Reformed Way of Thinking.
A greeting to the General Assembly of the PCA.

Hi Nathaniel, Doug McNutt and Steve and whosoever you trust and with whom you have confidence.

Could you please share this letter with Dr. Lloyd and others at the General Assembly, which I call the “Reformed Way of Thinking” and let them consider the voice of one who claims in the wilderness of Flintstone, Georgia, as a bruise reed and smoldering wick?

I have just finished writing this letter in my desire to be with my PCA in the spirit. I am your “friend” who also happens to be your father.

Gerry Gutierrez.

PS. This letter is my way to say to the PCA as a witness of Jesus that, “I have Jesus in my heart.” I cannot help but keep writing with my one healthy tomb of my right arm after my stroke

“The Sovereign God takes responsibility.”

“I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.”
Zechariah 13:7.

Who is the “I” who will strikes the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock that will be scattered?”

Fear not to speak the truth.
In an age of blaming one another and the washing of one’s own hands, the first casualty is the truth as it is the case in every conflict among the children of Adam and Eve the Master foul finders and blamers.

As recent as yesterday I heard anti Semitic people calling Jews, “Jesus Killers,” therefore worth death.

Others blame coward Pilot and the cruel bully Romans soldiers for denying justice and killed Jesus.

The historians point their finger to the religious establishment for killing Jesus out of envy.

Some theologians “who know better” blame “Sin” as if sin were a person to absorb blame.

The most sophisticated and religious of our time avoid all the previous mentioned and say boldly, “It is Satan that killed Jesus using his “007 Agent” Judas to betray Jesus with a kiss for 30 lousy silver coins.

Most of the “simple or open minded” among the living in nearsightedness as jurors against themselves agreed under the weight and the preponderance of the evidence and turn the verdict against Satan with a sigh of relief thinking in the well deserved eternal condemnation of Satan and his fallen angels and “the followers of the followers” of the falling Angels.

Practically speaking the death of Jesus is an open and shot case.

Not so fast, not so fast gentle people of the jury. Not so fast.

According to our verse in Zechariah 13:7, the Voice of the Judge of the universe, whose’ opinion is the only one that matters, it is “God the Father” The One and only who has the right to execute and strike his Son, and God sovereignly takes full responsibility.

“I WILL STRIKE THE SHEPHERD AND, AND THE SHEEP OF THE FLOCK WILL BE SCATTERED.” Zech.13:7

Unless the foundation of your faith rests in the solid Rock of the true truth, our building stands on shaky ground.

The Central aspect of redemption and the cost of salvation is that, “God so loved the world that he had to strike his one and only son to death as if Jesus was us Jesus was stricken by God the Father as if he were the enemy.

This is the most horrible and unthinkable reality that unless we understand love in all of it’s dimensions we are doomed to see God as a child abuser and murderer of his own son without reason.

As is, it is that, “God so loved the world that he had to strike his own son in our stead.

Forget the Jews, the Romans even Satan as those who had the power to strike Jesus and get away with it.

It was God the Father in his love and justice who paid to himself the cost of our salvation by executing his Son on the cross not in order to pay the ransom to Satan or satisfied the Jews or even surrender to the Roman’s will his precious Son. No! No! And No!

It was the justice of God that required that the souls who sinned must die. Sin is not sin against Satan but against God. It is God’s justice that required the blood of the sinner for his sins and not Satan.

On the other hand, God does not find pleasure in the death of the wicked. So in order to remain true to himself and to his eternal decrees, God sent himself in his son to die on our behalf.

Jesus the pure, holy and innocent Son of God became sin for us. Not only he became sin for one person but accumulatively speaking for all sinners, thus becoming the worse sinner and as such worth, the wrath of God and worth every blow in his face and whip on his back and the agony and death on the cross.

Thus God in Jesus remains the Just and the justifier and the lover of our soul who purchased us from himself and for himself what is our precious soul with his own blood.

Saladin who invaded Jerusalem was asked, “What was Jerusalem worth to him? He answered, “Nothing.” Then he walked away, but stopped and turned around and said, “Everything.” Saladin’s motivation to invade Jerusalem was not need or love but religious pride and hate.

In God’s case we can all agree that we are worth nothing to God because he does not need us but at the same time we are worth “Everything.” And that is because he so loved us that he gave himself for us in his son Jesus.

Something that costs your own blood must indeed be worth everything to you because life is in the blood.

Again my fellow believers and followers of Jesus, remember that it was God who has stricken Jesus as to a shepherd that even though we are scattered like Sheep, we are back in the fold by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Remember also that God did not make any deal with Satan for our souls; it is he who paid to himself the price of our salvation. Satan did not get a nickel for our souls but a broken jaw for daring to deceive us for a time and detained us in Jesus as Jonah for three days in the belly of a fish as good as dead.

I pray and hope you feel loved by God the Father today as the apple of his eyes. “What a manner of love God has given unto us the we might be called “children of God” and that is what we are.” Halleluiah!

I have passed long ago “cloud nine” and feel loved by God the Father in Jesus beyond the known universe.

Gerry Gutierrez

PS. John Stott, who has been my mentor for twenty six years.