Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers…I have mentioned in previous postings my process for coming up with topics each week. Sometimes a topic pops into my head based on what is happening in my life; or what is happening in the news or the political arena; or a desire to stress certain Biblical principles. In these cases, by the time I am ready to sit down and write, I generally have a format in my mind of how I want to approach the subject, and I’m ready to roll. Then there are other times when I sit down in front of the computer that I haven’t got that “idea” in my head yet, and I feel like I am floundering around in a vast wasteland.
I used to panic, but now I know the answer. I smile and say, “Holy Spirit, I’m counting on you. I want to write something that brings honor and glory to God, but right now I my inspirational-well is dry. Help me get out of the way so you can work through me. Today was one of those days; and true to my past experiences, He never fails to show-up. 🙂 I began my prayer by saying, “Heavenly Father…I stand in awe of who you are”, and Bingo… I had my topic.
Just saying that opening phrase out-loud brings a smile to my face. And with that smile comes a feeling of total love, acceptance and confidence. When I think that God – Creator of the universe; Godhead of the Trinity, a Sovereign God; the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent One; the Alpha and Omega (the timeless One), I try my best to wrap my mind around these majestic qualities. But in all honesty, they are so far beyond my finite level of thinking; I can only accept them by what I have experienced on a daily basis from all of the other personal qualities of God. 1John 4:8 tells me that “God is Love.” Therefore, if God is Love he can only beget goodness, kindness, mercy, compassion and Grace, and his love can only be unconditional, unending, unfailing and uncompromising. Not only does the Bible reiterate those truths over and over, but I have experienced all of that to be true in my life.
So let me run interference here for a moment, because I know there is someone reading this who is saying…“Oh Yea…what about in the Old Testament. There are numerous examples of God being a mean, angry, blood-thirsty God. In fact he even flooded the earth in order to kill every living creature.” Yes, that is all true. But now let’s look at two fundamental principles from which springs everything else that is written in the Bible: God is Love; and God wants a relationship with us…not only a here-and-now relationship, but an eternal relationship. In fact, God created us in his image, and he gave us the capacity to think rationally so we could choose to enter into that relationship with Him.
Now let’s look at Ephesians 1:3-10. We are told that, “Long ago, even before God created the world, he loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure. He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his dearly loved Son, and our sins are forgiven. God’s plan always centered on Jesus Christ, and this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on the earth.”
So back to God of the Old Testament. Notice that the example from Ephesians begins with, “Long ago, even before God created the world (and man), he loved us and chose us in Christ… So why did God need a plan centered on Jesus Christ even before he created the world… but even more important to us, before he created Man? Could it be that because God is omniscient, he knew he would have to give us “free-will” so we could choose to enter into that relationship with him; but he also knew that we would use our “free will” to take the focus off of Him and put it on our self. That is the definition of “Sin” – living separated from God. While God is Love, God abhors Sin. Why? Because it is the antithesis of his nature. God is Holy, “there is no darkness in him.” (1John 1:5)
In the Old Testament, God’s chosen people were the Israelites. They were his chosen people because they were the smallest and weakest people-group, therefore his power and might would be manifested through them. And it was also from this lineage that the Messiah was to come, so God’s intent in the Old Testament was to protect “his people” from the stronger pagan nations that were a threat to their existence. Remember… at the time of the flood there were only eight righteous people on the earth…Noah and his Clan. God’s wrath in the Old Testament was against nations that were idol worshipers and in other ways disobedient to his Holy nature. All of that changed when God implemented his plan that was revealed even before the world and man were created; the coming of the promised and much anticipated Messiah, Jesus Christ, who would do for Mankind what we clearly were unable to do for ourselves!
Remember, God gave Man from Creation to 2016 years ago to overcome the dilemma of SIN. That IS the chasm that separated Man from God. As long as Man is stained with sin, we are unworthy of coming into His presence. Why? “Because the wages of Sin is death”! (Romans 6:23), and because Sin “steals, kills and destroys.” (John 10:10) If you doubt that, just look at the world around you. Does this look like Paradise? Remember, it was at Creation…but the ravages of sin are quite evident; hatred, jealousy, anger, lying, cheating, stealing, addictions and compulsions, murder, slander, dishonor, pain, suffering, and death. NONE of this was in God’s plan.
But the Good News is…God is Love, and God always had a plan for the redemption of Mankind. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Romans 5:6, because it tells so clearly and succinctly the state of Mankind when God gave us his Gift of Grace. “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” And what was “just the right time”? When we were “utterly helpless.” Remember, God gave us from Creation to 2016 ago, and what was the best we could do…“utterly helpless”!
Note that God didn’t insist that we clean up our act first before he gave us his Gift of Grace. No…he gave us this gift while we were still “sinners” (his enemy – Romans 5:10) This is the perfect example of his unconditional, unending, unfailing and uncompromising love for us. (Notice Apostle Paul included himself in that phrase “us sinners.”)
Romans 3:22-25 clearly and succinctly explains the Gosple of Grace: “We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done. For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God in his gracious kindness declares us, not guilty! He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us.”
Today Mankind still faces the dilemma of SIN. But under the New Covenant, God has shown us a new way of being made right in his sight. Not by the way of the Old Testament – the Law, which required our best effort to adhere to it so we could be acceptable to God- but by accepting his Gift of Grace. (FYI…just in case you were wondering, all of those who were declared righteous by God in the Old Testament were redeemed by Christ when he descended into Hades between his Crucifixion and Resurrection. The Saints rose with Him to Glory on that Easter Sunday morning. (Matthew 27:52-53) This also shows God as a Just God.)
When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, not only are our sins forgiven so we can spend eternity with God, Jesus and all other Christ-followers, “but we are identified as his own by the indwelling Holy Spirit, which is God’s guarantee that he will give us everything he promised, and that he has purchased us to be his own people.” (Ephesians 1:14) This is the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. I already used part of this verse above, but now I will use the complete Scripture: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 6:23) Wow! Is there any wonder why I stand in awe of who God is? He is truly unconditional, unfailing, unending, uncompromising Love!
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May God Bless y’all,
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
Certainly a good word – a life-saving word – for today, Dan. Thanks!