Text: 1 Corinthians 15:35-58
Hymn: 607, From Depths of Woe I Cry to Thee
Kretzmann Commentary: Numbers
I couldn’t help it. One full day into Lent, and I pull out a passage on the resurrection. Hopefully you’re getting the good Lenten stuff on Sunday.
One of the ways our nominal Christian spirituality fails us is that we don’t understand how bad the problem of sin is, and how much it really permeates our lives. We would rather put on the front and be Pharisees. “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” It is uncomfortable to talk about our own unworthiness, of all the things we have done and things we have left undone.
To deny our sinfulness and our inability to earn heaven is in the long run a much worse situation. Thinking we can move towards God on our own leads us down one of two roads: we either have earned enough for God and we’re proud of it, or we run ourselves into the ground wondering if what we have done is enough. Either road leads to the same destination.
Instead, we have a God of mercy, who spends all of His wrath on the cross, not only putting all of our sins on Jesus but also putting Christ’s righteousness on us. We cannot boast except that God has saved us, and we await his second coming and the victory feast that has no end.
Pleading for mercy from the God who grants it is a good thing.
From Depths of Woe I Cry to Thee
- From depths of woe I cry to Thee,
In trial and tribulation;
Bend down Thy gracious ear to me,
Lord, hear my supplication.
If Thou rememb’rest every sin,
Who then could heaven ever win
Or stand before Thy presence? - Thy love and grace alone avail
To blot out my transgression;
The best and holiest deeds must fail
To break sin’s dread oppression.
Before Thee none can boasting stand,
But all must fear Thy strict demand
And live alone by mercy. - Therefore my hope is in the Lord
And not in mine own merit;
It rests upon His faithful Word
To them of contrite spirit
That He is merciful and just;
This is my comfort and my trust.
His help I wait with patience. - And though it tarry through the night
And till the morning waken,
My heart shall never doubt His might
Nor count itself forsaken.
O Israel, trust in God your Lord,
Born of the Spirit and the Word,
Now wait for His appearing. - Though great our sins, yet greater still
Is God’s abundant favor;
His hand of mercy never will
Abandon us, nor waver.
Our shepherd good and true is He,
Who will at last His Israel free
From all their sin and sorrow.
TURRIE on 
Dan
