Get behind me, Satan! « Miscellanies.

Get behind me, Satan!

What’s behind Jesus’ stinging rebuke of Peter in Matthew 16:23 and Mark 8:33?

Satan must have been conscious that the approaching cross would become the moment of his personal defeat. In his public ministry, Jesus clearly connected the cross and the defeat of Satan (John 12:31-33). This explains why Satan worked diligently to entice Jesus off the road to Calvary in the desert temptations (see Matt 4:1-11). These temptations were Satan’s attempt to block Jesus’ path to the cross, to hinder Jesus’ victory over evil. Satan could smell his own defeat.

So as Jesus spoke to the disciples of His impending death upon the cross, Peter rebuked him for the idea (Matt 16:21-22). Yet Peter’s rebuke—no doubt conceived and motivated by Satan himself—became yet another roadblock, one last attempt by Satan to knock Jesus off the path that led to the cross. Inadvertently, Peter was now acting in tandem with the intentions of Satan, seeking to distract Jesus from his ultimate purposes in the cross.

[For more on this see John Piper, Spectacular Sins (Crossway, 2008), pp. 100-101. Download the book for free here.]

June 19, 2009 - Posted by spurgeon | Cross of Christ, Sin | | 3 Comments

3 Comments »

thanks for the link tony – enjoy your site

Comment by Hal York | June 19, 2009 | Reply
Dear brother,

I had a 15 minutes on your website and I liked it very much.
I am a 23 years old student doing a master in public administration in England. God has saved 2 years ago ( it was probably before, don’t know how to know that, I mean, when I was regenerated). But I am very very unwise and ignorant of the things of God. But I mean very much, really. God has put in my heart to always read the bible and I am doing it everyday, twice a year. I have been listening to sermons of brother Paul Washer (from hcmissions.org) and God has blessed and taught immensely thought that. I would take forever to tell all the flaws in my character and my religiosity. I am very desperate to grow in the things of God and run as fast as I can from the things of this world, from sin. It’s been hard, but God is strong and faithful and merciful. I writing to you because I am feeling I need to read and to study theology. I need it. I desire to become a politician next year, and if it is the Lord’s will I will run for a seat in the national congress in Brazil. However, all I have is Jesus Christ and he’s all to my life, even though I am weak and poor in knowledge about him. But I truly pray that God will save me and have mercy on me, and reign in my life. I say it like this because I always want to examine my self because I do things sometimes so horrible that I ask myself if I really know him. But I know above all that he has saved and forgiven my sins and I just want to leave everything to follow him. To be honest I am afraid because the challenges that face me are so great ( to run for a seat) and if I run temptations will be so great as well, but from my heart I tell you that I’d rather die in Christ right now that to step one step away from his ways. My dear brother, I don’t really know why I told all this to you, perhaps I shouldn’t. I was just going to ask if you could recommend some books to me to know more about theology (i am honestly begging to think that I will have to do like you and study theology informally). Don’t worry about getting back me if you feel it’s not from the Lord’s what I told you and if you are too busy. I understand. And your website itself is already a good study guide. If you can however I will be greatly thankful, more than I already am. Christ’s peace!
Alex

Comment by Alexandre Campos | June 22, 2009 | Reply
Great to hear from you Alexandre. Thanks for stopping in to read this blog! What first comes to mind is the importance of grasping the gospel, the importance of Christ and Him crucified. To this end I would recommend …

The Cross of Christ by John Stott

The Gospel for Real Life by Jerry Bridges

Living the Cross Centered Life by CJ Mahaney

The Great Work of the Gospel by John Ensor

Read and study these books and you be well on your way to understanding and applying the very heart of the faith.

Blessings upon your reading!

Tony

Comment by spurgeon | June 23, 2009 | Reply

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Tony Reinke

Whether by intention or accident you are looking at the blog Miscellanies (formerly The Shepherd’s Scrapbook).

Normally this blog is a stream of miscellanies, but at its center I feature quotes and essays on the Cross of Christ. No series has received more attention than a little tutorial on how to rip a Bible through a table saw on the way to manufacturing a splendid Blank Bible! (Watch your fingers.)

As you can see, we focus on books. I enjoy reading, reviewing, and talking about books (nerd) and photographing books (big nerd). At times we pull the blanket off newly released reformed Christian books. And an annual highlight is our book of the year award. View all the 2008 winners here.

Welcome aboard! -Tony

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See my 15 favorite books of 2008 here.

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For Tony’s current reading schedule click here.

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Who is Tony? My name is Tony Reinke. Like a well-dressed but heart-hardened Pharisee I spent 22-years hiding from God in self-righteous ‘faithfulness.’ That was until one morning my heart–numbed by my empty morality and trapped in a deceptively low standard of ‘goodness’–was subdued by God’s sovereign grace (Eph. 2). During a sermon by Paige Patterson in Lincoln, NE on Luke 18:9-14, I perceived the Gospel as the great exchange, released my self-righteousness, and clung to the saving righteousness of Jesus Christ. That morning this Pharisee became a broken tax collector and, though once blind, I could now see the reality of life, the gravity of sin, and the preciousness of Christ’s redeeming blood. Now there is nothing more precious to me than knowing Jesus Christ, the One who died for me and gave me His righteousness in place of my sinfulness (Phil. 3:7-9). Pursuing further up and further into the Cross has become the center of my life and this blog is intended as a place to share the pursuit.

Though I wouldn’t survive long in the wild, I consider myself agrarian (a farm boy from Nebraska). I was a short-term sports writer and a long-term carpenter who loves to tinker with gizmos and design web content. My story is part Mayberry part BlackBerry. Educationally, I graduated from a little private business school in Omaha with a degree in Liberal Arts. Theologically, I’m an autodidact made possible by the patient and wise direction of pastors in a local church. I’ve been married for 11 years to the wife of my youth (Karalee) and we have three precious kids, a majority of whom are named after dead preachers. I now *work* full time as the editorial and research assistant to my living hero of the faith, C.J. Mahaney. My line of work is a mix of theological research, reading, writing, journalism, photography, all integrated into social media (blogs). For fun I administrate Herman Bavinck dot org .

Email/comments. I’m grateful for your readership and would love to hear from you. You can leave a comment on any post to get in touch. Often I can respond to email but sometimes that’s not possible. Here’s the address: crede.ut.intelligas AT mac.com .

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“If you find me short in things, impute that to my love of brevity. If you find me besides the truth in anything, impute that to my infirmity. But if you find anything here that serves to your furtherance and joy of the faith, impute that to the mercy of God bestowed on you and me. Yours to serve you with what little I have.” John Bunyan (Works, 1:336).

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Book wishlist. I hope to have all these valuable books added to my library one day. All from the The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Yale editions) …

Vol. 1: Freedom of the Will (a gift from my friend Robin)
Vol. 8: Ethical Writings (purchased)
Vol. 21: Trinity, Grace, and Faith (purchased)
Vol. 2: Religious Affections (a gift from my friend Josh)
Vol. 3: Original Sin
Vol. 4: The Great Awakening
Vol. 20: The ‘Miscellanies’ ( No. 833-1152 )
Vol. 23: The ‘Miscellanies’ ( No. 1153–1360 )
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Vol. 22: Sermons and Discourses ( 1739-1742 )
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Princeton Cemetery. I don’t know how I did it, but in the Spring of 2006 I convinced my wife and kids it would be fun to spend the day at Princeton cemetery. Princeton is famous for its school and less famous for its rich evangelical history. I took several photographs at Princeton Cemetery (where Edwards, Hodge, Warfield and the Alexanders are buried). These photos always remind me to be Cross-centered.

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Do-it-yourself Blank Bible. Of all the books we promote, none compare with God’s Word. We pursue the Cross as God opens His Word to us. In this anticipation, we encourage you to make your own blank bible like Jonathan Edwards.’ Building a blank bible shows both a commitment to serious, life-long reflection and the anticipation of God’s illuminating Spirit. To date, over 15,000 readers have accessed the Blank Bible Index.

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The Puritan Study. The Puritans were Cross-boasters. So how do we use the wealth of Puritan literature in our personal devotions and expositional studies? Our series on building and using a Puritan Study answered this important question. For more see the full Puritan Study series index.

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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