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Tim Keller on the Power of Resurrection

By Nancy Guthrie

It’s just the way I am. And I’m too old to change. That’s the way many of us feel about ourselves. We fear we are trapped in the patterns of our personality, with no hope to ever change.

In the piece by Tim Keller in the collection of writing about the cross and resurrection, Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross, Tim Keller speaks to this hopeless surrender to our sin-sick ways, drawing back the curtain on why the resurrection of Jesus is such good news for those of us who fear we can never change.

“The difference between knowing Christ and knowing the power of his resurrection,” says Keller, “is the difference between knowing a person and resembling a person . . . It is not about relationship but about supernatural character growth.

When Paul says, “I want to know him,” it means, “I want to be with him,” but when he says, “I want to know the power of his resurrection,” it means, “I want to be just like him.”

Look at the deadness in your life. Look at the anger. How is that going to be turned into forgiveness? Look at the insecurity. How is that going to be turned into confidence? Look at the self-centeredness. How is that going to be turned into compassion and generosity? How? The answer is that the dead stuff gets taken over by the Spirit of God . . . The minute you decide to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, the power of the Holy Spirit comes into your life. It’s the power of the resurrection—the same thing that raised Jesus from the dead.”

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NANCY GUTHRIE has a passion for sharing God’s Word through her growing national and international Bible-teaching ministry. She has worked in the Christian publishing industry for more than two decades and is the author of Holding On to Hope, The One-Year Book of Hope, Hoping for Something Better, and Crossway’s Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.

April 8, 2009 | Posted in: Author,Resurrection of Christ,Sanctification/Growth | Author: Crossway Staff @ 10:01 am | 0 Comments »

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He “Descended Into Hell”

By Nancy Guthrie

Whenever I recite the Apostle’s Creed in a congregation, I tend to hold my breath to see how the person who typed in the PowerPoint will handle the “I believe in . . . the holy catholic church.” Too many times it is mistakenly capitalized and I cringe. And it is obvious why the mistake is so often made. The term “catholic” in our day has come to denote a denomination rather than it’s true meaning describing the universal nature of the church of Jesus Christ.

I have to admit that I have often wondered exactly what the creed means when we say that Jesus, “descended into hell.”  And I’m guessing I am not alone. That’s why I included a piece by J. I. Packer in the collection of writing on the cross and resurrection, Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross. Packer helps us understand.

The English is misleading, for “hell” has changed its sense since the English form of the Creed was fixed. Originally, “hell” meant the place of the departed as such, corresponding to the Greek Hades and the Hebrew Sheol. That is what it means here, where the Creed echoes Peter’s statement that Psalm 16:10, “thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades” (so RSV: AV has “hell”), was a prophecy fulfilled when Jesus rose (see Acts 2:27–31). But since the seventeenth century, “hell” has been used to signify only the state of final retribution for the godless, for which the New Testament name is Gehenna.

What the Creed means, however, is that Jesus entered, not Gehenna, but Hades—that is, that he really died, and that it was from a genuine death, not a simulated one, that he rose.

Packer also explains why this is significant for us:

What makes Jesus’ entry into Hades important for us is . . . simply the fact that now we can face death knowing that when it comes we shall not find ourselves alone. He has been there before us, and he will see us through.

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NANCY GUTHRIE has a passion for sharing God’s Word through her growing national and international Bible-teaching ministry. She has worked in the Christian publishing industry for more than two decades and is the author of Holding On to Hope, The One-Year Book of Hope, Hoping for Something Better, and Crossway’s Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.

April 1, 2009 | Posted in: Author,Books,Death of Christ,Heaven & Hell,Resurrection of Christ,Theology | Author: Crossway Staff @ 12:50 pm | 0 Comments »

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The Bookends of the Christian Life

9781433503191Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington’s new book is now available. In The Bookends of the Christian Life, Bridges and Bevington provide an extended metaphor to explain two provisions on which believers must rely—the righteousness of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Aimed at helping readers comprehend the doctrines of justification and sanctification—The Bookends is for all who recognize the utter insufficiency of their own righteousness and are desperate for help in living the Christian life.

Visit www.TheBookendsBook.com for more information and access to a free study guide.

Endorsements

“Forgiveness of  sin  and power  to  change—I  can  think of no more essential topics for a Christian to study than these twin blessings of the gospel. And I can think of no one better to write on these topics than Jerry Bridges. Jerry has provided for me over the years a constant diet of gospel-saturated writing, and here is a fresh feast. I trust you will enjoy it as much as I have” - C.J. Mahaney

“Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington look at the Christian life through a wide-angle lens, examining the framework that supports, stabilizes and secures the believer’s life in Christ. They teach elements of a distinctly biblical worldview, leaning upon the righteousness of Christ on one hand and upon the power of the Holy Spirit on the other. A wise and powerful book, one I heartily recommend.” - Tim Challies

“Thinking you understand  the gospel but applying  it only  to salvation is like barely releasing your sail and slogging through the waves. Bookends will equip you to release that sail, catch the mighty wind of God, and see every ‘book’ in your life transformed.” - Dee Brestin

“Through his many books, Jerry Bridges has been shepherding my soul since I first became a Christian sixteen years ago. He has done it again. As I have come to expect, he has provided a sea of theological matter in a drop of devotional  language. Here you will  find God-centered doctrine that is delectably deep and down to earth at the same time. I promise that if you read this book carefully and prayerfully, you will gain both an informed mind and an enlarged heart.” - Tullian Tchividjian

March 27, 2009 | Posted in: Books,Endorsements,Justification,Sanctification/Growth | Author: Crossway Staff @ 7:20 am | 0 Comments »

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John Owen on How Jesus “Learned Obedience”?

By Nancy Guthrie

In the piece by John Owen in Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross Owen answers the question that stumps many a reader of the book of Hebrews when they read that Jesus “learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).

“Here it says about the Lord Christ that he learned obedience, not that he learned to obey,” Owen writes. “The Lord Christ learned obedience when he experienced it in practice. One special kind of obedience is intended here, namely, a submission to great, hard, and terrible things, accompanied by patience and quiet endurance and faith for deliverance from them. This Christ could have not experience of, except by suffering the things he had to pass through, exercising God’s grace in them all. Thus, Christ learned obedience.”

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NANCY GUTHRIE has a passion for sharing God’s Word through her growing national and international Bible-teaching ministry. She has worked in the Christian publishing industry for more than two decades and is the author of Holding On to Hope, The One-Year Book of Hope, Hoping for Something Better, and Crossway’s Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.

March 19, 2009 | Posted in: Author,Faith,Pursuit of Holiness | Author: Crossway Staff @ 5:59 am | 0 Comments »

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John Coleman on the Harvard Campus

9781433502712How to Argue Like Jesus, by Joe Carter and John Coleman, was reviewed this week in Harvard Business School’s The Harbus. Coleman is currently pursuing an MBA/MPA at the Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School, where he serves as a Zuckerman Fellow.

If you’re near Cambridge, MA, join John as he will be speaking on some of the rhetorical lessons from Jesus’ life at the Harvard Coop on April 13th at 7:00pm.

March 11, 2009 | Posted in: Author,Life of Christ,The Christian Mind | Author: Crossway Staff @ 7:00 am | 0 Comments »

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