He Died for His Wife

My Grandparents, Edward and Helen Losli

My grandparents had a wonderful, yet interesting marriage. The last decades of their lives they had what seemed to be a well-timed trade off.

My grandmother had many serious heart ailments and multiple heart surgeries from the time I was old enough to know what those terms meant. But as far as I know, my grandfather was in great health, but that changed as they aged. When my grandmother’s health failed, my grandfather was strong; but when he became ill and incapacitated, she was surprisingly strong.

My grandfather lived for my grandmother, but he didn’t die for her.

The Bible describes the relationship between Christ Jesus and the Church as like that of husband and wife. Yet there is a vast difference between Him and the Church and earthly husbands and wives. Jesus suffered more for the Church than any human husband has ever suffered.

Jesus suffered the loss of all He possessed, surrendering His splendor as Heaven’s born Prince to shelter in the womb of a servant girl. The King became a pauper by choice.

The Glory of God became a helpless Babe, a rough-handed Carpenter, a Suffering Servant and Man of Sorrows. He was humiliated, despised, and crucified between thieves. The Creator who adorned the blackness of space with flickering stars by the word of His power, was crowned with bloody thorns. The Friend to sinners died to make us friends of God.

Without concern for His own welfare, Jesus, the Bridegroom plunged into the ocean depths of the Father’s wrath to become the rescue for His bride.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her (Ephesians 5:25).

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear of What?

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love (1 John 4:18).

I was bowed on the floor praying when a spider ran across the floor toward my face. I’m fairly sure Jesus didn’t say “watch and pray” as a warning about spiders, but I’m glad I was praying with my eyes open!

This was no little creature. It was a Hobo Spider, a native to the Pacific Northwest of America. Legs in motion, this arachnid measured about 2.5 inches (6.35 cm). I’m not easily startled, but its size and speed and threat of vicious bite raised me to feet. I ran to the kitchen for the can of spider spray, tracked him down, and let him have it! He instantly went to that great web in the sky.

I’ve been around long enough to hear a few people quote First John 4:18 in all kinds of situations. Perfect love casts out fear … Fear of what? Catching Covid? Going to the dentist? Falling off a cliff? A Hobo Spider running into your mouth? If you read the context of this wonderful promise, God had only one fear for us to apply it to, and it’s none of these.

John began this section of his letter writing that Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because fear involves torment; because as He is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17).

Jesus, the Father’s beloved Son, has no fear before His Father. And as He is, so are we. Christ’s righteousness has been applied to us by faith, our sins forever forgiven, and we’re adopted as the Father’s children. His love for us in Jesus removes our fear of His justly deserved anger toward us and our sin. The fullness of His love casts out our fear that one day we will be judged for our sins. We know our sins were laid on Christ at Calvary and the Father’s wrath forever and fully propitiated.

More frightful than spiders, dentists, or falling is the fear of God’s judgment, and in Christ our fears and sins are purged and replaced with peace.

The Rock of Ages

My wife Kimberly at Silver Falls State Park, Oregon, USA

Anglican pastor Augustus Toplady (1740-1778) wrote his most famous hymn the year the American Revolution began.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure.

The first verse of Toplady’s hymn reminds the reader of the Rock of Ages, steadfast, faithful, and eternal.

The Rock wasn’t created, but exists from the ages past and into ages untold.
The Rock was cleft, meaning split open. It didn’t split because it was old or faulty, or because it was battered by a violent storm or eroded over time. The Rock was purposely split “for me”, on my behalf, as a place of safety to hide within.
The Rock isn’t literal, it’s called Thee, referring to Jesus.

Note that the cleft of the Rock isn’t merely a place of hiding for troubled times, but from the cleft came (past tense) both water and blood. The image immediately reminds us of a detail only the Apostle John records: When they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out (John 19:33-34).

The water and the blood flowed from Christ’s body proving He was dead. He didn’t just faint on the cross, pretend death, or die spiritually. He died physically and literally, His death being the Good News which saves.

The death of Jesus on the cross provides what Toplady calls a double cure or remedy for two symptoms or diseases. His death saves both from wrath and creates purity.

God’s wrath – his violent anger – demands justice against sin and rests upon the sinner like a lead weight (John 3:36; Colossians 3:6). The Father’s wrath was satisfied when Jesus went to the cross as the sinner’s Substitute, taking his place of deserved death.

The penalty for sin was paid, symbolized by His blood, but Christ’s death paid for much more. The water symbolizes that Christ also makes the sinner pure by washing away (forgiving) sin and the stain of sin.