Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Conspiracy theorists, people touting all kinds of wild schemes, clog the internet with their blogs and readers buy it. One theory is that Jesus did not die on the cross.
He merely swooned, waking up in the tomb. This is another lie about Jesus, a lie that we'll handle on today's program. Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, can this lie about Jesus be safely put to rest? Well, if you look at it historically, it certainly can be put to rest because the evidence that Jesus Christ actually died is very compelling. And we have that evidence not only from the stories that are in the Bible and those accounts, but even from secular literature. We have references to the death of Jesus Christ. And that death was so necessary in order for us to be redeemed.
It was the redemption of Christ, giving his life on our behalf. I want to thank the many of you who support this ministry and just to help you to understand that we are able to expand the ministry of Running to Win because of people just like you who pray for us, who are committed to this ministry. And I would like to challenge you. There are many people who join with us and you might consider becoming an endurance partner.
That's someone who stands with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts. Here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Become a part of the Running to Win family.
Go to rtwoffer.com, click on the endurance partner button. Isaiah 53 had to be fulfilled. He is led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shears is dumb.
So he opens not his mouth. Jesus said that the scripture had to be fulfilled. But now the cross itself, what's going on there? The cross reveals a number of attributes of God that could not be shown in any other way. The cross, in fact, is the center of God's program. The Bible says in the book of Revelation, he is the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. God created in order that he might redeem. This is the apex of God's plan of redemption and the glory and the beauty of all that he's going to do for us and what he will also do for himself. And that's why Paul will eventually say, God forbid that I should glory except except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, what are the attributes? First of all, at the cross, we see the love of God. I don't see the love of God when I look at nature. Oh, sometimes I do when it's calm and it's beautiful. But when I look at a tsunami, when I look at the devastation of tornadoes, when I see famines in Africa and people starving, I do not see the love of God in nature.
Sorry. And if somebody asks me, how do you know that God loves the world? I don't point to world events, but I do point to the cross for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. God says, what I'm going to do is I'm going to redeem for myself a group of people and that group of people is going to be redeemed by a sacrifice that I myself will make. And the son of God is going to make a sacrifice that will be gladly received by the father so that redemption is holy of God. And there we see love. The son of man did not come to be ministered onto the Bible says, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.
Here is love. Not that we love God, but that God loved us and gave his son as a sacrifice for our sins. Here uncontested is the love of God. I might say in parenthesis that there's also a difference in Islam and Christianity regarding an understanding of sin. For example, in Muslim teaching, you do commit sins, but it's not because you're a sinner. There's a denial there of original sin and you have to pay for your own sins. In fact, some commentators say that God forgives only the little sins and you have to pay for the big ones that you commit. Christianity comes along and says that God so loved us that he sent Jesus the perfect sacrifice to pay for all of our sins so that eternally we need bear none of them. Herein is love that God loved us.
Now follow carefully. At the cross, there was a clash. There was a clash between two of God's attributes. The love of God wanted to save people, but the inflexible holiness of God and justice of God prevented God from saving anyone. Until the justice of God and the righteousness of God, until all of those demands were met, the love of God could not be exercised to the people that God intended to redeem.
And so there was this, there was this dissidence. The love of God says, I want to save them. The justice of God in that attribute said, I cannot save them until justice is met.
Love cannot be extended. And it is there with a great and wonderful resolution took place. Take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter three for a moment. Another passage that deserves an entire message. I was reading it yesterday and thinking to myself, how can I ask people to turn to Romans three and deal with this passage so hurriedly, but we shall, and there have been times when I've preached on it alone. It says in Romans chapter three, verse 23, for all sinned and fall short of the glory of God was riding on a plane yesterday, sitting next to a woman who I asked her if God were to say to you, why should I let you into heaven? What would you say? And she gave me the stock answer that indeed she's a good woman and is trying to change the world for the better.
And I believe that she is. But the Bible says that all have sinned. I drew a little diagram like I always do. Here's humanity. Here are the criminals and we get better and better and better. And then I put you up there, the highest of human beings, the best of human beings. And we all come short of the glory of God. But then it says, and are justified by his grace as a gift. There's the love and the grace of God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. And why did God do it? This was to show God's righteousness. The cross was for us to redeem us. The cross was for God to absolve him of the charge of injustice, namely forgiving people without their sins being paid for. Whom God put forward as a propitiation. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Give me a moment of your time as I explain the passage. The Old Testament hears David. He's having fellowship with God. Just read the Psalms. He's being forgiven by God. Abraham, he's being forgiven by God.
Walking with God. There was no atonement for their sins made. The blood of bulls and of goats and animals wouldn't do it.
That was only symbolic. And so the charge might be made. You know what God does? God fellowships with sinners even though there's no payment made for their sin. So in the Old Testament, God says, alright, what I'm going to do is I will put their sin on credit, so to speak.
I'm going to set it aside until Jesus comes. And then when Jesus comes and dies on the cross, Jesus will make a payment for the sins of the Old Testament and for those who will believe in the New Testament and my righteous demands will be fully and completely met and as a result I can be totally inflexibly just and yet the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. The cross is for us where God loved the world and Jesus comes to die for us. The cross is for us but the cross is also to absolve God of the charge of injustice. And God's holiness and his love were resolved there at the cross. God says now that justice is taken care of.
Love can be extended and we can say to people today whosoever will may come let him freely take of the water of life. And that is the beauty of the gospel. At the cross we see the love of God, we see the justice of God, we also see the power of God. He raised Jesus from the dead. He raised Jesus from the dead and the Bible says that the same power works now in us who believe. If you've trusted Christ as your savior you have had a resurrection in your heart whether you realize it or not because we are dead in trespasses and sins.
We are dead in trespasses and sins. And God comes along to the spiritual graveyard and causes a resurrection. It says in Ephesians 2 that while we were still dead God raised us up. You're a believer here today you are a walking miracle because the same creative power of God that took a dead body and made all those disintegrating molecules and brought them back to life and gave Jesus a glorious and wonderful body. Those very same powers that God used resurrects us spiritually so that when you believe in Jesus you have a new nature that was created within you by God. There is something within you that was not there before you were converted. God creates a new nature, new desires, new aptitudes, a love for God. All of that is created within us and when we die and these bodies disintegrate we will eventually be raised and we shall be like him like Jesus for we shall see him as he is.
The reason that the cross was horrible my friends is because God says your sin is horrible but out of that crucible of suffering I bring glory and I bring redemption and my justice is displayed for all the world to see. In Muslim teaching Jesus will return back to earth he will fight against Antichrist and he will win. Everyone will be converted to the Muslim faith and Muslim law will be fulfilled and imposed. He will destroy all crosses and after a period of time after a period of time Jesus will die a natural death and be buried beside Muhammad.
I mention that because I want to contrast that with the vision of Jesus Christ given in the New Testament. It says in Ephesians 2 that he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Every created tongue and every knee will bow.
Every one. All the religious leaders of the world will all have to bow before the risen triumphant glorious Lord Christ. Krishna will bow and admit that Jesus is Lord and he will do it to the glory of God the Father. Muhammad will bow and admit that Jesus is a Lord to the glory of God the Father. Buddha will bow and give thanks and acknowledge that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Baha'u'llah of the Baha'i faith will bow and admit that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father and that Jesus shall reign throughout all eternity as King of Kings, Lord of Lords, God of all gods and beside him there is none other. If Peter had convinced Christ to cancel Good Friday and to do away with Resurrection Sunday, Peter didn't understand that entailed in that decision would have been his own eternal lostness because he himself would then not have been redeemed. It was necessary that Christ die.
It was necessary that he be buried. It was necessary that he be raised again as a triumph over death and it is there that we see in blazing beauty the wonder of God's love, the wonder of God's justice and the power of Almighty God. And that's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians, he says the preaching of the cross to those who are perishing is foolishness and isn't it that God's redemptive purpose should be all coming down to a Jew being crucified on a Roman cross and being raised again that that should be the means of redemption?
What an insult to our pride. And so the preaching of the cross to those who are perishing is foolishness but to us which are saved it is the power of God and it is the wisdom of God. All that wrapped up in the cross of Jesus. God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ by which the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. At the cross we see God at his best. The God of triumph. And the death of Jesus is going to be such a wonder as we understand it better throughout all of eternity and we will be reminded of it because of the nail prints in his hands and John says in Revelation I saw a lamb as though it had been slain standing before the throne.
Jesus will always have the marks of his death even as we celebrate and worship in uninterrupted triumph. Many years ago in Africa there was a fire in a hut and there was everyone in the family died except a boy. A stranger actually ran into the burning house and snatched this little boy and got him out but everybody else died. So the next day there was a discussion among the tribe as to who should get the child and it's not because they found it difficult to find someone everybody wanted him because they believed that he was a special child having been rescued from the fire.
One man said well I think he should come with me because I'm a wise man and another man said I think he should come with me because I'm a prosperous man and so the discussion was happening there and into the circle came someone who said that he had prior claim to the child because he showed them the freshly burned hands that he experienced when he rescued that child and they all agreed that despite who else might want the child this man had prior claim. The other gods were strong but thou wast weak they rode but thou did stumble to thy throne but to our wounds only God's wounds can speak and not a God has wounds but thou alone. Let us glory in the cross let us take the cross to the city of Chicago and let us explain to men and women that there is a redeemer there is someone who's able to reach down forgive us and bring us into God's presence. Are you happy today and do you rejoice in the cross of Jesus?
Let us pray. Father today we pray that by the blessed Holy Spirit who is able to show us the truth that you might help us to see in a new way the cross. I pray particularly for those who did not clap at the end of this service because maybe they still do not understand the cross maybe they disdain the cross maybe they they still don't see its significance would you overcome that father and even as you overcame Peter's blindness show them the wonder and the glory and the beauty that Jesus actually died for sinners and now before I close this prayer you talk to God you talk to God would you and if you aren't talking to God for yourself talk to God on behalf of someone else who needs to know the beauty of God's forgiveness and reconciling power. Father thank you that in the weakness of Jesus on the cross we see your power your glory and we worship you and we love you may those who have never trusted Christ as Savior do so right now even during this prayer whether you're listening on the internet the radio CD or right here today save those who need to be saved we pray in Jesus name amen amen and you know my friend the ministry of running to win exists to get that message of God's love and God's redemption to the world and we want to thank the many of you who are helping us do just that. I'm holding in my hands a letter from a Spanish-speaking listener who says your teaching edifies encourages and motivates me to deepen my relationship with God. What an opportunity it is through the ministry of technology radio and of course also through various platforms on the internet to get the gospel of Jesus Christ to so many people. I want to thank those of you who are helping us those of you who are holding our hands so to speak and saying that we are a part of the running to win family. Would you consider becoming an endurance partner?
Here's how you can find some info go to rtwoffer.com that's rtwoffer.com and when you're there you click on the endurance partner button rtwoffer.com rtwoffer of course all one word rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. What this broken world needs is a Christ who has wounds a God who came to redeem us and to take us to himself. You can write to us at Running to Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Leave it to TV to splash the headline that the bones of Jesus have been found in an old box in Jerusalem. Next time on Running to Win more on slandering Jesus with an expose of some bad archaeology.
We'll see how the critics of Christianity are marketing their wares in the media. Plan to join us. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
