God's Work

a. God's Love Displayed

[06/26/20]

It has been rather a while since I worked on this, as I have been occupied with preparing and presenting a class for our adult Sunday school class. As such a time has passed, it may take me a bit of effort to shift my thinking back to this project, and to recall where I have left off. It does seem I chose a relatively clean breaking point back in December. But let us see where this shall take us.

I am on the larger topic of man, looking in particular at man’s restoration, man’s redemption from sin. On that topic, I have thus far looked at the way this work of redemption threads through the whole of history, and proceeds through the whole of the future. In this section, I am considering God’s work in this redemptive thread, and specifically, how this demonstrates God’s love. I have to say, that given events of recent months, any question as to the fallen nature of mankind has been most forcibly dismissed, and that must include my own self-assessment. Though I am quite assured of my status as being among those redeemed by God, and being reshaped by His grace and mercy, yet my response to these events makes clear that there is plenty more to be done in me yet. How needful, then, to recognize God’s work in this present age, and that His work is still a matter of redemption and restoration. How needful to recognize that this work is ongoing in me, and still held out to those who seem most far removed from any idea of redemption at present. Lord, help me to view these things through Your eyes, with Your perspective, and not my own.

Now, if we focus solely on this matter of redemptive restoration, then I think it is quite easy to observe that God’s love is manifestly displayed in that activity. But, where redemption and restoration are made necessary, there has been the preceding events of sin and failure that have made redemption necessary. If this were just redemption made necessary because we had fallen victim to sin and to sin’s master, Satan, then we might reasonably account ourselves but pawns in a battle of powers far beyond our ken. If we are but bit pieces in this raging war between God and Satan, then I should think our interest in the outcome might remain high, but our sense of personal involvement should be far less. What are we to do? The gods thunder as they please, and we can but wait them out and hope for sunshine. But that’s not the faith God has imparted to man, that’s the impotent frustration of the pagan. For the man of God, there must be awareness that this slavery to sin is something he entered into willingly enough, and quite probably would willingly enter into again.

Slavery to sin, however willingly taken up, is hardly something we would construe as demonstrating the love of God, is it? It seems most cruel, in fact, that He has permitted such a situation to pertain in His creation. We may conclude, then, that this was not part of His plan, but rather the evil, corrupting work of that enemy of His, thwarting God’s good intentions and making life evil for those made in God’s image; indeed, making those made in God’s image evil. We might conclude that, and in so doing, we would be right in part. This is that enemy’s doing. But where we must pull up short is at the idea that God’s plan was thwarted by this enemy’s doings. If Satan were indeed able to take God by surprise, to force God’s hand and cause Him to devise new approaches to His work of Creation, then we arrive at a serious issue: God is not God after all. He is not all-knowing, all-wise, and all-powerful, but is – if this be the case – beholden to and dependent upon the cooperation of this enemy of His. Let me state unequivocally that when we arrive at such thinking we are entirely in the wrong. God is not beholden to any, and that most assuredly includes Satan. God is not surprised by events, but has ordained them. Satan is no free agent, doing as he pleases with impunity, but is strictly confined in his actions.

We need only consider the record of Job. From the outset, we find Satan promoting his ideas to God. We have been introduced to Job, blameless, upright, worshiping God, and turning from evil (Job 1:1). We have met Satan coming up to heaven (!) to present himself before God, and what’s this? God actually brings Job, this faithful man, to Satan’s attention. “Have you considered My servant Job?” (Job 1:8). Thanks, God! So, Satan suggests a certain falseness to Job’s faith, that it is only a positive response to positive stimuli, and if the stimuli changes, so, too, shall Job’s faith. Let me at him. Give me a week, and he’ll be cursing You to Your face. And what is God’s reaction? “Go ahead. All that he has is in your power, only do not put your hand on him” (Job 1:12). What? Has God fallen for it? Well, no, not at all. God has in fact permitted it, and we must take a step farther even than that. God has intended it to come to pass.

Does this not make God the author of evil? No, but he has accounted for the reality and the presence of evil. I suppose, rather like the work of creation itself, we must, if we keep seeking backward for the source behind the source, find some ultimate cause for evil, and at some point, that will have to bring us back to God as ultimate cause. In fairness, I don’t see how it can be otherwise. And yet, as we see even in this exchange, God does not Himself do evil, ever. What was Satan’s original request here? “You, God! You put forth Your hand and touch all that he has” (Job 1:11), but that is not what God does. No, he grants leave to Satan for him to do so. The action is not undertaken by God, not authored immediately by God. The choice to act is not His, but Satan’s, although God remains perfectly aware, and that with perfect foreknowledge, that Satan would thus choose and thus act. His plans and His purposes have long since accounted for this encounter.

What we see, then, is God not as the author of evil, but rather as the limiter of evil. Satan’s hands are tied in this matter of harassment upon which he has embarked. He is granted leave to do his evil, but only by degree, only up to a point. I have to say that from my own, human perspective, the evils Satan gains permit to pursue are in fact evil. It is difficult to see the goodness, the love of God displayed in Job’s children being wiped out in rapid succession, and all his flocks and crops destroyed of an instant. It’s hard, if I bring this into the present tense, to see the goodness in the many deaths attributed to this Covid-19 virus, nor, for that matter, those deaths attributable to cancer, to prior viruses, or to seemingly nightly shootings and violence in our cities. None of these demonstrate goodness as we would measure them, and I have to say, I don’t think God accounts them good, either. But God sees farther than we do. God sees the end from the beginning, and knows how this piece fits into His perfect plan. We don’t, and therefore we tend to see the evil as looming far larger.

Understand. Evil is evil, and in part, God allows evil to run its course in order that it may be shown evil. Consider Paul’s assessment of the work of the Law as he explains his doctrines to the church in Rome. The Law, he observes, is assuredly good, being as it lays out the nature of a good God, and that good God’s requirements for righteous man. “I wouldn’t even know sin except for the Law” (Ro 7:7). But sin took opportunity from this. Learning about the sin of coveting turned out to produce all manner of coveting in me. “I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me” (Ro 7:9-10). Sin took opportunity to deceive and kill, using this holy Law. The Law remains righteous and good. Well, Paul asks, anticipating our own reaction, “Did that which is good become death for me?” No way! “Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful” (Ro 7:13).

This can be hard for us to unravel, but the point is made. The fact that sin has managed to twist God’s good toward evil does not render God’s good evil in itself. It only demonstrates how utterly sinful sin truly is. The fact that God knew beforehand what would come of the Law and how it would be misused by sin to promote sin does not render God evil in having provided the Law any more than it rendered the Law evil by its misuse.

Again, we could go present tense with this, and observe that abuses of the pulpit, or of other offices of the church, do not render those offices evil, nor do they render the church evil. That is the evil misinformed response of sinful man looking up the works of other sinful men. Man does not define the Church. In the best of circumstances, the Church defines man, but whether man accepts that defining or not, God defines the church, and what He has defined is good. What sinful man has made of it is a whole different matter.

But we are here to observe the love of God displayed, even in the sorts of things we are looking at, which are, to be sure, utterly unlovely. Okay, well here’s the thing. Consider that example of the Church. Sinful man makes a mess of it, and if we feel like playing the victimhood card, we can suggest that sinful man does so because he has been played by the father of sin. But if he has been played, he has been willingly played. Man will find no excuse in victimhood. Ah, but I’m looking not for the abject shame of man, but the love of God. Okay, here it is: In spite of all this, the Church persists. There remains a remnant. There remain those who, in spite of their sin, and their painful awareness of their own sinfulness, persist in pursuing a life of holiness. The fail, and fail often. But they don’t stop at failure. They get up. Rather, they are picked up. They are dusted off. They are set back on the paths of righteousness, and strengthened to make it a step farther next time.

Consider, if you will, the experiences of raising a child, particularly in those earliest years. Consider that period when your child was first learning to stand up, to walk. Those first steps were precarious, and likely that child fell down, and fell down often. But you didn’t leave them in that condition. You didn’t decide they were never going to figure this out and give up on them. No. You pick them up. You comfort them in their tears, and then you help them to try again. And each time, the efforts make a little bit of progress. Pretty soon, that young child is walking under his own power, discovering new dimensions of freedom in his motion, and now, we may discover, we have to up our own parenting game to keep up. But this is rather what’s going on with sin in the life of the believer. Life, we might say, is one long training exercise. We fall down. We fall down hard and often. Yet, God does not give up on us as incapable morons. He keeps after us, comforts us, presents us with challenges carefully tuned to our present capacities. He may often, arguably nigh unto always, present us with challenges that have us gasping, “I can’t do it. I can’t handle this.” But it seems to me He invariably proves us wrong. Our biggest problem may be that we are inclined to be defeatist, particularly in this business of restoration, and we forget that we have God at our back, empowering that which He commands. We are ever ready to give up and pack it in. But God, in His love for us, doesn’t let us wallow in our pity party. He forces us to test our limits, but in the right direction, to discover new spiritual muscle and to increase our capacity for goodness.

[06/23/20]

I have to confess that if I consider the children of Job, I do not have answer as to how that worked out for good for them, or how it demonstrated God’s love in their instance. But that already makes the assumption that those children of Job were to be counted amongst the redeemed. Let that be assumed, though, and I would offer this thought. We do not know the what might have beens in regard to their lives any more than we know the what might have beens of our own life. We are blessed with this ignorance of alternative courses. We may surmise and suppose, but we really cannot know with any certainty. It might very well be the case that Job’s children, by having their lives cut short as we measure them, were kept from falling away from faith.

I think often of the example of Hezekiah who, upon learning that God had determined his end was at hand, prayed for a lengthening of his life and, I think much to his sorrow, God granted that request. Much is made of his request as we have it presented in 2Kings 20. Isaiah brought word from the Lord that it was time he made his arrangements, for his life was coming to an end, but rather than heed that word, he prayed and wept bitterly. The author of this text is rather generous in his presentation. We are given Hezekiah’s prayer in brief. “Remember how I have walked before you in truth and with a whole heart and done what is good in Your sight” (2Ki 20:3). And Isaiah is sent back to inform Hezekiah that he would live another 15 years. Many have commented on this, and the observation is most often to note the power of prayer, and to suggest even that prayer can change God’s mind. But this misses the story as badly as it misrepresents God.

First, let it be said that God’s mind is not subject to change. Our prayers do not change God’s mind. If they did, this would leave God subject to our approval, and that cannot stand. Prayer is powerful indeed, but not in this fashion. Indeed, nothing is more sorrowful, understood in full, than that Hezekiah’s prayer was answered. If you have doubt of that, consider the Chronicler’s version of events here. “In those days, Hezekiah became mortally ill; and he prayed to the LORD, and the LORD spoke to him and gave him a sign. But Hezekiah gave no return for the benefit he received, because his heart was proud; therefore wrath came on him and on Judah and Jerusalem” (2Chr 32:24-25). The Chronicler does continue by noting that Hezekiah humbled himself, and as such the wrath delayed until his day had passed, but looking at that assessment, go back and reread his prayer as presented in 2Kings. This was not God-honoring prayer, but prideful, “I deserve better” prayer. No, Hezekiah, you deserve no better. Indeed, if you wish to discuss what is deserved, you deserve far less than has been done for you. But God loves you, loves the people over whom He has set you.

A fair review of those extra fifteen years that Hezekiah had added to his life must leave us seeing that all the good that had transpired by God’s work during his previous years as king were undone in that short span. It’s as if wisdom departed and he let his pride and self-confidence move him to act foolishly. And as we see from the Chronicler’s account, while he himself may not have suffered the consequences in this life, his people surely did. This really was, in its way, the turning point for Judea. Next came Manasseh, and from there it was a steady slide toward exile.

Why do I include this account under the thought of God’s love displayed? I do so because it so demonstrates how readily we misapprehend the love of God shown us. We still think in too worldly a fashion. We are still too busy with this world to recognize the glory set before us in God. We think length of days here is the ultimate reward, but it is not. This is not to say that a shortening of our time in this life is to be pursued as a blessing. No. Rather, the point is that God knows what’s best for our specific case. He knew what was best for each of Job’s children. He knew what was best for Hezekiah. He also knew that Hezekiah would not satisfy himself with what was best, but would rather choose to accuse God of being unfair. Again, I must insist that Hezekiah’s prayer did not alter God’s plans in the least. Hezekiah’s prayer did not, at root, add so much as 15 seconds to his life. God already knew the full number of his days and seconds. What that prayer managed to do, in Hezekiah’s case, was to demonstrate, against all his claims to the contrary, the sinfulness of his heart. Yet, God still loved him.

That captures our own situation marvelously, doesn’t it? We are forever discovering anew the sinfulness of our hearts, and if we are cognizant of our true condition, just as constantly, we are brought up against the marvel that God loves us still.

So we see this shocking act of love on God’s part. This morning’s Table Talk, actually due a week or so back, but read today due to circumstances, brought the passage of Galatians 4:1-7 to bear on their topic of the moment, but as I read it, I thought it a marvelous depiction of God’s love displayed. “Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fulness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”

Look at this and see the love of God displayed! He sent His Son that we might be redeemed. Paul speaks particularly here of those under the Law, and I know some take the ‘elemental things’ as being a reference to that Law and its myriad commandments. That may be the case. But then I look at Hezekiah again, and I look to my own nature and inclinations, and I have to confess, the elemental things of this life do tend to enslave if we are not careful. They enslave by delight, as often as not. I Need think no farther than the last couple of weeks. I could recount the joy and delight felt when seeing or hearing rare avian visitors to our back wood. In particular, the flashing orange of an Oriole yesterday, or the stunningly brilliant red of a Scarlet Tanager last week – something I’ve longed to see for decades and now have seen. I could consider the comfort of knowing that as our oven has been found to be at end of life, the cost of replacement really has presented no issue. I could think of the anxious desire I feel for a vacation, a chance to get away and be pampered, as it were, for a few days. I could tell you in advance, just how difficult it would be for me to accept any upset to that idea, regardless what sorts of panics are gripping the world this month. All of this, though, shows a continuing bondage to elemental things, doesn’t it?

This world is not our home, and yet we grow so attached to it. If I think back to other vacations, I could think how, in many an instance, the idea occurs that this would be a lovely place to live. Wouldn’t it be nice to call this home? Of course, the loveliness has as much to do with being at ease and largely devoid of responsibilities as it does with location. Northern New Hampshire for a summer week of ease looks lovely. The landscape is gorgeous, the restaurants are new, and everything’s wonderful. But to live there? Winter comes, and I would have to confess I’m not that huge a fan of winter. The restaurants would grow too familiar with time, and the distance required to find anything new would be the same minor irritant it can be here. Likewise, Rockport, which has been a recent favorite. It’s a lovely visit every time, but to live there? Think of the summer traffic, streets absolutely clogged with visitors like myself, circling like vultures hungry for a parking space. Think how swiftly the little arts and shopping district must pale in its interest. Honestly, if you’ve gone there for an hour or two, you’ve pretty well exhausted its charm, haven’t you? You buy your trinkets, or maybe you scrupulously avoid doing so, depending on your perspective. But either way, you’ve been, you’ve seen, you’re done. Next!

Yet, the thought comes. My! To be able to sit back on the porch and watch the waves roll in every day forevermore, wouldn’t it be lovely? Well sure, if forevermore consisted of summer days with fair breezes and all expenses paid, I’m sure it would be. So long as maintenance issues don’t fall to you, perhaps even living and working from such a place would retain its charms. It’s rare enough that I have need to go to an office, and for the most part, any such going to office requires significant travel anyway, so why not? But then a look at the realities of life in that place must enter in and counsel our thoughts. Then, perhaps we may look at our normal surroundings with fresh eyes and recognize the joyful choice of setting God has made for us, and if we are wise and aware, a fresh thankfulness arises in us that God has loved us enough to set us right in the best spot for us. And if we are even wiser and more aware, we take heed lest even this best spot for us become a trap and an enticement to sin.

[06/28/20]

Now, it would be improper, I should think, to contemplate the love of God displayed in the redemption of man from sin without turning to what is quite probably the single most well-known verse in Scripture. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (Jn 3:16-17). Paul echoes the point in his letter to Rom. “God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Ro 5:8). The enormity of this cannot be overstated. God have every reason to come in judgment, to pour out His wrath in the destruction of mankind from the earth, and even the destruction of all creation, given that all creation had been tainted and ruined by sin.

That may feel a step too far. What did the animals know of moral agency, after all? Their corruption by sin was, so far as we are able to determine, an outworking of man’s sin, not sin on their own part. Does it remain just for God to kill them? Well, according to His own Law, yes it does, at least in certain circumstances. Consider that the ox which gores a man is to be stoned to death (Ex 21:28). Why? For the same reason that man who murders another must be put to death: The one who was killed bears the image of God. The assault on man is an assault on God. There’s a message we could stand to take to heart amidst the uproar of this year. It’s a message that transcends race and nationality and every other divide that tries to assert itself among us. As to the animals, however, this cannot be said. They do not bear the image of God. They do, however, share by degree in that Life which is from God, for the life of the flesh is in the blood (Lev 17:11). It is no casual thing to slaughter an animal, whatever that animal may be. Yet, some animals are in fact given for food, and others for service. The sum of it is, though, that as they have no moral agency in themselves, neither can there be moral sanction against God for expressing His wrath upon them in their fallenness, should He choose to do so.

If we move down the slope of Creation to consider plants or minerals, the moral agency simply becomes more remote, and the justness of God in preserving or destroying as He pleases ever less in question. I find it the more remarkable, therefore, that God moves to preserve rather than terminate. One could posit that this is solely because of the supporting role of Creation in the preservation of mankind, but I dare say God could as readily devise a means of preservation that would permit such a rebuilding. Indeed, if we look further ahead to the Day of Judgment and the New Creation to come, we discover that He already has this in the works.

But let me return to this message of John and Paul. God loved us enough that He looked past our sinful state. He loved us enough that He accounted for our sinfulness and supplied for us the only satisfactory sacrifice for sin in the Person of His own Son. Even this, though, fails to quite express the wonder of this whole business of redemption and restoration. I’m sure I have noted it before in the course of this exercise, but consider that from before the first created moment, long eons before you were even conceived, let alone born and alive, God already knew the necessity of this sacrifice. He knew what your birth made necessary. He, both in the Person of the Father who gave His Son, and in the Person of the Son who would come and offer Himself for us, knew this must happen before ever man existed. And through what to us are the long ages of man’s development, God’s love saw to it that nothing but nothing would disturb that work He had planned. Satan’s treachery did not disturb His plan, for that treachery was already woven into the work. Man’s fall, beginning with Adam, continuing through the kingdoms of Israel and Gentile alike, and even accounting for the depravities of the present day, did not disturb His plan, for that corruption was already woven into His work, fully planned for, fully accounted for. From day zero, that crucial moment of Christ’s life poured out on the Cross was determined.

You cannot miss this. God knew. He knew what you would be at your worst before every your most ancient ancestor drew breath. He knew what each of your ancestors would be at their worst. He knows what each of your descendants shall be at their worst. He knew the whole, hideous sum of sin’s result in Creation, and yet He loved you and I enough to undertake the work anyway. How many of us would start a project we knew would be fraught with trials, with failures, with constant setbacks and pain and sorrow? I think of these self-builders that we watch of an evening lately, who undertake to make some wonderful house. It seems every effort takes at least twice as long as originally expected, costs significantly more, and leaves the builders exhausted and sorely tried.

Last night we watched a couple who undertook to restore a castle that was falling into ruin. Yet, in its ruin, it remained a matter of governmental concern, being a heritage site, as it were. The hurdles that must be cleared to make this beast a home were enormous, moving well beyond the mere physical efforts required. Costs mounted; setbacks were constant, costly red tape seemed to wrap every step taken. But of course, by the time these issues arise, too much has already been committed to the enterprise and however detrimental to health and security, the work must be completed. There have been others whose issues were even worse, as costs spiraled into the millions, years rolled by, and still no house stood ready for occupancy. It’s hard to decide whether these builders are bold or merely insane. But set that against the scale of God’s work in Creation, and it’s not even a blip. Yet He persists. Yet He loves even us agents of chaos.

But unlike these self-builders, God does not persist because He’s simply committed too much to the task to give up now. No. He, unlike us and unlike those builders, knew the full cost and schedule going in. He has never had to alter His plans, nor ever shall. He knew full well what would happen before the first few atoms were formed. He loved us, today, enough that back in the days of Noah, He did not simply scour the planet clean of man and create again. He loved us, today, enough that when Israel was at her spiritual nadir, He did not destroy them utterly, but sent them into exile for a time, to be restored once more. He loved us, today, enough that He overlooked the long ages of our ignorance, and caused His Light to shine upon us. He did not leave us to our sin and idolatry and our pagan horrors, but came to rescue us from them.

Martin Luther writes of our bondage to sin, that until that moment when the Holy Spirit entered into us and brought us to realization of our situation, we lived in utter ignorance of good. We had no sufficient concept of good. We knew only evil, and so, chose only evil, did only evil. We could effectively do no other because we hadn’t a clue. One might suppose this leaves the unbeliever with an excuse of ignorance. After all, if we have no clue that there’s a right course to take, we can hardly be blamed for taking the wrong course, can we? But then, even our own civil law recognizes that ignorance is no excuse, and in the case of God, as Paul reminds us rather forcefully, we are not in fact ignorant. The case for God is laid out all around us, but we suppress His Truth in order that we may pursue our sins without that pesky conscience bothering us. But God comes in the Spirit and brings news of our condition to us, and simultaneously, brings news of rescue. Our eyes are opened and we discovered our true selves, much to our horror. My God, what have I done? But swiftly, ever so swiftly, our attention is turned to our God, and the question becomes a stunned, My God, what have You done? It is too wonderful.

Job was brought to this point. He had been crushed near to breaking by the efforts of Satan to turn him against God. His own friends counseled him not just poorly, but treacherously. I don’t posit that they had treachery in mind, but treachery – significant danger to Job’s soul – was the result. They were tools in the hands of an enemy, however unwitting their assumption of that role. But eventually, Job, in spite of himself, is brought to clarity on the Person of God, and the love shown him by God. Yes, he had been driven to the point of seeking to defend himself before God, had convinced himself of his own perfect righteousness, which must necessarily mean that God was unjust to treat him so. But God in His love did not leave Job to rale against Him. He spoke wisdom and truth, and Job heard it. “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Your can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You. Therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:2-6). What a beautiful thing. It is beautiful to see the confession of a repentant heart, but more, it is beautiful beyond measure to see the love of God displayed in bringing the heart to repentance.

He could leave us stiff-necked and proud. He could in perfect righteousness, and without the least harm to His person or His reputation, hold us firmly to accounts, and exact His just vengeance upon every last being ever to live upon the earth, or wherever else life may be found. But He loved us enough to take a different course, to preserve a remnant, to bring us to a place of awareness, of repentance, and yes, of restoration.

b. God's Justice Upheld

[06/29/20]

We discover something of the challenge God faced, insomuch as He could face challenge. He loved us enough to pursue our redemption, to create us even knowing the cost of our redemption would be made necessary. Yet, His Love could not, must not move Him to abandon Justice. Recall that as firmly as we proclaim that God is Love, and Love is of His essence, a characteristic apart from which God ceases to be God, just so Justice. God is Justice, and Justice is of His essence. It, too, is a characteristic apart from which God ceases to be God. This seems an unsolvable conundrum. Sin must be punished, and the punishment must be in accordance with God’s Law. Justice demands it. At the same time, Love seeks restoration, repentance, a recovery of that life stained by sin. How to achieve this?

We know the answer, of course. It lies in the perfect life lived by the perfect man, Christ Jesus. It lies with His willing sacrifice of Himself on behalf of sinful man – a willing sacrifice, yes, but also an undeserved death. It required more, though, than simply a sinless man. Even Moses, had he obeyed the Law in every regard, could have earned no more than his own salvation by such an act. Yes, we could argue that salvation, in its sense of being pardon for sin, would not then apply to Moses. But salvation in the sense of being equipped for eternal life remains. It is likely a mistaken association with the idea of salvation to bring in matters of eternal life, but for us the two are so thoroughly intertwined that we may as well allow the association to serve as shorthand for the full package.

But, the sacrifices of the high priests could not obtain salvation. Though they were offered in strict accordance with the Law God Himself had given, still they could not achieve full and permanent forgiveness even for the high priest, let alone the people of God. They could appease, but not atone. They could bolster the faith of all in the Messiah for whom they waited, but they could not do His work, only point to it. I will thank the current coverage of Hebrews in Table Talk for this thread of thought. The point, however, is well established. It needed more than merely a perfect man to achieve our redemption while upholding God’s Justice. It required God Himself. It required the infinite supply found in the eternal blood of Jesus to answer the eternal punishment due our sins against eternal God. Here, in the willing giving of Himself for His people, we find Jesus upholding Justice in full. Not only had His obedience satisfied the Law on His own behalf, but as He took up His duties as High Priest and made sacrifice of Himself in accordance with that system of atonement established for the high priestly office, He had recourse to the means established by God to satisfy justice, to restore righteousness.

That sacrificial system had pointed the way. Blood was required, life being poured out in due penalty for sin. Why was this? Again, every sin, even the least sin that we might think too trivial for notice, bears the same penalty of death, for every sin is against the Living God. However trivial the moment of sin, the offense is eternal, being against eternal God. Every offense being against the Living God Who gave us life, the due penalty is death. Honestly, if we have need of an argument for the reality of original sin, it should suffice to observe the universality of death. Nothing escapes it in this existence. The sequoias, long-lived though they are, come to an end in due course. Even mountains, which we do not generally construe as being alive, will in time be worn down to nubs. There is no permanence here, no fitness for eternity. All is under the curse and dying because sin entered Creation and with it, sin’s inescapable punishment in death.

The sacrificial system pointed us to a substitute. In its time, it was the blood of goats and oxen and sheep, or for the poor, the blood even of a pigeon, lest poverty become an impediment to approaching God. But sin against the Living God required the pouring out of life. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement” (Lev 17:11). But we were never to suppose that the blood of a sheep or a goat was equivalent. Yes, we are to recognize our stewardship over creation, but that does not even begin to suggest that we are called to view these creatures as our equals. Far from it! We were created to have dominion over them, not to count them our brothers. Indeed, much of modern conservation and animal rights and like movements consists almost entirely of idolatry. It is trite, but true nonetheless, that for many there is far more concern for saving whales and seals and the like than there is for preserving the lives of human babies.

We are hearing cries once again these days of, “No justice, no peace.” Yet, what is demanded is no justice either, and what is offered is certainly no peace. What is demanded is in fact a winking at sin, an inequality of law, whereby some individuals are granted to do as they please without fear of consequence, and others are granted to suffer the effects of that grant. What is offered is not peace, but a temporary reprieve if we will but capitulate to the demands of the mob, and rest assured, that in a short time, new demands will come, and the cycle will start afresh. This really oughtn’t to surprise us. It’s not some abject failing on the part of that particular constituency which constitutes the mob this time. It’s not even the insidious effect of some foreign adversary, although both may play their role in the affair. If there is a systemic problem, it is not in those against whom the mob turn their anger, nor in those who form the angry mob, nor in those who incite the mob to anger. The fault lies in our humanity. The systemic problem has been long identified, and the solution set on offer. The whole problem is and always has been sin. The solution is and always has been found in Christ Jesus, in His offering made on our behalf to satisfy the courts of heaven – the truly supreme Court – and to purchase us from our deserved imprisonment in sin.

Justice has been upheld. The life required for atonement has been given. But this life was very much unlike the life of goat or oxen or sheep. That was mere creaturely blood. It was accepted, but not on its merit. It was accepted as a down payment of sorts on the true sacrifice offered in the blood of Christ, a once for all, fully redemptive, fully satisfactory offering for the sins of all mankind across all ages. Here, in the Son of God, love had found an answer for Justice. Now, I speak of it as if this were some surprising discovery God made along the course of creation, but that’s not it at all. No, the answer was known before the outset. I can’t hammer that point home hard enough. Jesus knew from eternity past that the day of the Cross must come. He knew, as well, that the day of His resurrection must also come. This, I must observe, does nothing to ameliorate the agony of knowing the moment had arrived. Jesus was, after all, fully human in His Incarnation, and is so, still. For all that we know the end of the story, death still weighs heavily on our thoughts. We may be blithe enough in talking about the possibility of death, but that’s a far cry from saying we anticipate it with relish.

It is a rare man who can echo Paul’s thoughts and say, “To live is Christ and to die is gain” (Php 1:21). I do think that the Christian likely arrives at this point as the end of this life draws nigh. We have probably known those aged saints who have made clear, as they finished their days here, that they’d had enough and were ready to go home. It’s a beautiful thing. But one suspects that, had time been significantly shorter and they left with the same opportunity to contemplate the end, that they might have seen things differently. But, of course, had that been the way of things, it would still have been in full accordance with the plan and the purpose of God, and that one being a saint, and God being God, we must suppose that He would have done the same then as He did as things unfolded: Preparing the heart of His child for the journey home, and finishing the work of loosening that one’s grip on this world. So, yes, it is a rare man who would think like Paul thinks in the full vigor of life, yet I think it is every man’s thought when their time is come and Jesus is calling. I would that we focus on the reasoning Paul gives for his thinking. If life persists, then it shall be turned to fruitful labor, which is to say, a life lived fully for the purposes of the gospel, for the purposes of God. If he dies, he knows this, too, is fully for the purposes of God and gospel. So be it.

Indeed, his clinging to life, such as it is, is wholly directed outward. “To remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake” (Php 1:24). This is something of the perfect counterpoint to Jesus speaking comfort to His disciples. “I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (Jn 16:7). There’s a passage that needs careful thinking, as well! This is not, for example, Jesus telling us that the indwelling Holy Spirit is more significant than His atonement. Far from it! No, in fact apart from His atonement preceding, there could be no outpouring of the Spirit. “Unless I go, He will not come.” This is more than merely Jesus making request of the Father. He could have done that at any time. This is more, even, than Jesus authorizing the sending of the Spirit, for this, too, He could have done at any time. Rather, if He goes, it is because He has completed His mission. He has atoned. His offering has been accepted, and He is gone because He has returned to heaven whence He came, to take up His rightful place on the throne of heaven, there to reign forevermore. If He goes, it is because Justice has in fact been upheld, and God’s love made manifest in the redemption of a people for His name’s sake.

[06/30/20]

I suppose it is needful to touch on the universality of salvation, or the absence thereof, in considering God’s justice upheld. Paul saw the problem, and answered it. If God is just, the question is asked, and this just God forgives some on the basis of Christ’s blood, how can He not forgive all. Would it not be injustice to leave any to punishment, this being the case? Clearly, the answer is no, it is not injustice, but how this is so may not be so clear. I say the answer is clear and obvious because, once again, God being Justice cannot possibly be unjust, but such an answer would hardly satisfy the doubtful. They might see it more as proof that God is not god than that God is just. So, let us look elsewhere.

We must first, I suppose, arrive at an understanding of justice. If you’re willing to accept a Merriam-Webster definition, the fundamental sense is that of maintaining and administering what is just in an impartial manner. Now, I have to say that this definition would not have passed muster with my grade school teachers, given its dependence effectively on itself for definition. So, then, what is just? Using the same dictionary, it is that which conforms to fact or reason, that which conforms to standards of correctness. Coming nearer our concerns, it is that which conforms with what is morally upright or good. We can add in that it is that which is legally correct.

In our present day, that last definition could stand to be recovered, I think. What is just is what is legally correct, that correctness being determined in a fashion conforming to fact and reason, and applied by a system which administers such determinations in an impartial manner. That is to say, neither power and worth on the one hand, nor poverty and difficulty of circumstance factor into the determination of right and wrong. Skin color neither convicts nor pardons, nor enters into the administration of justice whatsoever. What is wrong is wrong, period. What is right is right, period. If I may vent a brief moment, the idea that a crime is somehow more criminal because of the particulars of the perpetrator or the victim, such as must be the case for what are now deemed hate crimes, is an absurdity on the face of it. Either the underlying act is wrong, and already sufficient cause for judicial punishment, or the act is benign, and unworthy of the court’s attention. To suggest that murder is made more murderous by certain combinations of person than it would otherwise be is already a departure from justice. To suggest that certain people groups should be exempted, or that punishment for crimes should be meted out not on the basis of events, but with an eye towards punishing equal numbers of individuals from various groups is an absurdity, and yet these are the things being presented to us as improvements of justice. Justice, in the ideal, is blind to the persons involved, and interested solely in the facts of the issue. Did the defendant do that of which he is accused, and is that deed in fact contrary to what is legally correct? Well, then, the decision must be guilty, whether said individual has been ever so disadvantaged or not. Has this accusation been shown to be false? Then said individual must be released, whatever his situation. Justice is not, in the end, the assurance that numbers look proportional to population, or that those who have had a hard luck past are given a pass. Justice is the fair and impartial application of what is legally correct.

Now, we can complain that the system of laws as they stand are not in fact legally correct, but at least for the present, we have legal recourse to supply correction to that system of laws. I don’t say it’s easy, but it is possible. I certainly don’t suggest it’s a fast answer, and rightly so. If laws were easily shifted day to day then we should be in a worse state than we are with a body of laws too large to be comprehended. It is said often enough that we are now in a place where any individual can be charged with a crime, because the criminal code is grown so massive and complex that none can hope to walk in compliance with the whole system. Well, there’s a call for reform, certainly. But there’s not an excuse for non-compliance. There’s not an excuse for judicial partiality. There’s certainly not an excuse for what appears to be a multi-tiered justice system, where the well-to-do can do as they please without fear of trial, let alone repercussions, the downtrodden, as it seems, are arriving at a place where they can largely expect the same, albeit the trial may be needful before they are let off with a verbal slap, and the rest of society bears the burden.

I want, though, to take a few threads from that diversion and bring them back to bear on the subject of God’s justice. His Justice is ideal. It is utterly fair and utterly impartial, and entirely legally correct. His laws do not shift, not slowly, not ever. What He has defined as legally correct stands, as it has stood, for all eternity. We don’t have to wonder what the rules are today. They are the same as they ever were. Reduced to their minimum, they are, love God, love your neighbor. The expanded forms give us some clear direction for daily application, but they boil down to these two points. Of course, even looking at those two points, we shall be hard-pressed to find anybody we could suggest had upheld the law. We are back at that place where every man is found guilty. It’s not because the law has become so complex and incomprehensible, though, and it’s not because the law has become some malleable thing that can be shaped as necessary to catch out the individual. It’s simply that we really are guilty. We do fail to love God, rather constantly, even in our redeemed state. And we’re not all that fantastic at loving our neighbor, either, especially when that task is made more difficult by hatred, anger, and violence coming back our way as we try.

So, then, what is a Just God to do? Well, as we have observed, I believe, He could certainly take the course of inflicting just punishment on the whole lot, wiping the slate clean, perhaps creating some new order of beings untouched and untouchable by sin. He could, I must suppose, go to the other extreme, and simply forgive everybody. After all, the blood of Christ is eternal and of universal application, so there is no injustice in doing so, is there? I have heard it asked whether we would construe that judge just who simply forgave every defendant that came before his court, but that doesn’t really capture the situation. Not entirely. Let us add the note that each of those defendants came before said judge with payment prepared for the due penalties for their crimes – not just bail such that they can remain at liberty until their court date, but full recognition of their guilt and full payment to the court in accordance with the demands of the law. Would we still account that judge unjust for allowing those defendants to go free? Not at all. Justice has been served. This comes nearer to the question of God forgiving all on the basis of the Son.

Now, let us take that image a step farther. Each defendant has had opportunity to secure what would be needful to pay the penalties imposed by the court. There remains but one, perhaps two things between the defendant and his liberty: First, confession of guilt, and second to have actually obtained and put forward the payment. If we consider the case of the redeemed and the reprobate before God, this gets us pretty close to the situation. Both have come before the court of heaven guilty of high crimes against the King of kings. Both have had opportunity to secure the payment that would secure their liberty. One comes with confession of his sins, and lays before the Judge the payment for his crimes, and this one indeed goes free, his record wiped clean. The other, perhaps, still insists on extenuating circumstances. Perhaps he appeals to his hard-luck story as excuse for his sins, but that won’t wash. Perhaps he simply refuses to see his crimes, refuses to confess. That, of course, changes nothing. Guilt and punishment do not hinge on confession but upon commission. Perhaps he even confesses, but has refused to obtain the means to pay the court fines. What is the judge to do? He has admitted his crimes, and refused to satisfy the court. The just judge really has no recourse but to remand the man to custody until such time as he can in fact satisfy the court’s requirements.

Well, now, the fine in this case is life, and as has been pointed out by some of the more brilliant minds of the Church in ages past, the life that is owed is eternal as the crime is eternal. There is a reason why hell consists of something far worse than annihilation. It is an eternal punishment, an eternal dying, “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mk 9:44). The crime is against an eternal God, and therefore an eternal offense, deserving of an eternal punishment. Understand once again that the means has been given each and every individual (for each and every individual stands guilty of such crimes) to satisfy the demands of punishment. The eternal blood of Christ, shed as a man on behalf of man, has provided sufficient payment to cover the crimes of every man. But, as we observe, some refuse the terms required to obtain that payment, and are therefore left to find repayment in their own means. That leaves but the one recourse for a Just God: Eternal punishment befitting the eternal crime. Has He, then, been unjust to punish some but forgive others? Not on the basis of this scene in court. Those who confessed and repaid have been set at liberty. Those who either refused to confess or refused to repay are left to work out their repayment, but that will take an eternity.

There remains a problem to resolve, however. We can accept, I hope, that God is just to judge as He does, given the presentation of the case. But then, we also acknowledge that the faith which is needful for us to accept that means of repayment is something given us. We do like to proclaim our role in the matter, how we chose to believe God, but that’s something of a misrepresentation of the case. We could not have so chosen except God already chose us. But, now we’re back at God choosing some and not choosing others, and how is that fair? This is a much harder question, and the temptation is to offer the glib response, how is it unfair? I say it is glib, and yet it is wholly appropriate. If faith is a gift, how is it even possible to give a gift unfairly? Fairness doesn’t even enter into it. It’s a gift! Gifts are not something earned or demanded. There can be no issue of fairness. Of course, anybody with two children of close age will likely hear charges of unfairness, should one receive a gift and the other not, or even if both receive gifts, but of unequal perceived value. But, as adults, we hopefully recognize the childishness of such accusations and give them no particular weight in our thinking. It’s not a case of fairness, and it’s not even a case of favoritism, per se. It’s simply the giving of a gift.

Jesus speaks to this with the parable of the workers being hired over the course of a day. Some work a full day, some work but an hour, yet all receive, at the end of the day, the same wage. Those who worked longer grumble at the unfairness of the arrangement. Yet, as the landowner points out, none were shortchanged of their agreed-upon wages. The one who worked a full day agreed to do so for the wage received. The one who worked an hour agreed to the same wage. Where is their injustice in this? Is not the hiring agent within his rights to pay each worker as he pleases? Has not each worker been free to accept or reject the offered employment? Has not every man been paid according to their agreement? The outcome may not be equal in the sight of the worker, but there is no injustice to be found.

Of course, that parable opens up the possibility, I suppose, that some who were offered work rejected the offer. But that possibility lies well outside the scope of the parable. It is a difficult matter to discern exactly how this whole business of faith received plays out, and what exactly our role is in the exchange. Is it truly possible that one to whom God has given the gift of faith could choose to reject the gift, and throw it back in God’s face, as it were? I am rather forced to reject that possibility on the basis that a sovereign, all powerful God is not subject to the whims of created man. Yet there is a matter of acceptance on our part. I think that acceptance is inevitable, yet it is still an act of volition. It is still a moral choice made by the individual, to accept the gift, accept what has been offered, and come to recognition, however gradually, of the true enormity of that gift.

[07/01/20]

It is rather fortuitous, I should think, that my slight backup in regard to Table Talk has left me looking at the need for the cross this morning. As it happens, the article I read today discusses this matter or justice and of God’s role as the Just Judge of the whole of creation I would take one sentence from this. “The Lord would not be just if He did not punish sin, for the essence of justice is that evil gets what it deserves.” That sounds almost too harsh, doesn’t it, too focused on the negative aspect of justice? But then, it is generally the negative aspect of justice that we seek. That is to say we are not terribly inclined to seek out a judge unless it is in order that he might punish the evil done against us. Even if we come before the judge in defense of our innocence, it is effectively an effort to see evil punished, for the one who has falsely accused us, if indeed our innocence is there to defend, has done evil, not only against us, but against God. “Thou shalt not bear false witness” (Ex 20:16). It’s fundamental to our understanding of justice.

So, while that statement sounds harsh, it really does rather capture the essence of justice. Justice is far less to do with upholding the rights of the righteous, and just about nothing to do with ensuring that either opportunity or outcome is equal. It is an encouragement to righteousness, assuredly, in that it promotes righteousness by the punishment of unrighteousness. In an unrighteous world such as that necessarily experience in living as a sinner among sinners, it is great and necessary comfort to the one who seeks to live in righteousness to know that in the final summation, justice will be upheld, sin will be punished in full, and every injustice shall be set to rights. It is also, if we are honest, rather terrifying, because we recognize that if sin is to be punished and justice upheld, we must ourselves be taken into custody, tried, and found guilty.

Yet, we have this as our assurance: That our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ has already satisfied the courts on our behalf. It is not that by His defense arguments He has convinced the Judge of our innocence. That would be injustice, for we know our guilt as well as does our accuser. The Judge knows as well, for Judge and Defense Attorney are One in this court. For all that, Defense and Prosecution are One. Justice cannot be denied because the One Who judges is Righteous and True, and also Omniscient. There has been no deed done in secret of which He is unaware. There is no deceptive argument that could be offered Him that would misguide His decision so as to render it unjust. No, there is no hope whatsoever in such a course. But that is not the course of our defense. Our defense lies in this: Confession has been made, and atonement has been paid. It is not a declaration of “Not guilty!” that results, but rather of justice satisfied. Guilt has been confessed, and the full penalty of the Law applied. But the full penalty of the Law has been satisfied in the punishment poured out upon Christ on the cross. Justice has been fully and entirely upheld. Yet, for those who are the called, the elect of God, to whom the Spirit has come and implanted the seeds of faith, Justice has been joined by Mercy. The Love of God has seen to it that our punishment is not our end, but rather, our punishment has fallen on Him alone who could bear that punishment.

I am not certain that I have fully satisfied concerns about the justice of election in the first place. It is a difficult issue, admittedly. The answer Scripture offers is not entirely satisfying, either, although it is entirely correct. “Does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles” (Ro 9:21-24).

I feel I should emphasize here that the vessel prepared for destruction has effectively chosen that end for himself. If I were to borrow that favorite point of mine from the pen of C. S. Lewis, there is one to whom God has said, “Thy will be done.” It is not as if he was driven to a life of sin all unwilling. It is not as though he were forced by God to reject God. Yes, there is that matter of bondage to sin, and incapacity to resist, and largely due to blindness to the reality of sin. Yet it would be a step too far to suggest that the sinner is a man unpossessed of the knowledge of good and evil. Even the worst reprobate, I dare say, has some sense of what is good and what is evil. He may not utilize those words to describe it. His ideas of right and wrong may be terribly twisted by the effects of sin. But somewhere there remains a thing he would account wrong and a thing he would account right. This is part of humanity, because Adam and Eve saw to it that it became part of humanity. None can claim ignorance of the demands of righteousness. None can claim ignorance as to the reality and the nature of God. There’s no defense to be had there.

God has done no violence to justice by choosing some and not choosing others. I believe I noted this yesterday, but I’ll reiterate. Faith is a gift, and a gift can hardly be given unjustly. If it were a question of showing favoritism, I suppose one could suggest a bit of that in that one is given gifts and another is not, but even there, favoritism is not unjust in itself – unwise, perhaps, but not unjust. Or do I undervalue the severity of such a thing? To be sure, we are commanded against favoritism in our dealings with one another. If anything, we are to account others more worthy, more valuable than ourselves, which is something we find incredibly difficult to maintain. By our nature, and by our desire for self-preservation, we tend naturally to account our own condition as most critical, and then we may add those closest kin. Blood is thicker than water and all that. But Jesus’ blood is thicker yet, and has made the entire community of the redeemed our closest kin. He has also informed us that those who do not at present appear to be part of that community may well be long lost family members who need to hear from us and come home. If they refuse to hear or refuse to come home, that’s on their heads. But if we withhold the marvelous news of family reunion from them because we suppose they are ‘not one of us’? That’s on us.

c. God's Grace Poured Out

[07/02/20]

We speak often of God’s grace, and yet find ourselves hard-pressed to give answer should we be asked what exactly grace is. I recall years ago, (my, sixteen years ago, by the looks of it!) trying to arrive at some understanding of the word, working from a look at the terms used in Scripture to speak of grace. In Hebrew, we have the word techinnah, deriving from chanan, and that latter word has, at least in its definition, stuck with me ever since: To bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior. Techinnah builds on that idea to arrive at favor shown or sought, but it is really that root term that quite sums up the impact of God’s grace. God, the infinite, unparalleled, supreme and sovereign Lord of all that is, of His own free will (for it could not be otherwise) bent down, stooped in kindness to us weak and finite, sinful creatures. It is a twofold image. There is first that idea of humbling Himself, coming down to our level, as it were. That is not to say that He made Himself morally level with us, which would be a most horrible result.

But He being infinite and invisible could by all rights have remained truly unknowable as some of our less accurate philosophers have proposed. Indeed, they are right enough in part. He is unknowable to us in His fulness both because of our finiteness and our sinfulness. But what these philosophers miss is that God was not satisfied to leave the situation thus. He has made Himself known. He has made Himself knowable. To use a favorite verse to this point, “He has told you, O man, what is good. What does the LORD require of you? To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Mic 6:8). God did not opt to leave us in ignorance and see how we might fare, if perchance one might stumble across the idea of Him in their blind searching. He told us. He made Himself known. He stooped down to our level in this fashion, allowing us to perceive and comprehend this God Who Is, to know His purpose in us and for us, to come to grips with His creation and see what it is He had in view with its existence.

God did not leave us to try and sort out right and wrong, good and evil, on our own. This, I have to say, was not the deal with Adam and Eve before the Fall. It is not that they had no awareness of what was good and what was not. They had rather more significant experience of what was good than we have, as they walked together with God in the garden. They had seen what is Good, He Who in His very essence defines Good. They had awareness of right and wrong. It is evident even in that when the serpent asked Eve about things, she had answer. It wasn’t entirely accurate, as she embellished the one restriction placed upon them in their idyllic homeland, but it still demonstrates knowledge of right and wrong, which is to say good and evil. What was lacking was experience of evil. But they were both moral agents from the outset, and to be moral agents requires awareness of that divide which makes moral agency necessary.

Now, I said that chanan impacts our sense of grace in two ways, the first being that God humbled Himself so as to be known by us and knowable to us. But observe as well that this could have been simply to pronounce judgment. The story of Genesis 3 could as readily have played out quite differently, and made for a much shorter book: Adam and Eve sinned. Death came into the world. God closed up shop and went elsewhere. The end. But that’s not the story, clearly. No, God stooped down to us in kindness. He was not, as we ought, bowing down to us and giving us charge over Himself, much though many a believer slips into the sin of thinking they do have charge of Him. That’s not faith, though. That’s idolatry. It’s recoverable idolatry, and God, in this graciousness of which we are speaking, does give means and hope of restoration even for such a crime as this. Indeed, that is the very kindness of which we speak in His stooping down. He came down to our level not merely to let us know how powerful He is, and that He could squash us like a bug if we annoy Him. Rather, He stooped down to let us know that by rights, He should have long since done exactly that, but has chosen not to do so. He has stooped down not merely to tell us who He is, but to give us hope and a future.

This began even in the first moments after the Fall. Even as God pronounced the necessary verdict of guilty and announced the necessary punishment of death for the sins of Adam and Eve, expelling them permanently from that Garden they had known since their advent, He turned to the serpent and pronounced His judgment there as well. “Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field. On your belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel” (Ge 3:14-15). This is commonly referred to as the proto-gospel, the first announcement of that event upon which hinges the entire unfolding of history. We see this fulfilled as Christ Jesus goes to the Cross, bloodied, wounded, mocked, and humiliated, to die as a criminal, though guilty of no crime – neither against God nor against man. There is the wounding of the heel. But we see it the more when, three days later, His grave was found to be empty, and in short order, He was seen quite alive and quite well; an event observed by far too many witnesses to be accounted a fabrication. And, as He was accepted bodily back into heaven, quite visibly, and again before several hundred observers, it was made evident that indeed, the other half of that promise had just been kept. The head of Satan had been crushed. The power of death had been broken. The bondage to sin had been undone.

Here, indeed, was grace physically on display, as God stooped down in kindness to man. “Although He existed in the form of God, [he] did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearances as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Php 2:6-8). How careful we must be with this passage! The message is not that Jesus, in becoming man, ceased to be God. The message is not, even, that Jesus was left to face the challenges of human life without the benefit of being God. That is to say, His obedience was not achieved as one utterly stripped of godhood, although it was assuredly achieved as a Man. It had to be. But if we suppose He had done this solely on the basis of His humanity, then we are as yet without excuse for our own failure. If Jesus could in fact manage full obedience as a mere human then so could we, and the only distinction to be made in His case is the matter of His virgin birth, by which connection to the inherited sinfulness of the Fall was broken.

But that’s not the sum of it. It is quite clear that Jesus remained God as He walked the earth a man. Those miracles which the authors of the gospel recount are not there to show us what we, too, will be doing if only we accept this Jesus as Lord. They are there to demonstrate that this Man, Jesus, son of Mary, was and is in fact God, and on that basis alone, on that basis only, entirely worthy of our worship. Strip away His godhood, and we have at best a hero; one to be appreciated and honored, perhaps, but not one to be worshiped. He might have ranked as another Moses or another Elijah, but that is not the totality. Another Moses or another Elijah would be no more deserving of worship than the first Moses or Elijah, nor would such a one willingly accept attempts to worship them. Think of Paul and Barnabas, as they ministered in Lystra. There was a man there healed of lameness as the result of Paul speaking (Ac 14:8-18).

It must be admitted that a man healing by no more than a word of command to this lame man is a sensation. Some insist they have the power yet today, and who knows? Perhaps there are those who do in fact have such abilities by the grace of God, but then again, perhaps their claims are a tad inflated. Here, however, there was no doubt. The man had been lame from birth and now he was on his feet and walking. This was no question of maybe a ringer being brought in for the performance, or of something that might have been a healing, but might also just be a temporary, excited response. It was quite evident. What was not evident to the observers of the event was the significance. They supposed this must be Zeus and Hermes down for a visit. Who else, after all, but a god could perform these sorts of deeds? Mind you, Zeus and Hermes being such as they were made out to be, a visit from them was not necessarily going to be a good thing. So, the priest from the temple of Zeus gets going to make a sacrifice. Keep this mighty visitor appeased, lest things go south. But Paul and Barnabas were having none of it. “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you in order that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them” (Ac 14:15). Knock it off! There was a time when He overlooked this kind of behavior due to your ignorance, but that time is at an end. Put away these childish and misguided idols and come to the living God. He has stooped down in kindness to make Himself known to you. Don’t spurn Him now!

[07/03/20]

Turning now to the Greek charis, which is perhaps more familiar, we are met with unmerited favor, of a thing done without expectation of return, done in absolute freeness, which is to say under no compulsion to act. Of course, God being God, can only be compelled by Himself, by His own essence. But if our redemption were a response to meritorious action on our part, then we might at least see Him compelled by His inherent Justice to act by paying us for our efforts. It would be as wages and not as free gift. But redemption is a free gift. The slave in bondage is hardly in a position to purchase his own freedom, nor the dead man to purchase his own life. And these two conditions define our existence from birth. We are born dead, born into bondage, doomed from the outset by sin and sin’s just deserts.

But God shows grace towards us. He does not respond as our actions have deserved. He responds in unexpected, unwarranted lovingkindness. We cannot even point to His covenantal loyalty as a compelling reason for this, for we, certainly, were not party to that covenant. Indeed, we see many cases where God acts in surprisingly beneficent ways because of His covenant with Abraham, and I suppose we actually must see our salvation as being of a piece with that covenant, mustn’t we? “I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of your enemies. And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (Ge 22:17-18). So, yes, there is a sense in which God is bound by His own essence here. Having promised, He will and indeed must fulfill His promise. But we could look a step farther back and ask on what basis the promise was made. Was there any compelling cause for God to enter into covenant? Was there something about Abraham, or Abram as he had been before the covenant which gave compelling reason for God to enter into such covenant with him?

Paul is pretty clear that the answer is no, at least as concerns any worthy deed of Abraham’s. “For what does Scripture say? ‘And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Ro 4:3-5). Paul proceeds to observe that this blessing pronounced upon Abraham was pronounced prior to circumcision, prior to that signal act of obedience. Faith is the nearest we can come to a meritorious act on his part, but even then, if faith were a meritorious act, it would be work, and the covenantal promises a wage, a reward. But even faith, we are informed quite clearly comes as a gift of this grace of God. Even faith is unearned, unmerited favor shown to us. We have seen this. God’s justice, God’s glory would be just as magnificently upheld were He to bring the full penalty of sin to bear upon each and every individual that constitutes mankind. But He didn’t.

While we were yet enemies, He saved us. This thought, I note, conflates Romans 5:10 and Romans 5:8, but seeing the nearness of the two to each other, I feel I am on safe ground. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Ro 5:8-10). It is interesting to observe here that the gift of grace comes in twofold fashion. There are indeed two actions considered here; the first being reconciled, which is to say, I should think, that the avenging wrath of God has been turned aside and every barrier to our restoration to His good graces removed. But if it had stopped there, we remained indebted. If it had stopped there, something yet remained undone, and we should find ourselves perhaps favored but not unto eternal life. His life, the reality of the resurrection of Jesus marks something more, I think, than merely the acceptance of His payment to the court for our sins, although that is assuredly to be found in the Resurrection. Here, too, is obtained the assurance of our own rebirth.

Let me expand on that briefly. Here in this life, from the moment of our having come to true, saving faith in God by His gracious impartation to us of His Spirit, our soul has been reborn. That part is done. For those inclined to see a threefold nature in man, you can read that as spirit, but here, I am thinking more in terms of a twofold nature; the physical life of body and flesh, and the soulish, or spiritual nature of man’s essence. The essence has been reborn, reformed, renewed, but the body continues as it was. Some, it seems, have concluded that bodily resurrection is also to be had in this lifetime, but I must account them sadly mistaken. Paul really doesn’t leave room for such conclusion. “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond comparison, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2Co 4:16-18).

I could add the testimony of 1Corinthians 15, which I will include here in brief, though the whole chapter should rightly be considered. “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied” (1Co 15:19). I have to say, given the rather unpleasant realities of life in this present, fallen world, it is unfathomable to me why somebody would find it a blessing to pursue an eternity spent here. Those same ones who suppose themselves already possessed of an immortal body seem also to complain rather bitterly of its shortcomings, and to expend no end of energy and concern in its preservation and improvement. But if it’s already immortal then surely it requires no particular preservation. At any rate, we are not left with such speculation. “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death” (1Co 15:22-26).

Well, how are we to hold this together with any idea that an eternal body is to be had in the present age? Either it must require that He has already returned, and those not now in possession of such a body must be accounted amongst the damned and given up for lost, or at the least that death has already been abolished, in which case, there’s not much point in pronouncing eulogies at funerals any more, for every funeral must then be accounted a declaration of unanswered guilt. But the chapter continues, observing that this physical plant is fundamentally unequipped for eternity. It cannot be repaired or restored. It must be reformed, replaced. “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (1Co 15:51-52). His point is simple: The perishable cannot inherit eternity. It would never bear the weight. And note the timing: The transformation, the recreation of the physical plant, comes at the last trumpet, not before. There is no place for a present-day possession of said body. It cannot be had without a death of the original body. That death may be so brief as to be experienced as but a moment, but it shall be experienced. The old man must be done away with once for all, and the promise of that eventuality remains a matter of the not yet.

The author of Hebrews offers a brief note of concurrence. “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him” (Heb 9:27-28). Observe: No exception is on offer for this required death. I have to conclude that this includes those such as Enoch who was no more, and Elijah who was taken up to heaven by chariot. Somewhere in there came that ‘twinkling of an eye’. Bearing in mind the timelessness of God’s domain, nothing precludes them having experienced that point of victory and judgment in transit to heaven. It can be argued, certainly, that nothing precludes any other among mankind from having that same experience. But observe what is needful: The transit to heaven. It’s something of a one-way trip. Enoch was no more. Elijah did not return, with the sole exception of joining the Son of God for that brief moment when heaven broke through on the mountaintop as Jesus was transfigured. But I think we must conclude that even for so illustrious an example as these two, death remained a necessary component of rebirth. Even for Melchizedek, if indeed he was a man and not an appearance of the pre-Incarnate Christ, must have known that moment of death, however brief and transitory, else life – real and eternal life – remained out of reach even for him.

But, let us return to this matter of God’s grace poured out. We can point to nothing by which we might claim to have deserved His blessings. For many of us, we can’t even point to anything that would suggest we wanted them, or would have accounted them blessings prior to His giving of this rich gift. Many a sinner, informed of the wonders and expectations of heaven, would find in them nothing to be desired. For some, the nihilistic hope of nothingness, of a full termination of being seems much more desirable. For others, the idea of an eternity spent sinning amongst sinners sounds rather enjoyable. Of course, this assumes a hell not unlike present day life, where sin’s pleasures can largely be pursued with relative disregard for consequences. But hell is spent in the consequences, not the earning of them, and it is spent fully and finally aware of just how wrong were the choices which lead to those pursuits.

God’s grace, however, does not wait for us to hunt Him down for relief. If it did, I dare say He should have no company from among us, for none would come looking for Him. We would be too busy pursuing our fallen pursuits, blind to hope, blind to goodness, utterly unaware of our impending doom. Those who sit in deepest darkness have no awareness of light as a thing. Think of those creatures found in the depths of caves, or so deep in the ocean that the sun’s light does not penetrate. They have no eyes to see, for there is nothing to see. Light has no meaning, no reality to them, and were it to come, and they be aware of it at all, it must come as a shock and, to the degree that such creatures can feel any such response, an annoyance. But God gives us both Light and receptors for Light, seemingly in that one single moment. The switch is turned on, and we see, and seeing, we rejoice in what is revealed to us, for what is revealed to us is life and hope. If all we had shown us was life, we should indeed find ourselves in hell, for we would know what had been possible only to discover every possibility of possessing it had already passed.

God comes to us as His enemies, pours out this rich gift of not merely awareness of life and goodness, but hope of knowing His continued favor towards us, the hope of knowing that by His own sovereign choosing, hostilities have come to an end. Rather than enemies, we have become friends and more than friends. We have been made part of His own household, the pledged bride of His only begotten, beloved Son. We have been shown favor far and away beyond anything we could have expected. And this is not just given us as a possible future if we keep our noses clean and manage to ‘go and sin no more’. No! This is given as rock-solid assurance, an inheritance already secured for us in heaven. It’s there and waiting. We have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit as assurance that this is so. In His tutelage during this life, we are given every cause for assurance. He speaks comfort to us when we are in doubt. He speaks correction to us when we stray. He strengthens us in our weakness, and brings to our recollection all that our Lord and Savior said and did, explaining to us the significance and guiding us past all the myriad errors that seek to waylay us as we make our way homeward. This, too, is an outpouring of God’s unending grace.

[07/04/20]

Here again is the utter marvel of God’s work in us. Here we are, the product of His hand and in rebellion against Him, to the degree we give Him any thought at all. Here is this Creation of His own making, fashioned for His own purposes and to manifest His own glory and we, in league with the devil, have made it a horror. Oh, His majesty and beauty still show through, but it seems we are determined to distort it and destroy it at every opportunity. And behold! God knew all of this was coming before He began the project. God knew He would have to witness the death of His own Son, the death of Himself, for God is One, and yet, being God, does not cease with death. It is a mystery of the profoundest nature how this works, but it does. God died without ceasing. It was a temporary thing, and death itself was defeated, its power broken for all time.

And here we are, a people by nature deserving of death from the moment of our birth – not merely deserving death, but under the assured penalty of death. Even from conception that has been our determined end. It must come about. We were conceived in sin, and the penalty for sin is death. That could have been the end of the story right there. Man is born. He dies. The end. But it isn’t the end. God, in spite of knowing all the intense sorrows that must pertain, undertook to create, and in His planning, He not merely accepted that corruption must come, as if this was something beyond His control. No! This was part of the whole plan from the outset, that corruption would come. But corruption, as evil as it is, was given its place in the works for one reason: That God’s glory might be poured out, and His glory put on display as He rescued a people all unwilling and unworthy of rescue.

God chose to save. He did not look upon us, or even Job for that matter, and see our worth and say, “Yes, I must rescue that one. Look how well he does.” Far from it. Rather, He has looked upon us in lovingkindness and pity, and has graciously chosen to make Himself and His ways known to us. He has graciously chosen to shed forth His light in our hearts, that having come to knowledge of Him, we might desire Him Whom we had despised. When we came to Christ, we came to Him of whom it was written, “He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hid their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him” (Isa 53:3). I can certainly recall a period of life where that reaction to Him very much describe my views. I had no time for Jesus, no interest in Him. To the degree I had any spiritual interests at all, they were pretty preoccupied with alternatives, but mostly I just didn’t really think along those lines. What passed for spirituality with me was really nothing much more than being intrigued with the idea of supernatural events. It honestly wasn’t much different than interest in theories about UFOs.

Let me just say that this is something of a new awareness this morning. I hadn’t really thought about it all that much, what was going on in my head in that period. What it wasn’t was anything much to do with seeking gods or godliness. It was more a seeking after experiences, something new and out of the ordinary. I suppose it’s no great wonder, then, that my path to salvation came through the avenue of Pentecostalism. And to be sure, the defining features of Pentecostalism still have their intrigue and I would not discount them utterly by any means. But the excesses that pass for spiritual exercise today have rather put me off of any great interest in those things promoted as gifts of the Spirit. It may be that they are indeed active gifts of the Spirit, but like everything else in creation, it seems those who claim access to them merely pervert them to their own purposes, and little at all is there of the glorious grace of God to be found in the result, beyond the fact that these individuals have not long since been destroyed from the earth.

We must acknowledge that God in His grace did in fact pour out such gifts upon man, whether for a season or for the duration. We must also acknowledge that where God acts, Satan counterfeits, and as such, we ought to be on guard both against cheap imitation gifts, and cheap imitation faith. Cheap imitation faith will not save, and cheap imitation gifts will not edify. Judge rightly.

This God of ours, however, is rich in gifts towards His chosen. It begins with that moment of salvation. It begins, really, with the moment of our conception, but it goes all unnoticed and unnoticeable until there comes the Spirit to awake our soul within. Then life really begins. Then is God’s grace poured out, whether we are ever found to exercise those more phenomenal gifts (phenomenal as in demonstrating as phenomena), or whether we walk out a quiet faith that demonstrates not so much on power displays as in lives characterized by change, characterized by devotion to God and to walking worthy of this gift of Life He has given us. God’s grace is shown again in that however poorly we deport ourselves in whatever avenues our faith is given to tread, yet He loves us. However many times we fail utterly and fall flat on our faces, yet He lifts us to our feet, dusts us off, gets us going once more in the right direction.

How Fatherly is our Father! With all our bird feeders set up around the house, we are granted the wonder of observing how the birds we feed behave in all their dealings. In many ways, it can become offensive. There’s something in us that abhors a pecking order, even though we have one of our own (not that we admit to it). But then there are those scenes of parental care, even with the birds. We saw it, particularly, with the cardinals as they nested. For a period, there, Mr. Cardinal would simply not tolerate the presence of a blue jay in the neighborhood. It’s understandable. Blue jays are known nest raiders. But once junior had hatched, this phase passed. Now, with the cardinals, with the finches, with the woodpeckers, what one sees is parental care (and to a degree, I suspect, parental annoyance). The young fledgling is brought along on foraging trips. He is set in place to observe how this seed eating business works. Yet, mom or dad still bring him food personally, not yet insisting that he find his own way. And junior, in his hunger, is not averse to making his impatience known. You see again the care of the parent as mom or dad, whoever may have childcare duties at the moment, flies off to leave junior to sort things out for himself. They haven’t gone far, and they certainly haven’t abandoned their offspring. But they recognize that to keep giving in to his desires at this juncture would be a disservice to him. He has to learn to be his own bird.

We, in our parenting roles, hopefully understand something of the same process applies. If we continue to spoon-feed our children, to seek to rescue them from every trial before the trial even gets underway, and to protect them from every bad experience, then we shall forever have children. We shall have failed to raise adults, which was, after all, the point of the exercise. So, too, our Father in heaven, having gifted us this new birth in the Spirit, may often seem to leave us on our own, to face life as it comes and find our own way through. It often seems as if the battery on His phone has gone dead, or maybe there’s no signal, or perhaps He looked at caller ID, saw it was us, and decided not to answer. I say it seems that way, but in reality, it is not. Like the wise parent He is, He has merely left us to learn, to encounter and hopefully overcome. But if things get to be too much, if something threatens our undoing, He is there. He will protect. He will set us upright once more. He will grant that we come to understand where things went wrong, and learn from the experience. And, should we fail to get it this time, He will most assuredly arrange other experiences for us until we do learn. And this, too, is a pouring out of His grace upon us.

God matures us. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born of many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Ro 8:29-30). Was ever so rich a declaration of hope proclaimed? He knew you before there was an after to be before. From the outset of Creation, He knew you – when and where you would come into being, what sort of person you’d be, just exactly how and when the Spirit would come to us, every occasion upon which you heard the gospel, all of that was laid out in fine detail. And observe! Maturity is predestined for you. Some find this idea offensive, as if we have no real say in the course of our lives, and I suppose in some cosmic sense we could accept that this is so. Yet, we remain moral agents, and we most assuredly make all manner of decisions as to our course and our action. We are not coerced into our decisions. It is quite simply that God having created us is assuredly well aware of our actions and our thinking.

Let me temper this, for I would not suggest that God’s predestination consists solely in His being aware of how we will respond to stimuli. That, I think, would leave us even less in control of our agency, as He could merely poke us the right way and know we would move to His desired rhythms. Even there, though, if we were truly acting from nothing but free agency, there must be room for surprises, and God doesn’t do surprises. No, we are predestined because He has mapped the whole of existence, and did so before it began. We are predestined because He has decreed it shall be so. He has spoken it into being, and who shall tell Him no, this shall not be?

So, yes. He has determined our days. Remember? He knows the number of our days, the hairs of our heads, and frankly, when that number is up, it’s up. There is no life cut short in God’s view, nor is there a life that extends beyond its determined bounds. It may seem that way from our perspective, but it is a false perspective. Each being comes upon the stage of Creation for the period determined by God’s plan, and pursues the course determined by God’s plan. Each being does so of its own volition, quite possibly entirely unaware of God, or misguidedly pursuing other gods. Yet all of this is by His hand, all of this is by His direct determination.

And in that determination, He has graciously chosen you to reach maturity, to become conformed to the image of His Son, to become brother to our Lord. Having determined before that dawn of creation that this would be so, He called you, and I must say, also gave you ears to hear, and a heart to respond. He called you, having sent the Spirit ahead to make ready your response, and in that moment, He justified you. In that moment, the work of Christ upon the cross was applied to your life; your sins were forgiven, your enmity with God put to an end, your redemption price marked paid in full in the court of God. Did you deserve it? How could you? Right up to that moment you had perhaps remained blissfully unaware of your precarious position or, if you were aware of it, you scoffed at the danger. Yet, here you are: called and justified and maturing. And oh, it doesn’t stop there. You have been glorified. It stuns me to find that stated as accomplished fact. I tend to think of glorification as awaiting the return of our Lord, when we are found at last in our resurrection bodies, our reformation completed body and soul. But that lies yet in the future as we measure things, and here is Paul saying it’s a done deal.

One way I could account for this is by observing the timelessness of God. He encounters the whole arc of Creation as a moment, to the degree that moment can have meaning in eternity. Suffice to say, the whole of history in all its infinite detail is present all at once to God. He knows the end from the beginning both because He has decreed it from the beginning, and because He is there at the endpoint even as the beginning begins. But there is also the sense that it is certain because God has already seen to it, whether it is yet our present-tense experience or not, it is finished, set in stone. Of course, that could have been said from the beginning as well, and in fact, it was. But here we are, in an ambiguous life that seems full of nothing but uncertainty, and God speaks this certainty to us. Come what may in this transient and temporary existence, our hope and our future are secure. “Though you die, yet shall you live.” And indeed, die we must, though our experience of it may vary. This mortal must put on immortality (1Co 15:53). And this fallen life, by God’s grace, must attain to the full, mature image of Christ, that we may be His brethren, and may dwell forevermore in the glorious presence of our gracious God.

[07/05/20]

Indeed, how glorious is the grace of God poured out upon fallen man. All that He has done, He has done for His own glory, yet all that He has done has been to this end: That mankind, condemned by sin and beyond all hope of redemption, might in fact be redeemed, might step free of sin and find its rightful place in God’s heaven. God knew the Fall would come, indeed, we must accept that He decreed it must come, though both man and devil were fully responsible for their willing choices in bringing it about. Eve does not skate on some excuse of events being fated. Adam does not escape guilt on the basis that these things were bound to happen. Satan does not walk away a free being because he was only doing as God had planned all along. That’s not the way of it at all. Satan chose to put all of his energies into subverting and perverting the work of God in creation. Yes, creation had been created with that perverting activity already fully taken into account. But Satan was not coerced into acting, he acted in keeping with his own will and inclinations.

Eve chose to take Satan’s assurance as more significant than God’s decree. This has to be understood most clearly. She knew God’s commandment. She had, rather like the Pharisees in a later stage of events, chosen to embellish that commandment in hopes of better ensuring her compliance with the core instruction. But comes the devil with news that really God didn’t mean what He said, and that fruit he was withholding from them was actually quite good, would make them godlike in their own right, and all that care and concern for God’s commandment went right out the window. Oh! It’s good you say, serpent? Well, then, by all means, let me eat of it. And then, having eaten, she saw to it that Adam had opportunity as well. If we are to accept that this bitter fruit was in fact an agent for imparting the knowledge of good and evil, then it must be supposed that she knew full well the sinfulness of her sin when she came to Adam with this fruit to share.

Of course, Adam was not innocent either. Indeed, while Scripture often turns to this event as reason for the man being given the prominent roles in house and in church, man being assigned the task of instruction in the Lord and oversight of those given into his charge, I can’t help but observe that Adam also knew what was going on when he bit in. There is a question, it must be admitted, as to whether Adam was present during this conversation of serpent and woman, for having eaten, we are told, “she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate” (Ge 3:6). Is this intended to tell us that he was there all the time, listening to this conversation? If so, then surely, he is as guilty as his wife even at the outset, and all the more because his was the primary role, even by order of creation. She was to be his helpmate, and he, we may readily assume, was to cherish her, care for her, and that duty, he had failed in singular from here.

But perhaps the message is simply condensed in that verse. Perhaps she had gone to find him, having eaten and found the fruit tasty and beneficial, as she measured it. Even then, he finds no innocence. Even had he chosen wisely and refused to eat, he should still find no innocence, for her being left to fend for herself against the wiles of the devil was already a dereliction of duty. Maybe we can plead ignorance on his part, for he had no prior knowledge of evil. Or if he had, he did not recognize it as such. After all, he had not eaten of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil to date. Yet, as I have previously argued, there must have been at least an idea of right and wrong, else the commandment could bear no weight, could it? There could be no moral agency where there is no moral choice. Morality rather presupposes a sense of right and wrong, a recognition of there being a correct course, and one that ought not to be taken. After all, how could Eve even have a concept of death imposed for violating this rule if there were no sense of evil. How would death have been known to those who only knew of life?

There is another supposition that comes into play as we read this account of the Fall, and that is that the serpent had never been encountered prior to this exchange. Yet, I have to think that if that were the case, the sudden appearance of a talking animal might have caused some alarm, rather than this willing confidence shown by Eve. It doesn’t seem too unreasonable to me that we might suppose these two had met said serpent prior to this occasion; that he was familiar to them in some degree. One might reasonably wonder whether, at this stage all animals were possessed of this power to speak with mankind, but that is really neither here nor there. Be things as they may, Adam had fallen short of his duties even by allowing this temptation to transpire. He should, we might suggest, have better instructed his wife in the ways of the Lord. But then, they both had immediate experience of Him, walking with Him in this garden. He should, then, have seen to it that this woman was not left to her own devices, knowing that such as the serpent were about. But what did he know of this serpent, and what cause did he have to expect danger to his spouse? This was Eden, after all, the garden of God. Perhaps, then, the idea that Adam has culpability for Eve’s failings are an attempt to hold him to post-Fall standards in his pre-Fall condition, not terribly unlike this trend of adjudging historical figures on the basis of present philosophies.

I stray. The main point is this: Both fell, and both recognized what they were doing. Both saw the fruit. Both recognized it for what it was. They didn’t bite into it as thinking it some new tree they hadn’t noticed before. They knew where that fruit came from, and they both knew the one prohibition God had set upon them. This was not a hard command to understand. “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die” (Ge 2:17). There wasn’t lack of food, that they felt compelled to eat the only thing left them. There wasn’t confusion as to which tree God was talking about. There was nothing, really, to prevent them from simply abiding by that rule and enjoying the rich bounty of that garden.

Now, I observe this: Adam alone had heard that message direct. I must correct my earlier thought. Eve had not heard this direct from God, or at least we have no evidence of such a thing. Rather, she would have learned it from Adam. So, perhaps Adam was derelict in his instruction after all, although the commandment was simple enough, you’d think it could have been conveyed just as simply. Did he, perhaps, provide that embellishment which Eve spouted? Was he trying to safeguard this woman who was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone by setting the fence a bit farther back? We don’t know. We do know that all three actors in this predestined event were fully cognizant of their actions and fully involved in their own choices. Much as man and woman alike sought to wiggle free of responsibility, they could not. Eve knew what tree she had taken the fruit from, and Adam knew what fruit had been offered him. Both could have chosen to value God more than serpent, or more than spouse. Neither did so.

But the grace of God poured out. Yes, death must be imposed, for death had been decreed. Its effects might not be felt immediately, but it had been made certain. It would play out over and over again, even as Adam and Eve continued their existence. Do you not think Abel’s slaying was not a little death for Adam and Eve? Do you not suppose that watching the generations of Cain spiraling farther and farther down into sin and violence were a series of little deaths for Adam and Eve? So long as they continued to walk the earth, they would have that sad memory of what was, what could have been. There would be a long life of if onlys to endure. But the grace of God poured out. There was also Seth and his generations. Even this, though, is small comfort to those condemned to die. The end of the body may have come more slowly in that era, but it came, and we might suppose that the decline that preceded its end may have been a longer affair, even as was life itself.

But the grace of God poured out. They had been informed of the Seed even in the pronouncement of judgment upon them. With the sentence came hope. This serpent was more condemned than they, small comfort though that must be. But more to the point, there would come one, born of the descendants of this first couple, who would crush the head of the serpent’s offspring (Ge 3:15). There would come a time when the sorrows introduced by their failure would come to an end. For now, the tree of life was guarded, lest mankind come to eternal existence in this fallen state (Ge 3:24), another gracious act of God. But even this first couple had been given hope. Eve had thought, perhaps, this hope came swiftly when she bore Cain, but he soon proved her wrong in that thinking. There came a third child, Seth, and this would prove to be the line of promise, a line that persisted for long centuries, taking many a surprising, even shocking turn, to arrive at the Seed, the Man of Promised, who would crush Satan and restore Creation to its proper order.

Behold! All of this was in the works before the first glimmer of light on that first day (Ge 1:1-2). All of this was known by God, accounted for by God, planned out in every detail by God, and not one of the failures of man, not one of the treacheries of Satan, not one sin in the whole of human history, ever altered His plan in the slightest, for His knowledge is full and His planning perfect. The moment of the Cross did not shift by so much as a picosecond from the original planned date certain. The betrayal of Jesus by Judas, the betrayal of justice by Pilate, the betrayal of religion by the Sadducees , and the betrayal of hope by the disciples; all of that had been fully taken into account, fully woven into the plans of God, such that nothing, nothing at all, could shift history from the course He had set. The Son would live. The Son would die. The Son would fulfill all righteousness. The Son would rise again, and ascend into heaven, His rightful home. Satan would be defeated, and the faith of all who had put their hope in God would be vindicated. Adam and Eve, I feel certain, found the forgiveness of Christ, and were redeemed by His blood. All who died in faith, and all who shall yet die in faith, whether that death comes in persecutions or whether that death comes at a ripe old age, shall know the redemption of our Lord, and find themselves having entered into His presence. And this, beyond all measure, is the grace of God poured out on a most undeserving people.

“And leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles – the people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and to those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them light dawned” (Mt 4:13-16). Here it is, even at the outset: The news of the gospel, though given first to the Jews, comes in the midst of this benighted territory of Galilee of the Gentiles. Already, from the very first moments of ministry, the Gentiles are hearing this news, are seeing this dawning Light, and already, as we see evidenced along the way, they are discovering life and hope in this One who came to seek and save the lost, a gracious mission of mercy as seen from the perspective of mankind, a glorious filling up of His majestic purpose, as seen from the perspective of God. Grace, indeed!

What I Believe

a. God's Love Displayed

b. God's Justice Upheld

c. God's Grace Poured Out

© 2019-2020 - Jeffrey A. Wilcox