Desuetude

Just by reading the title of this post, you've encountered a new word I'll bet. Desuetude. Look it up, then use it in a sentence at dinner...

In The Plight of Man and the Power of God, Martin Lloyd-Jones makes the point that we have lost much of the meaning of the cross and justification by faith alone. With skillful words, he says that modern churches and Christians have basically watered down the full meaning of the Cross and the Gospel and have dulled the razor sharp edge of substitutionary atonement:

"The expiatory or piacular view of the death of Christ has become almost unknown; the idea of a mighty transaction by God in which sin was dealt with and punished in our Lord's body on the Cross, is scarcely known at all. The Cross has become nothing but a manifestation and demonstration of the love of God. We cannot stay with this [in order to explain further], but we note it as a direct consequence of the rejection of the doctrine of the wrath of God. In precisely the same way, the doctrine of justification by faith only has passed in desuetude. Increasingly salvation has been represented as an action on the part of man, and God is depicted as just waiting patiently in an attitude of love for us to return."

A view of the Cross that is all gumdrops and candy canes should always be shunned. It was on the Cross that NOT ONLY did the Savior show the full extent of His love, BUT ALSO the wrath of a holy God was poured out mercilessly on an innocent sacrifice so that I could actually become a recipient of that love.