Nov. 4, 2011
This “Christian life” you and I enjoy should not be possible.
Have you considered God lately? This Being who is so “other” than we mud creations? Those who “met” Him were often reduced to quivering puddles. In trying to describe Him, writers resorted to using “He was like…” yet their comparisons still defy reason and demand our imaginations swim in deep water. His moral perfection is so high, there should be another word for it. He is the perfect One, in exquisite communion with Himself. He did not create life because He was lonely. Life sprang from His lips as easily as love pours out of our mothers. Every star, planet, the globe on which we spin, the matter our eyes and instruments have not discovered, and every beating heart that surrounds us is and was an extension of Him because He is life.
His ways are higher than our ways. The source of His thoughts are rooted in a time that existed before what we now call eternity. His holiness is such that we can only bear glimpses His true self. He is currently the object of worship for a myriad of creatures we cannot begin to understand or imagine. He is not an old bearded man, seated with dignity, on a giant chair. He is not a herculean figure, rippling with muscle and strength as He brandishes a lightning bolt. He is God. And we cannot describe Him nor should we ever be able to “relate” to Him.
Have you considered yourself lately? If Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, was the “chief of sinners,” where does that leave me in that hierarchy? Granted, he could not join our chorus of “Well, I haven’t killed anybody,” but didn’t Jesus say if we have hated we have killed? We were created in God’s image yet are now so marred we bear as much resemblance to His original design as a forest does after the fire has felled and charred every tree and decimated the ground cover to a mix of dirt and ash.
It is popular right now to become a “radical follower” of Jesus, and this of course is a pursuit demanded by the greatness of our God. But do we really believe that these exercises of will even begin to scratch the surface of “putting to death” our “deeds of the flesh?” We are a mess. Our best efforts, our best attempts at living under the control of Holy Spirit, are crayon drawings not worthy of displaying on the refrigerator. The words imperfect or unholy are not adequate to describe our depravity. The word depravity is not sufficient to explain our vicious rebellion. We are human. And we cannot describe our God nor should we ever be able to relate to Him.
God defies explanation. So does the gulf between His holy perfection and our self-righteous blackness. This is why the Incarnation is such profoundly Good News. This perfect One drew back the curtain and stepped down into our world. Light invaded darkness. Spirit took on flesh that was in turn filled by Spirit. Spirit-filled flesh wrestled and surrendered. To death. He was supernaturally transformed into something He had never experienced. And His reason? So that our flesh could be transformed into something we have never experienced. God became human. Jesus became sin. And we cannot describe Him nor should we ever be able to “relate” to Him.
And yet we do. In Christ, we are “holy in His sight, without blemish, and free from accusation.” This is grace.
He is God. We are human. He is light. We are dark. He is perfect. We are not. The division between us and Him should have been impassable. “When His disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, ‘Who, then, can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” We cannot describe Him nor should we be able to relate to Him.
And yet, in Jesus, we stand.
Ezra 9:15 — O LORD, God of Israel, You are righteous! Here we are (standing) before (Your Presence) in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in Your presence.”
Walk WITH Jesus,
Jim