Preface To The Second Printing
1. Must God Plead With God?
   
2. How The Spirit Leads
   
3. Physical Reinforcements of Faith
   
4. Jesus' Physical and Spiritual Death
   
5. Is There Merit in Pain?
   
6. The Six Days of Creation
   
7. Adding Guilt to Anxiety
   
8. Wine and The Disciple
   
9. Revolution or Evolution
   
10. I Am That Disciple
    
11. When People Disagree
    
12. Is Unity Based Upon Seven Doctrines?
    
13. Our Seven Sacraments
    
14. Instrumental Music
    
15. The Mood of Worship
    
16. Justified Then Sanctified
    
17. Is Christian Our Name?
    
18. The Lord's Table
    
19. Righteousness That Exceeds
    
20. Neither Destroyed Nor Nailed To The Cross
    
21. The Right of Self-Protection
    
22. A Tree of Error
    
23. God is Limited
    
24. You Are Here
    
25. God is In Charge
    
26. Hook's Points
    
27. Lamentations of A Mediocre Preacher
    

IS THERE MERIT IN PAIN?

Are we saved by Jesus' pain? He suffered for us. Suffered what? To suffer means to endure or to experience. We may suffer shame, loss, dishonor, pain, shipwreck, or wrong. The idea of enduring or experiencing is primary; the thought of pain is secondary. Jesus suffered death. He experienced death in our place. It is not his suffering primarily, but what he suffered, what he endured. In a similar way, God saves us through preaching. But it is not by preaching primarily, but what is preached. It is not by Jesus' enduring, but what He endured -death.

The agony in the Garden did not expiate. Any blood shed in His abuse would not have atoned if he had not died. Under the Law, the blood of animals was offered. It represented the life of the animal. Had the animal not died, the blood would have been ineffective. Jesus' blood represents the life offered instead of ours. We are not saved by His wonderful life, His teachings, His miracles, His pain, but by His death. By means of this experience he conquered Satan for us.

"But the idea of sacrifice always implies pain," you may object. Does it? Literally, the word "sacrifice" means "to slaughter." More basically, it means "to offer, to make an offering." Any offering, whether it be a song, a prayer, a dollar, or a cup of cold water, is a sacrifice. The thought of pain or impoverishing is not in the word. Jesus offered himself in our place, but the endurance of pain was incidental to the offering.

What about us; aren't we supposed to "sacrifice," to "give till it hurts?" "Let us offer up a sacrifice of praise." Does that mean that we must sing or shout until our throats hurt?

When the rich Abraham sacrificed, did he impoverish or pain himself? Is this concept of pain or privation inherent in any of the Mosaic laws concerning sacrifices?

"Give till it hurts" is foreign to Christianity. Give till you feel good. It makes one happier to give than to receive, Jesus said. Christian service is done cheerfully and willingly, not out of necessity or constraint. Expressing love does not hurt, but it makes one happy.

"Doing our duty" (a vain effort!) may be drudgery or painful, but showing love is fulfilling. If all of your Christian service is not fulfilling and does not make you happier, then a new appraisal of your discipleship is in order. Duty can be performed legalistically and hints of meritorious achievement. Not so with love.

In order to bind this "Do your duty" concept, an idea of meritorious suffering has been attached to the term "sacrifice" describing our service. We offer sheaves, not lambs. Man cannot offer sacrifices of merit or atonement; he can only bring offerings of praise and thanksgiving.

In John's day the Gnostics thought that matter and the flesh were inherently evil. From this developed the asceticism of the early centuries-purging by pain, privation, and poverty. Further development brought forth the doctrines of penance, purgatory, indulgences, and the grotesque emphasis of the physical agony of Jesus. All of these are built upon a false premise.

We need to take the Lord's Supper out of Gethsemane and put it back on Golgotha.

A frustrated conscience in many devoted disciples makes them enjoy a lashing, whipping harangue of a sermon. By their pained conscience they feel that some retribution has been paid, some satisfaction has been met for their sins. While it is true that the impenitent must be brought to penitence, the purpose of it is not to foster this concept. It is true that Jesus preached cutting sermons, but they were addressed to the calloused hypocrites, not to the devout.

Blessed is the man who overcomes trial and temptation. Blessed, also, is the man who has few to overcome. When the tree stood through the storm, it demonstrated strength, but did that tree that stood against frequent blasts bear more fruit or make better lumber than the tree which knew nothing but calm?

In bearing the penalty of our sins, Jesus endured extreme mental agony. In the process of his physical death, there was extreme physical pain. This is not being overlooked. However, Jesus' sorrows, wounds, chastisement, stripes, etc. of Isaiah 53 were not physical endurances which are powerless to atone, but they were the spiritual wounds of combat with Satan in which Jesus died. In the circumstance of the Christian life, men have been impoverished, imprisoned, whipped and tortured with a similar degree of physical pain that Jesus bore. Man has little capacity to share His mental and spiritual agony, however. But Jesus' agony did not expiate, nor can our torture make us merit more grace.

When we deny ourselves and take up our cross, we are saying, "Lord, my life is an offering of thanksgiving to you. I have been crucified with Christ. My life now will be a daily offering. Not my will but yours be done. Please accept me and use me."