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That Happy Certainty - Gospel | Culture | Planting
Mark

Humility is found at the cross

The ridiculous length of yesterday’s post was made all the more superfluous by the absence in the Pauline section of this morning’s New Testament exam of any question on justification or righteousness. Megadoh! Half way through now, with a hectic three-in-three-days gauntlet starting on Tuesday.

The boys and I carried on digging into Mark 14 last night. As the hour approaches and indeed arrives (v. 41) it’s incredible to see just how in control Jesus is: he foretells Peter’s denial and his own resurrection (28, 30), and his betrayal into the hands of sinners (41).

His fulfilment of Zechariah 13.7 shows the significance of Jesus’ death: he is the shepherd going ahead and bringing in the kingdom. His prayer in Gethsemane is out of this world. And we see just how far we fall short.

Peter’s response (29, 31) is probably nothing short of what mine would have been: ‘I will turn over a new leaf for you this week Jesus’, ‘I will conquer this sin from now on’. It’s echoed first in the contrast between Jesus and the disciples as he commands them to pray but they patheticly fall asleep, and then in the actions of Judas.

I’m not clear what Jesus means by ‘the spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak’ (38) – is he just highlighting the impossibility in our fallen nature of being able to follow Jesus?

It was striking to look again upon the uniqueness of Jesus – it was striking to see the importance of prayer, as we are humbled before God. By ourselves we are very, very helpless. Yet we still think we can do it; we want to read this and think we can leave this place and give him what is his due.

Not ‘I can’ or ‘I will’, but through Jesus – be humbled, be little, be driven to the cross.

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May 26, 2006by Robin Ham

About Me

 

Hello, my name is Robin. Welcome to That Happy Certainty, where I write and collate on Christianity, culture, and ministry. I’m based in Barrow-in-Furness in South Cumbria, England, where I serve a church family called St Paul’s Barrow, recently merged together from two existing churches, St Paul’s Church and Grace Church Barrow.

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“If we could be fully persuaded that we are in the good grace of God, that our sins are forgiven, that we have the Spirit of Christ, that we are the beloved children of God, we would be ever so happy and grateful to God. But because we often fear and doubt we cannot come to that happy certainty.”
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