Then there is the bigger gift. Charnock ends his amazing book with a long section on the patience of God. He says, “We were all condemned in the womb; our lives were forfeited the first moment of our breath, but patience hath stopped the arrest; the merciful Creditor deserves to have acknowledgment from us, who hath laid by his bond so many years without putting it in suit against us.”
Charnock reminds me that many were not interested in His gift or His patience and are now in an eternal prison. He reminds me also that God would not wait one instant to punish fallen angels or give them a moments space of repentance, yet He prolongs the life of many sinners to innumerable moments, to 420,000 minutes in the space of a year, or even longer. As this theologian says, the damned in hell would think it a great kindness to have but even a moment’s respite as a space to repent in.
This points to the big gift, the One who came to a manger and then to a cross — for me. His story is prefigured in the OT sacrifices — yet they were never enough:
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ” When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. . . . When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:1–14)Jesus is enough — what a gift! He describes it; He even unwraps it and makes it mine:
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds, then He adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. (Hebrews 10:16–18)He encourages me and tells me to endure “so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised… for you are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” (Hebrews 10:35–39)
PRAY: Oh my gracious God, patience is Your perfection and Your “slowness to anger” demonstrates the greatness of Your power over Yourself. You put that patience in me, certainly to endure the nasty things of life, but also an unwillingness to get even with others who are not at all like You. When You arrived here, Magi brought You gifts, yet You are the gift, my King, my High Priest, and the Healer of my soul. What can I say? Thank You is not enough. Yielding to Your transforming power magnifies Your glory and yet even that is part of Your gift to me.
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