Tuesday, October 27, 2009

"No Frame Of Reference"

God created a human race that quickly rebelled against Him. Rather than destroy Adam and Eve, however, He immediately set about to reveal His purposes of loving redemption. "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them" (Genesis 3:21).

No one else would have done this. No angel of heaven nor human of earth would have acted in such grace and mercy, foreshadowing the sacrifice of the Lamb of God on the cross of Calvary. Such goodness exists inherently only in the God of the Bible, the living and true God. In the wonder of His heart and purpose, He determined in eternity past to redeem humanity by its most terrible crime of torturing the Lord Jesus Christ to death on a cross of shame and rejection. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them" (II Corinthians 5:19).

We have no frame of reference for such a heart. Even in the present dispensation wherein believers are inhabited by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, and often reveal His character and nature, it is still true that the fullness of Divine mercy cannot be adequately displayed. "Thou art God alone" declared the Psalmist, and nothing so declares our Lord's singular nature as His attitude and actions toward those who defy Him (Psalm 86:10).

In Heaven, the greatness of God's power, majesty, and magnitude will rightly cast us to our faces in awe. I am convinced, however, that something else will drive us even lower in worship and adoration of our Creator. The wounds on the hands, feet and side of the Lord Jesus still remain in His glorified body (John 20:27). They tell us of a Heart for which, again, we have no frame of reference. In one sense, we never will. Even in our own glorified state, we will never completely fathom the singular goodness of God. He gives His dearly Beloved for His enemies, for those who spit upon Him, taunt Him, pluck His beard, flog Him, crucify Him, and kill Him. What kind of Heart is this? We presently do not know more than a glimmer of its glory, nor will a long forever allow us to fully answer the question. We have no frame of reference, either now or in eternity.

"The Lord is good."
(Psalm 100:5)

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