A grace-centered Bible study I’m working through asks the question, “As God thinks of you right now, what is the look on his face? This is in fact a thought provoking question! The answer given is, “If you imagined God as anything but overjoyed with you, you have fallen into a performance mindset.”
Understanding God is so hard…ok, it’s impossible (Rom 11:34). We have been studying Exodus and have seen how God was not pleased with most of the people who participated in idolatry, complaining and sexual immorality. The NT—rather than saying, “God doesn’t get angry anymore,” in fact uses Exodus as an example and a warning to us (1 Cor 10:1-11)! And how about the prodigal son and his father? Was the father overjoyed while his son had turned his back and was living in sin? Yes, he loved him (evidenced by the reunion), but could anyone imagine the father was overjoyed in the midst of the separation?
Perhaps a big part of the answer lies in Heb 6:9. Where, after a serious warning not to sin and fall away, it is written of true believers, “We are confident of better things in your case.” In other words, true believers will not ultimately continue to slop pigs. They will turn back to the Father. And as our heavenly Father looks on us he sees only the righteousness of Christ. With his perfect knowledge, even in our sin, he sees holiness and perfection, and he knows that we will turn back.
Still, we must hold all of this in tension. As beautiful as the gospel is, if it drives us to become less concerned or less serious about the law, then we never have understood it or been changed by it in the first place.
I praise you, heavenly Father, who weave together these infinitely complex and mysterious strands of thought into a perfectly consistent reality and existence, with perfect justice and perfect interaction with your creatures. You are not obligated to reveal to us exactly how this works; in fact our imperfect knowledge drives us back to you in humble, utter reliance upon your grace.
1 comment:
There is a deepth to this message that astounds me yet again at the endless mercy and grace our God pours from His heart through His Word and His servents. There is such a marvelously wonderful perfect balance in God's mercy and justice that this article speaks of and makes me ever mindful, AGAIN!, who our God is and how His love for us still calls us to His perfect precepts and commands. Thank you for the insightful message and reminder that we cannot simply take and rest in His love, that the true receiving has an outpour back to our LORD and King and also to others. The Book of James ~ we are called to a continual maturing in our faith of Christ Jesus not a status of complacency. Thank you again Ted and may there always be men of God to call us to accountability.
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