Ed Walsh
Puritan Board Senior
Hebrews 12:2
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The Cross as a Love Story
I think this verse has little to do with Christ's willing and perfect obedience to His Father. Instead, this is a glimpse into the emotional life of our Lord. It was not merely duty that motivated the God-Man Jesus to endure the cross. It was His joyful love for and delight in His betrothed bride–the Church. That's you and me, isn't it? When the Church is perfected, she will genuinely be bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.
If I am right, there are many implications of this love story for us in our present state of humiliation. I could go on, but I will wait to see if you agree with what I have said so far.
Meditate on Ephesians 5:22-32
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,
30 because we are members of his body.
31 "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."
32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
JOY - from OED.com (Oxford English Dictionary)
a. A vivid emotion of pleasure arising from a sense of well-being or satisfaction; the feeling or state of being highly pleased or delighted; exultation of spirit; gladness, delight.
a. A vivid emotion of pleasure arising from a sense of well-being or satisfaction; the feeling or state of being highly pleased or delighted; exultation of spirit; gladness, delight.
The Cross as a Love Story
I think this verse has little to do with Christ's willing and perfect obedience to His Father. Instead, this is a glimpse into the emotional life of our Lord. It was not merely duty that motivated the God-Man Jesus to endure the cross. It was His joyful love for and delight in His betrothed bride–the Church. That's you and me, isn't it? When the Church is perfected, she will genuinely be bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.
If I am right, there are many implications of this love story for us in our present state of humiliation. I could go on, but I will wait to see if you agree with what I have said so far.
Meditate on Ephesians 5:22-32
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,
30 because we are members of his body.
31 "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."
32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
