The day of resurrection

The day of resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad;
The Passover of gladness, the Passover of God.
From death to life eternal, from earth unto the sky,
Our Christ hath brought us over, with hymns of victory.

Our hearts be pure from evil, that we may see aright
The Lord in rays eternal of resurrection light;
And listening to His accents, may hear, so calm and plain,
His own “All hail!” and, hearing, may raise the victor strain.

Now let the heavens be joyful! Let earth the song begin!
Let the round world keep triumph, and all that is therein!
Let all things seen and unseen their notes in gladness blend,
For Christ the Lord hath risen, our joy that hath no end.

(John of Damascus, 675-749)
Tune: Ellacombe

Happy Easter!

Let us rejoice that Christ our Lord and Saviour is risen and vindicated; we can enjoy new life through him; and one day, we shall be made like him in his resurrection. Hallelujah!

Romans 5:7-8

You know some days you study a passage, and you get a little light which clicks on? This couple of verses got that this morning.

Looking at the Greek*, I noticed a couple of things.

1. The words used for "a righteous man", dikaios is related closely to the word used for justified, dikaiothentes. Indeed, in Paul's lexicon, particularly in Romans, a "righteous man" is one who has been declared righteous by God -- not one who is righteous on his own account.
2. The word used by Paul for a "good man", agathos, is used, for instance, in Mark 10:17-18, where Jesus is called "Teacher agathe", and then replies "why do you call me agathon? No-one is agathos except God alone." It's no stretch to suggest that Jesus satisfies the description of "a good man" in its fullest sense.

Looking at the Greek in this manner, I wonder if we can't then read Romans 5:6-8 as follows.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a justified sinner, though for Jesus someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still unjustified sinners, Jesus died for us!

Clearly, I can't tell for sure whether this is what Paul had in mind when he was writing these verses, but it seems to fit with the rest of the passage (tying in the suffering for Christ of verse 3 to the effects of Christ's death in verses 9 and 10) and also makes sense of what can be a confusing verse. Indeed, most people skim over verse 7 as "an illustration", but I think that, looked at in this way, it has a tremendous force to it. We wouldn't die for us, even if we could; we might even struggle to die for Jesus, who deserves our devotion; but Jesus died for us when we deserved absolutely nothing!

*Free plug for e-Sword, the best downloadable electronic Bible resource I've seen, without which I'd never have a hope of spotting ideas like this. (There again, if it's a bad idea, don't let that reflect on the software!)

'Tis Finished! The Messiah Dies

’Tis finished! The Messiah dies,
Cut off for sins, but not His own:
Accomplished is the sacrifice,
The great redeeming work is done.
’Tis finished! all the debt is paid;
Justice divine is satisfied;
The grand and full atonement made;
God for a guilty world hath died!

The veil is rent in Christ alone;
The living way to heaven is seen;
The middle wall is broken down,
And all mankind may enter in.
The types and figures are fulfilled;
Exacted is the legal pain;
The precious promises are sealed;
The spotless Lamb of God is slain.

The reign of sin and death is o’er,
And all may live from sin set free;
Satan hath lost his mortal power;
’Tis swallowed up in victory.
Saved from the legal curse I am,
My Saviour hangs on yonder tree:
See there the meek, expiring Lamb!
’Tis finished! He expires for me.

Accepted in the Well-beloved,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
I see the bar to heaven removed;
And all Thy merits, Lord, are mine.
Death, hell, and sin are now subdued;
All grace is now to sinners given;
And lo, I plead the atoning blood,
And in Thy right I claim Thy heaven!
(Charles Wesley, 1707-1788)

New CU postholders went on a weekend away last weekend, and one of the seminar tracks was on the Cross. I came away from it with this hymn planted firmly in my mind. Wesley presents to us the Cross of Christ, but in a way which complements Watt's "When I survey the wondrous Cross".

Watts looks upon the Cross and, assuming that his readers (singers?) know the effects which accrue to them of the Messiah's death, simply points (which is excellent). Wesley presents to us the effects the of the Cross -- not all of them, for we only live so long, but we can see the major effects of the Cross.

"Cut off for sins, but not his own" -- the Lamb of God dies to bear the punishment of guilty sinners.
"Exacted is the legal pain" -- the Advocate dies in payment of the penalty required by the Law.
"The types and figures are fulfilled" -- the Messiah dies in proof of God's faithfulness to his promises.
"The reign of sin and death is o'er" -- the immortal God dies for mortal man that he might, too, be immortal.
"Accepted in the Well-beloved" -- the Great High Priest dies so that we might have a restored relationship with God.
"All grace is now to sinners given" -- the unbounded, infinite Son of God dies for helpless men and women; the grace given is too great to detail in full.

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand." Peace, grace and hope; all gained by our Lord on the Cross -- all are the gift of God to those who believe.

Books completed recently

A Computer Called LEO, Georgina Ferry, 2003.
The Martian Way, Isaac Asimov, 1964.
The Eagle Has Landed, Jack Higgins, 1975.

A Computer Called LEO is an excellent little book about the history of the first computer used for commercial purposes. Georgina Ferry tells the story of the Lyons Electronic Office, starting from the mind of an efficiency-mad Cambridge graduate and passing through the trials and tribulations of the small team of scientists and engineers, seeking to build a machine which would save the Lyons Teashops from financial disaster through better management and accounting.

The enterprise failed, of course, as only we British can make them fail: a lack of government interest until it was far too late ensured that the struggling computer businesses never got off the ground. But for a few years somewhere between the late 40s and early 60s, the United Kingdom led the way in computing technology. And then the Americans finally caught up with us. The rest, as the say, is history.

The Martian Way is a collection of Isaac Asimov novellas. The novella from which the book takes its title features a Martian colony whose water supply is endangered by terrestrial politics, until a small band of intrepid Scavengers spearhead an expedition which destroys all opposition to human expansion into space. The story is a good one and well told, looking at the strained relationship between a spaceship captain and his wife, and also at the strained relationship between the Earth and her small colony.

The next novella, Youth, sees a pair of explorers captured by juvenile alien life. I have to say this one didn't resonate quite as well with me, mostly because Asimov tends not to be a brilliant writer of aliens, and I tend not to enjoy 'alien' stories so much.

The third novella, The Deep is another alien story, this time, a race of aliens which has dug itself deeper and deeper into its home planet as its energy supplies run out. Eventually, they realise the need to leave the planet, which they attempt to do by some strange psychokinetic apparatus. A thoroughly unexpected twist makes life more difficult for the scout, and the story has an interesting contrast in parenting between the alien race and humans.

The final story, Sucker Bait, is of a planet which successfully killed four attmepts at colonisation. The galactic government wants to try again, but first of all must ensure that it is safe to do so. A team of scientists is despatched to study the planet, as well as a boy recruited for his exceptional powers of memory. No-one can solve the problem until the young lad puts two and two together, and drags the crew off the planet before they are all killed by the mystery killer.

The Eagle Has Landed is Jack Higgins' novel, set during the Second World War, about an audacious attempt by German paratroopers to kidnap the Prime Minister. The plot follows the conspirators, including a bitter Boer masquerading as an elderly English lady, a cheeky Irish Republican, a British Free Corps traitor, as well as the officers in the special operations division of the German war machine and the soldiers recruited for the task. Higgins claims that not less than half the material is "documented historical fact".