My lesson tonight at the Transformation House was based on chapter 33 in John Piper's book The Passion of Jesus Christ. Its primary text was Galatians 6:14, and the premise is that Christ died on the cross so that all the boasting we do as believers might be a boasting in the cross. It's quite clear in Scripture that boasting in ourselves, what we have or do, is contrary to God's plan for the world. Boasting in ourselves over such things is misplaced praise, as if we are responsible for our very lives and the things we have been able to do. The Bible teaches instead that God is the giver of life and the one who enables us to do all things, and His desire is that as we come to understand this, we would render praise to God as is fitting for all the good things we enjoy in this life and all the bad things God uses for good in our lives.

This sort of life is only possible through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. He received in his flesh willingly, according to the plan of God, the penalty for our self-centered sin. All who trust in this substitution no longer stand condemned and are freed from an essentially self-centered life, so it makes sense that the cross would become the Christian's greatest treasure. According to the Bible, it frees a man or woman to live life as God intended which is by nature the most satisfying thing for him or her to do and the most honoring to God.

Tonight was a wonderful night of teaching at the Transformation House. I've been leading lessons through John Piper's book The Passion of the Christ that brings to light many reasons given in Scripture for the suffering and death of Jesus. Lesson 27 teaches that Jesus suffered and died to become a sympathetic and helpful priest. The gist of it is that through his life and death he subjected himself to the same weaknesses, sufferings, and temptations that we face daily because we are human. Accordingly, he is able to sympathize with us in our weakness, because he himself suffered when being tempted.

Of course, this isn't just a theological or intellectual exercise. Knowing that Jesus is sympathetic is supposed to give us confidence to approach him in our times of need. What are those? I'd say any time of temptation, conviction, or suffering. Any time we're tempted to look at ourselves in light of God's Word and allow our failures to overshadow God's grace toward those who believe. Knowing that we'll find sympathy with Jesus instead of a rebuke, we are to approach him with confidence for mercy and for grace to help us make the right decisions or persevere through hardship.