for Christ's sake

The Word for today:
2 Kings 19:8-37

mark this: 2 Kings 19:34--
"I will defend this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David my servant."

and this: Ephesians 4:32/KJV --
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

When I was a kid, we lived next door to a major league blowhard. Amongst other distinguishing characteristics of his ilk, he was always swearing. He'd swear at his lawnmower, his wife, his dog, the birds in the trees.
He specialized in taking the name of the LORD in vain. He'd use the a-word, the b-word, the d-word, every swear word there was. But he reserved special emphasis for the JC-word and the GD-word.

He was a big man, physically, living proof that the brain and the body are often in indirect proportion.

One day my Dad and I were putting up a canvas tent in the backyard. (That's right, canvas; it was a long time ago. My brother and I slept out every night all summer in that tent.)

While we were finishing up, staking the ropes, we were subjected to another of the neighbor's tirades.
"That guy's a jerk, Dad. He doesn't like anything or anybody."
"He doesn't like himself, Franklyn."
"I wish he'd stop it."
"He will. Stay here."

My Dad dropped the tent stake he was holding. He walked across our driveway onto our neighbor's lawn. The swearing ceased.

My Dad was not what we'd call born again. I never saw him read the Bible that we had. It stood with a couple other books between some heavy brass bookends atop the mantle next to a chiming clock.

But he respected Jesus Christ. He swore, as many do now and then, but he drew the line between cuss words and taking the name of the LORD in vain. I also swear my share. But because of my Dad's example, I have never taken the Name in vain. According to Jesus' standards for sin in the Sermon on the Mount, that's the only one of the Ten Commandments I haven't broken.

"For Christ's sake," we often hear, spoken without thought and without context.

In 2 Kings 19:34, God declares--
"I will defend this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David my servant."

God saved the city for David's sake--a kind of down payment on God's promise to David that one of his descendants would be king and savior of Israel for all time.

Today God saves sinners for the sake of that great promised King.

Not for the sake of my own merit am I saved, but on the basis of Jesus' blood and merit; on the basis of Christ's sinless, selfless sacrifice. For Christ's sake--and not my own--am I righteous in God's eyes.

God will save every sinner who trusts Him—for Christ’s sake. And when a believer prays to the Father in Jesus’ name, the Father answers for Christ’s sake.

Said carelessly by some, "For Christ's sake" breaks the third commandment.
Said prayerfully by others, "For Christ's sake" is the basis of their brand-new, ever-new, and ever-lasting relationship with God:

“There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. . . . This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live. Our need of Christ doesn't cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His ‘blood and righteousness’ alone that we can rest.” (1)

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(1) B. B. Warfield, quoted by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Dennis Johnson in Counsel from the Cross (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2009), 19.