is the consequence of our sin: death (Rom 6:23). But Christ, in the fullness of deity and humanity, lived a perfectly righteous life—a feat unattainable for us all—in order to be the perfect substitute, paying the very costly bill for us, one we didn't have the funds or ability to pay it on our own.

3 To bring us back to God

He did this to reconcile us with the Father. We've gone our own way, we were distant from him, but through his death Christ makes a way for us to be united with our Creator again. It follows then our mission mirrors the one of our Savior, to bring people into restored relationship with him.

4 His flesh died

Fully God and fully man, Christ walked the dusty paths of earth. He suffered the pain of physical assault and death as any human would. Even though our hearts sink at the thought of torture (and my kids ask if we couldn't just skip over the crucifixion part), Athanasius reminds us, "death had to precede resurrection, for there could be no resurrection without it."

5 He is alive

Going back to the writings of Athanasius, he notes, "But now that the Saviour has raised His body, death is no longer terrible, but all those who believe in Christ tread it underfoot as nothing, and prefer to die rather than to deny their faith in Christ, knowing full well that when they die they do not perish, but live indeed, and become incorruptible through the resurrection." As he is lives, so Christ has made us alive. We have traversed from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son, death is no longer fearsome, we have an eternal hope. When we face suffering, the knowledge that Christ is alive and at work feeds our courage and confidence.

How does the good news of Christ change how we will live today?

As you contemplate this weekend, may you savor the the salvation so costly, and willingly purchased for us, so we emanate hope and joy to a world needing eyes opened to see their Savior.

On my Shelf

Still working through this reflection on Psalm 23 and this resource on a theology of risk
I finished this new release , a Christian military suspense novel

In Articles

The Glorious Glory of Good Friday | Paul Tripp (Gospel-Centered Discipleship)

Reflecting on this wondrous day through the lens of Colossians 2.

Will the Real Moses Please Stand Up? | Glenna Marshall

When reading Hebrews 11, I find my faith small when compared to those adorning the hall of faith. Glenna reminds us we need only faith as small as a mustard seed, because "the size of one's faith doesn't seem to be the issue so much as the object of one's faith."

Tested, Tried & Proven: The Transformative Power of God's Word | Jana Carlson

When God uses our circumstances to mold us into his likeness and draw us to his inspired word.

Your Identity & What it Means to be Crucified with Christ | Cara Ray

We have died and now we live. Just as Christ died and was resurrected for us, we too have died with him and are resurrected in him. It's the good we find in this Friday.

On Reading the Bible More Slowly | Jen Pollock Michel

It's easy to skim through our bible reading as one more thing on a checklist (at least for me anyway), yet the fruit of slowing down and meditating on the words bears a harvest in our souls.

You Can Parent Teens with Hope in a Secular Age | Melissa Kruger (The Gospel Coalition)

We are getting there. Almost to the point of officially raising a teenager. Not the the tween years aren't still important, I think the teenage years just feel...daunting. So, I really appreciated these words of hope to steady my bearings and perspective about the teenage years.