So let's take a closer look at what was in my original statement...
- He cares so much about us
- By nature of sin, we are repulsive to God
- He wants to have a close and personal relationship with us
- That relationship is through his son, Jesus Christ
- He offered us grace
- That we would come to know Him
- and give Him glory
God cares for us. We are His creation, and prior to sin, God said, "It is good." God's standards are really high...really really high, so if God said it was good, I have every reason to believe it was really really good. Genesis 1:26 says, "Let Us make man in Our image." (You might want to note the "Us" and "Our" usage for a later discussion on the Trinity) God received glory in his perfect creation, and He began by having a close and intimate relationship with man. Imagine God, Almighty God, walking around in a garden to have a talk with his created beings. That's a much more personal God than most of us think about today, but that's how it was in Genesis 3:8 - "And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day..."
Ok, so let's put yourself in this situation, which I recognize is difficult, but go with me anyway. You are one of the two created humans and you have had the perfect relationship with God Almighty, the One that created you and all the life you see around you (something I am sure they had keen knowledge about). The only stipulation is that you remain pure by following God's statutes. As I am sure you know, sin comes into the picture and that relationship is broken. Imagine the devastation that you have because you have lost the privileges of that perfect relationship. Now, even moreso, imagine the devastation that God feels because you have let sin enter that relationship and he must break it off.
So, why couldn't God just give them a whooping and let them learn from their mistake? Because sin is anti-God. It is against God's nature to accept sin, and it must be as far from Him as possible. So, if we can look at the story of Adam and Eve and say to ourselves, "Dang, that was stupid, I would never do that." You are wrong. We do it every day. Through Adam's gross mistake, sin is now inherited down through all descendants of Adam, which is obviously everybody. Through all of this, God did not stop loving Adam and Eve. He just can't have the same intimate relationship that they once had.
By nature of sin, we are repulsive to God. This is a blunt comment that probably makes the hair on your neck stand up a little. In the last paragraph, I explained how sin originated, and its ramifications and consequences. Simply put, we are born in sin and therefore separated from God. There is absolutely NO possible way to do something that could bridge that gap. You cannot lead a sinless life no matter how hard you try, and no amount of good things can make up for how bad sin is. "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." - Rom. 3:23. The purpose of God is for Him to receive the glory. We have sinned and fallen short of that glory. Therefore, we are by nature repulsive to God. This also corresponds to God receiving the glory.
But God still loves us and wants us to have a close and personal relationship with us. God wants an eternal, personal, and intimate relationship with Him as he created us to be...sinless and blameless. There are steps of judgement that he has taken upon the world for cleansing purposes. Demolishing Sodom and Gomorrah; flooding the entire earth, the threat of Ninevah...all of those are striking demonstrations of how much Almighty God cannot stand sin. He wants it abolished, but he cares for us so deeply that he offered another way.
That other way may be a bit confusing for those who limit their reading to the Old Testament. True, God gave man certain rituals that could be performed using excruciating details that could be used to atone for the sins of man and thus make them favorable with God. This covenant is not the way under which we operate today. In my humble opinion, many ritualistic exercises became just that, without the meaning and thus man in general lost the ability to come closer to God. We are under a new covenant now, one that was preached on in Daniel for 483 years before it happened. Everybody was looking for this Savior or Messiah to be born, but nobody had a clue that he would be raised under humble circumstances.
Jesus the Christ (the Messiah) was conceived of the Holy Spirit and a virgin Jewish girl. He lived a humble Jewish life. There was one major difference between him and us. Read 1 Tim. 3:16 - "And by common confession great is the mystery of godliness [God's getting ready to fill us in on a mystery...] He who was revealed (manifested) in the flesh (Jesus), was vindicated (justified) in the Spirit, Beheld by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up to glory." Did you catch it? Jesus IS God. Read it again...the mystery of GODLINESS, He (God) was manifested (Greek word "phneroo" - to make visible) in the flesh...God in the flesh IS Jesus!!! So, Since God cannot sin, nor can Jesus. While Jesus was on earth, he and the Father are so close to each other [the unity should not throw you as they are already one] that Jesus cannot do anything without the will of his Father.
Now seeing that Jesus is God, imagine what is must be like to have to give up a part of yourself to leave the kingdom of heaven and dwell and serve not the righteous, but the unrighteous. The purpose of Jesus was three-fold: to teach us by example how we should live including how to make disciples; to proclaim the Word of God and His Kingdom, and to die and resurrect to be the propitiation for ALL sin. This is course would give glory to God. Jesus fulfulled his purpose by demonstrating a sinless life as a servant for humanity, and through doing so created disciples and teached them how to disciple. He proclaimed the Word and Kingdom of God, And in doing so, he made it abundantly clear that he, Jesus, is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one goes to the father but through him.
What does it mean that Jesus died for my sins? It took two aspects of Jesus that no man has ever or since possessed for him to be the substitution for sin. It took a perfect sacrifice, and Jesus was the only perfect man. Atonement sacrifices were done prior to Jesus's arrival, and the sacrifices were to be perfect specimens. Jesus was the only perfect specimen of man. He was also God. These are two very crucial aspects to this situation since God is the only one who could handle sin, and a sinless human had to be sacrificed for that atonement. With Jesus's dying, he took all the sins (past, present, and future) and atoned for them. There is no need for any more sacrifices, ever. And God gets the full glory.
The greatest thing is that God offered this gift of atonement to us for free. FREE!!! Seriously, if I walk into any store in the world, and they were giving away free stuff, I would be all over it. That stuff doesn't last long, but what did it matter? I didn't have to do anything to get it except be willing to receive it. God's gift of atonement to us is a gift of grace, and it lasts forever. God knows that we are overcome with sin, and out of love for us He provided a way to erase that sin so we could have a loving, intimate, relationship with Him. And guess what, I didn't do anything in the world to warrant it or earn it, he just gave it to me, and I was willing to receive it. Praise the Lord!!! It seems so easy, and yet most people in the world reject this incredible offer. Oh, but those who do accept the Lord and seek Him and His understanding find the truth and the truth sets them free.
That we would come to know him. He offered us a way to connect with Him. His holy word speaks about these things. We can pray with him, get together with other small groups, and study together about Him. We can share our stories with other people. Fellowshipping. The ways are unlimited. My humble suggestion is to pray. Prayer is a direct line to God. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us on behalf of our groaning. Jesus Christ is our mediator. Humble yourself to realize that God did all of this, and glorify God in the fact that He did it all for you. No matter where you think you are at, you need to realize the constant prayer that we need (not only from us, but from others) for God to put us on our knees and make us realize that we are but filthy rags to him...we are not worthy of anything, and yet, God's grace is so powerful and abundant that he is reaching out to us and offering an unwavering gift...the gift of truth.
And what is it all for? To give God the glory!
Dear God, tonight you showed me that no matter what I seem to think about the world and all the things in it, you are still working. I pray for all those in our church and across the world that we become less stagnant. For your glory Lord, please put people in our paths that would cause us to share your story of love and grace with other people. Lord, I ask that you continue to make reading my Bible a priority for me and those around me. Please guide me through this next week as my goal is to minister to others. Help me recognize who they are and become a beacon of light in their world. In your name I pray, Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment