Tag Archives: Atonement

HOW CAN JESUS BE AMAZED?

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HOW CAN JESUS BE AMAZED? JACK COTTRELL, APRIL 2019         QUESTION:  My King James Version says in Mark 14:33 that when Jesus entered the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His death, He “began to be sore amazed.”  My 1901 American Standard Version likewise says He “began to be greatly amazed, and sore troubled.”  How could Jesus, who is God the Logos as well as a human being, be AMAZED?  Does not God foreknow everything?  How could anything “amaze” Jesus?        ANSWER:  This is indeed an interesting question.  Mark is the only Gospel writer who puts it this way, but … Continue reading →

THE HOLY SPIRIT’S ROLE IN CHRIST’S SUFFERING

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THE HOLY SPIRIT’S ROLE IN CHRIST’S SUFFERING A Communion Meditation by Jack Cottrell In my previous meditation I pointed out that Jesus the SON of God was not the only one suffering at the cross. God the FATHER was also suffering, but in a different way. Jesus as the Son of God was the one who was actually suffering the infinite wrath of God in our place, making our salvation possible. But it was God the Father who, with feelings of deepest agony, was responsible for pouring out that wrath upon his own Son (Rom. 8:32). But here we shall … Continue reading →

SUFFERING AT THE CROSS

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SUFFERING AT THE CROSS — A Communion Meditation Jack Cottrell – Greendale First Church of Christ – October 2017 [Author’s note: I gave this meditation on the same Sunday when I preached a sermon dealing in part with the subject of the Trinity. In the sermon I was pointing out that it was necessary to reveal the fact that God is a Trinity of persons at the beginning of this New Covenant age, because that was the time when God was carrying out the mighty works of redemption (incarnation, atonement, resurrection, ascension, outpouring of the Holy Spirit). The necessity for … Continue reading →

FIVE COMMUNION MEDITATIONS ON 1 JOHN 2:1-2, NUMBER THREE — CHRIST OUR PROPITIATION

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FIVE COMMUNION MEDITATIONS ON 1 JOHN 2:1-2 – NUMBER 3 CHRIST OUR PROPITIATION Jack Cottrell — Summer 2017 Notice how Jesus is described in these first two verses from the second chapter of First John — “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” In previous meditations I have explained how Jesus is our ADVOCATE, … Continue reading →

“THE BODY OF SIN” (ROMANS 6:6) — PART THREE

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[Continued from Part Two] [QUESTION. What does Paul mean by the phrase “body of sin” in Romans 6:6? Is he referring to the physical body? And if so, in what sense is it a body “of sin”?] ANSWER. In Romans six the Apostle Paul presents us with some very good news about what happened to us when we were baptized into Christ. In that moment, he says, our sin-corrupted souls died with Christ and were raised up to walk in new spiritual life. One great benefit of this is that our physical bodies, which in this life are under the … Continue reading →

SIN-EATER — OR SIN-BEARER? A COMMUNION MEDITATION

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SIN-EATER – OR SIN-BEARER? A Communion Meditation – Jack Cottrell QUESTION: Do you think it is acceptable for someone giving the communion meditation to just read or otherwise relate what someone else has written? ANSWER: Of course it is! That is why someone like me goes to the trouble of writing and publishing such meditations! In fact, here is one I just prepared and shared with my congregation recently: From time to time in modern fiction we see a character called the “sin-eater.” One story that many remember is a 1972 episode from “The Night Gallery” called “The Sins of … Continue reading →

Saved by Grace #11 — “ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY”?

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Much of the world (including many Christians) assume that if we do something “wrong,” we can do something “right” to make up for it. In many religions this concept is the key to whatever they consider to be “salvation.” An example of this is the “balance-scale” concept of judgment. In this view every good work has a certain amount of merit attached to it; every sin has a certain amount of demerit. On the Judgment Day all good works are placed on one side of the scale and all bad works on the other. If “our good works outweigh our … Continue reading →

Saved by Grace #13 — ORIGINAL SIN–OR ORIGINAL GRACE?

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What about babies—when they are conceived, while in the womb, at birth? Are they under law, or under grace? This question is actually raised and answered in Romans 5:12-19, where Adam’s sin is contrasted with Christ’s cross. The issue being settled here is simply this: which of these is stronger? Which prevails over the other? At least since the time of Augustine (d. A.D. 430), the Christian world has tended to focus on what this text says about Adam more than what it says about Christ. Most see it as teaching the doctrine of ORIGINAL SIN. What does this phrase … Continue reading →

Justification: A Paradigm Shift?

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PAUL’S CONCEPT OF JUSTIFICATION A Book Review, by Jack Cottrell Richard K. Moore has written a book entitled Paul’s Concept of Justification: God’s Gift of a Right Relationship (Wipf & Stock, 2015; pb, 221pp.). Moore is associated with Vose Seminary (formerly Baptist Theological College of Western Australia). In 1978 he wrote a doctoral dissertation which he reworked and expanded into three volumes published as Rectification (‘Justification’) in Paul, in Historical Perspective, and in the English Bible (Edwin Mellen, 2002-2003; 1,372pp.). The present volume is a less technical and updated summary of that work. Moore’s basic purpose is to examine how … Continue reading →

What Are You Wearing? A Communion Meditation

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“Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. So they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be’; this was to fulfill the Scripture: ‘They divided My outer garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.’ Therefore the soldiers did these things” (John 19:23-25a, NASB). This makes me wonder what happened to the tunic (the inner layer of clothing). One … Continue reading →