The Glory of God’s Grace - Part Two

Posted 4/24/15 by Donald Barnhouse
Theme: The Message of Mark
 
SCRIPTURE
Mark 1:1-4
 
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
 
“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”

LESSON

I remember seeing pictures of George VI at his coronation, with his enormous jeweled crown, his ermine robes, and all the pomp that marked the occasion. It was very impressive. But I saw another picture of George VI where I truly knew him as king. The photograph showed the East End of London after it had been bombed by the Nazis into a heap of rubble. George VI was there with Winston Churchill to inspect the damage. He wore no crown or ermine robe, just a suit and a derby hat. He looked totally unremarkable, except for one thing. As he walked through the debris, he cried. As he saw the damage, his suffering people, the Union Jacks his subjects had draped over the wreckage of their homes, he wept. Churchill’s memoirs record that as the people watched their king weeping in the midst of their ruin, they said again and again, “He loves us. He loves us.”
 
That to my mind is the noblest picture of the king of England I ever saw. And when I want to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, I look at Him on the cross, dying for me. That is the glory of the gospel. It is what Mark saw when he looked at Jesus, and it is that vision we must receive for ourselves, that we might be transformed by it and in newness of life bear our own testimony to the glory of grace.

STUDY QUESTIONS

  • What does the cross teach us about humanity and God?
  • Define redemption.
  • What is the glory of the gospel?
  • What is the significance of the resurrection?

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