“The Power in the Blood” = “The Power of Christ’s Atoning Death”

When the Scriptures say we are redeemed by Christ’s blood, we are not to think that His plasma or corpuscles have some supernatural property.  His blood was normal human blood, just as His entire body was fully human in every aspect.  The “power in the blood” that we sing about lies in the atonement He wrought by the shedding of His blood, not in the actual fluid itself.  So, when the Bible speaks about the blood of Christ, it uses the expression as a metonymy for His atoning death. – John MacArthur (born in 1939), from his book, “The Murder of Jesus.”

This is post number 1,600!

 

Daily Living Must Be Founded on Christian Doctrine

So, the Bible views knowledge of doctrinal absolutes as foundational to godly living.  Most of Paul’s letters begin by laying a doctrinal foundation before giving practical exhortations.  For example, Paul gives eleven chapters of doctrine in Romans before turning to godly living in chapter 12.  Galatians 1-4 are doctrinal, chapters 5 and 6 are practical.  The first three chapters of Ephesians detail our position in Christ, while the last three urge us to live accordingly.  Philippians and Colossians also conform to the same pattern of doctrine preceding practical exhortations.  Godly living is directly linked, in Scripture, to knowledge of doctrinal truth.

The Bible warns of the danger of a lack of knowledge.  Proverbs 19.2 says that “it is not good for a person to be without knowledge.”  It was for lack of knowledge that Israel went into exile (Isaiah 5.3) and God says, in Hosea 4.6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”  First Corinthians 14.20 warns us, “Do not be children in your thinking.  Yet, in evil, be babes but, in your thinking, mature.”  Ephesians 4.13-14 tells us that lack of knowledge produces “children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.”  Verse 18 describes unbelievers as “being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them.”

From: Colossians and Philemon by John MacArthur; The MacArthur New Testament Commentary series (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1992), pp. 28-29.  Comment on Colossians 1.9.

 

Committed Believers in a Committed Marriage

The committed marriage is the only happy and lasting one.  When two believers love each other unselfishly and live in accordance with God’s Word, submitted to one another, a bond emerges that can withstand every temptation the world can aim at them.  People in such marriages forge a sharing friendship that knows no limitations, secrets, or conditions.

Not unlike the apostles, however, some twenty-first-century believers seem afraid that a lifelong, unconditional commitment to marriage would consign them to a life of boring, frustrating restrictions.  Therefore, many conclude that it’s “better not to marry.”  But the Lord created marital commitment to bring enduring happiness and satisfaction – in ways a single person or uncommitted spouse can never realize.  Far from being a reason to avoid marriage, with all its challenges and responsibilities, biblical commitment is the quality that makes marriage most desirable and fulfilling in the long run.

Of course, Christians must choose their marriage partners carefully and prayerfully.  They should become committed only to someone who shares their biblical faith.  No love or fulfillment can surpass what a believing couple knows when they live together in obedience to God’s Word.

From: Grace for Today: Daily Readings from the Life of Christ: Volume 3 by John MacArthur (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2010), p. 42.  Comment on Matthew 19.11-12.

 

John MacArthur on the New Testament – 29

Jesus did not spend time teaching in order to entertain the crowds or to reveal interesting but inconsequential truths about God or to set forth ideal but optional standards that God requires.  His first mission was to provide salvation for those who would come to Him in faith, that is, to make disciples.  His second mission was to teach God’s truth to those disciples.  That is the same twofold mission He gives the church.

No one is a true disciple apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ, and there is no true disciple apart from an obedient heart that desires to please the Lord in all things.  The writer of Hebrews makes that attitude of obedience synonymous with saving faith, declaring that Christ “became, to all those who obey Him, the source of eternal salvation” (Hebrews 5.9).  Thanking God for the salvation of believers in Rome, Paul said to them, “Though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient, from the heart, to that form of teaching to which you were committed” (Romans 6.17).

Every Christian is not gifted as a teacher, but every faithful Christian is committed to promoting the ministry of teaching God’s Word, both to make and to edify disciples of Christ.

From: Commentary: Matthew 24-28 (1989), pp. 345-346.  Comment on Matthew 28.19-20a.

 

John MacArthur on the New Testament – 28

Contrary to rabbinical law, the first two phases of Jesus’ religious trial were carried out during the night and away from the Temple.  He had, first, been brought before the former high priest, Annas, probably in the hope that this wicked conniver would concoct a charge against Jesus that would justify the death penalty.  When that failed, Christ was brought before the acting high priest, Caiaphas, and the hastily-assembled Sanhedrin.  Even with willing false witnesses, that group was also unable to indict Jesus.  Only when He confessed to being the Christ and God’s Son did they discover a way to destroy Him.  Although He spoke the truth, they convicted Him of blasphemy and being worthy of death (Matthew 26.63-66).  He was sentenced to death for the truth, for being who He, indeed, is.

From: Commentary: Matthew 24-28 (1989), p. 223.  Comment on Matthew 27.1-2.

 

John MacArthur on the New Testament – 27

Genuine worship is the supreme service a Christian can offer to Christ.  There is a time for ministering to the poor, the sick, the naked, and the imprisoned.  There is a time for witnessing to the lost and seeking to lead them to the Savior.  There is a time for discipling new believers and helping them grow in the faith.  There is a time for careful study and teaching of God’s Word.  But, above all else that the Lord requires of His people is their true worship, without which everything else they may do in His name is empty and powerless.

The worshiper emulated by Mary does not ask, “How much is it going to cost?” or “Do I have the time?”  Like her, the true worshiper gives Jesus whatever he has, knowing it is trifling compared to what has been received from Him.

From: Commentary: Matthew 24-28 (1989), p. 135.  Comment on Matthew 26.6-13.

 

John MacArthur on the New Testament – 26

No one in Scripture spoke more of judgment than Jesus.  He spoke of sin that could not be forgiven, of the danger of losing one’s soul forever, of spending eternity in the torments of hell, of existing forever in outer darkness, where there will be perpetual weeping and gnashing of teeth.  No pictures of judgment are more intense and sobering than those Jesus portrayed.

Yet, nothing Jesus said or did was inconsistent with His gracious love.  He wept at the impending judgment coming on Jerusalem’s people (Luke 19.41-44).  His warnings of judgment and punishment were acts of love, divine appeals for men to turn from their sin in order to escape the condemnation that would otherwise be inevitable.  One of love’s supreme desires is to protect those it loves from harm, and Jesus, therefore, spoke so much of judgment because, in His infinite love and grace, it was not His wish nor the Father’s “for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3.9).  What more important and loving warning could there be than warning about the eternal damnation every human being faces apart from Jesus Christ?  Jesus sought to draw men to Himself not only through the attractiveness of salvation but through the horrors of its only alternative.

From: Commentary: Matthew 24-28 (1989), p. 111.  Comment on Matthew 25.31-46.

 

John MacArthur on the New Testament – 25

Earthquakes, epidemics of deadly disease, dreadful happenings of various sorts, and awesome changes in the sky will torment men.  They will see the world begin to disengage before their eyes from the unbridled, destructive forces of evil that will ravage it during those indescribable days.  The world has witnessed many earthquakes, famines, plagues, and even some heavenly signs, but those will be nothing compared to the calamities of the end times.  They will occur in various places and, apparently, simultaneously.  As some parts of the earth starve from famines, others will be shattered by earthquakes, others decimated by plagues, others paralyzed by unspecified terrors, and still others unnerved by changes in the heavens.

From: Commentary: Matthew 24-28 (1989), p. 21.  Comment on Matthew 24.7b-8).

 

John MacArthur on the New Testament – 24

Although the precise origin of the Pharisees is unknown, they appeared sometime before the middle of the second century BC.  Numbering, perhaps, as many as six thousand, many of them were also scribes – authorities in Jewish law, both scriptural and traditional.  As has been noted many times in this study of Matthew, the Pharisees were, by far, the dominant religious group in Israel in Jesus’ day and the most popular with the masses.  The other majority party, the Saducees, were, largely, in charge of the Temple, but their driving concern was not for religion but for money and power.  As their name suggests, the Herodians were a political party loyal to the Herod family.  The Essenes, who are not mentioned in Scripture, were a reclusive sect which devoted much of its efforts to copying the Scriptures, and the Zealots were radical nationalists who sought to overthrow Rome militarily.  Like the Sadducees, the Herodians’ and the Zealots’ interest in religion was motivated primarily by a desire for personal and political gain.  Consequently, it was to the scribes and the Pharisees that the people looked for religious guidance and authority, a role those leaders greatly cherished.

From: Commentary: Matthew 16-23 (1988), p. 356.  Comment on Matthew 23.1-7.

 

John MacArthur on the New Testament – 23

The Samaritan woman whom Jesus met at the well outside Sychar was the first person to whom He directly revealed His messiahship.  After she commented “that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ),” Jesus then “said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He’” (John 4.25-26).  That woman trusted in Christ herself and immediately went into her village and witnessed to others, many of whom also believed (verses 39-42).  But most of the Samaritans did not believe and, down through the centuries, have not believed.  Today, they number, perhaps, fewer than 500 and, like their Jewish counterparts, they are still looking for a Messiah who has already come.  Like so many people, they failed to believe the truth, though the testimony of Scripture is overwhelmingly convincing.

From: Commentary: Matthew 16-23 (1988), p. 351.  Comment on Matthew 22.46.