He is both merciful and just…

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. 
Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks; foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers; but you shall be called the priests of the Lord; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy. 
For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed. 
(Isaiah 61:1–9)

Sometimes I feel like a teeter-totter. On one end sits a pessimist who tends to see the worst and can even dip into a depressive thought that nothing good is happening and nothing good will ever happen. Yet that thinking flies away when God gives me passages like this one. He is not done with sinners and the optimist end of the see-saw rises and laughs at my foolishness. How can I forget the promises and plans of God?

Nothing is too hard for Him, yet I have to be on the high side to see it. Getting there requires deeper thinking, focused thought, determination to know what I know, and confession of all unbelief that allows that pessimist be the heavy weight in this battle.

The very next verse in this passage tells me how to think, how to defeat that negative thinking:

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10)

 And the NT has much to say about this spiritual war with the flaming arrows of those evil ‘principalities and powers’ that are determined to overthrow my faith:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life. . . .  (Philippians 2:12–16)

Having God work in me includes giving me the will to do the work He asks. I know my helplessness and have realized that it is in that helplessness that He not only works but is glorified. The pessimist gives Him opportunity to declare His hatred of sin and the optimist states the wonder of His grace and mercy.

Jesus, when people ask how I am, I often make this hand gesture /\/\/\/ for it is true that life is that way because You teach me who You are in both the sunshine and the storms, the ups and downs of life. Many only want the ups with its optimism yet I know You better because of the downs, and either way, that You are with me and working out my salvation for me so that I shine and don’t grumble.

Justice or mercy — or both?

Loving parents fall into a quandary when they make a rule that requires strict obedience, their child breaks that rule, and the parent feels terrible about inflicting punishment. If there is none, rules will be meaningless. If inflicted, the relationship will likely suffer.

Think of God in Eden. “Do not eat that fruit” and when it happened, the justice of God pleads for punishment, but the mercy of God pleas for pardoning. What is a loving God to do? How does the all-wise God deal with this situation?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Jesus died to take our punishment — “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And the love of God sent Him to satisfy the demands of both justice and mercy. Justice is served by the shedding of His blood without one drop of our own.

As Charnock writes, the riches of grace are twisted with the terrors of wrath and the depth of God’s mercy is wound about the flaming sword of justice and that sword of justice protects and secures the depth of mercy. Because of what Jesus did, justice cannot complain for want of punishment, nor mercy for want of compassion. This infinite sacrifice satisfies justice and delights mercy and shouts out to us the wisdom of God.

How amazing that God is righteous without being cruel, and merciful without being unjust. His mercy shines in the midst of all that sin deserves. Yes, all have sinned and fall short, but we…

…are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. (Romans 3:24–25)

As Charnock points out in his section on the wisdom of God, both justice and mercy would be unknown if one of them been sacrificed for the other. Had we been solely fostered by mercy, justice would have forever been secluded. Had we being guilty and been absolved, mercy might have rejoiced, and justice might have complained; but had we been solely punished, justice would have triumphed, and mercy grieved.

Because of God’s wisdom, justice and mercy are both satisfied. The death of His sinless Son is a horror, but if God went one way or the other, we would face “either an unrighteous mercy, or a merciless justice.” Instead, His love gave us a righteous mercy, and a merciful justice.”

Not only that the wisdom of God comes in a great variety of ways, all mysterious and every example fillsl me with wonder. This list describes His redemption plan and how it brought the glory of God with the salvation of man, the defeat of the apostate angels, the discovery of the blessed Trinity in God’s nature, and all He does in combined and distinct acts and expressions of goodness. Salvation reveals the conjunction of three natures, infinitely distinct from one another; the union of eternity and time, mortality and immortality, and death is made the way to life, with shame becoming the path to glory.

Not only that, the weakness of the cross is the reparation of man, and the creature is made wise by the foolishness of preaching. Fallen man grows rich by the poverty of the Redeemer, and we are filled by the emptiness of God. The heir of hell is made a child of God by God taking upon Himself the “form of a servant” and children of men advanced to the highest degree of honor by the Son of God becoming of “no reputation.”

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. (Hebrews 2:10)

And Jesus in the garden praying with drops of blood and saying: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42) Was there no other way? Had the sinless Jesus something else in mind? Likely not, but even if He did, He yielded to death that we might live.

PRAY: I cannot fathom Your wisdom, Lord God, nor question it. You choose the only way to punish sin yet save sinners. My heart rejoices at the great decision You made so I could be set free to love and serve You. Not my will but Yours be done.

 

God is Merciful… be like Him

 

There is one person I’ve had a problem with being kind or merciful toward. This person annoys me and while I know what is done, I cannot figure out why that behavior is so frustrating. At times it seems as if this person is a fake, insincere or not real, showing only what will impress others. I’m not impressed.

However, God tells me that I am not responding the right way and need to put aside my attitude and do what is best for this other person. One, changing my attitude seems impossible. Two, how can I know what is best for that person if they are not transparent about their own needs?

God had me read the following chapter this morning. I need to read it again:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:1–23)

The italicized portion is my part to obey. Instead of being angry at someone, the Lord wants me to let Him have His way and like a glove with His hand, do whatever He asks of me, whether I feel like it or not. And obedience is from the heart, not a pretense lest I do what most annoys me in that other person: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6) or any obedience that is ritual rather than real.

PRAY: Lord, my attitude must be Your attitude for I know that this other person may never change or please me — but that is Your concern. Mine is to listen and learn from You, and to be filled with Your Spirit so I will know and do whatever You know and do. Enable wisdom and obedience lest I sin against You and anyone else.

What would Jesus do?

 

READ Obadiah & Jonah1-4

The prophet Obadiah prophesied that Edom would be repaid for mistreating God’s people. He said to them:

The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, “Who will bring me down to the ground?” Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord. (Obadiah 3–4)

Obadiah also asserted that God is sovereign over the nations and that the house of Jacob would be restored because of God’s covenant love for his people.

The prophet Jonah is a different case. God sent him to a pagan city to preach repentance, but Jonah rebelled and was swallowed by a fish . . .  

When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. (Jonah 2:7–10)

This reluctant prophet then repented and decided to do what God said:

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. (Jonah 3:3–10)

When Nineveh repented, the reason for Jonah’s rebellion became clear: he had feared that God would forgive the Ninevites; and when God did forgive them, Jonah resented it.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (Jonah 4:1–3)

Jonah essentially threw himself a huge pity-party. He sat in the hot sun. God gave him shade from a plant that He sent, but God also sent a worm to kill the plant and Jonah was more upset about his situation than he had been about the sinners in Nineveh. So God said to him:

“You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” (Jonah 4:10–11)

Both stories are a rebuke to my selfishness. Obadiah rebuked the Edomites who were related to God’s people and should be supportive rather than helping Judah’s enemies take them into exile. My challenge is similar. There are many who claim to be “good” people but when push comes to shove, they show resentment to Christian truths and will not stand up for what is right. In situations like that, I find judgment easier than mercy.

Also, it is easier to “flee to Tarshish” than it is to share the Gospel with the Nineveh’s of this world. Tarshish relates to commerce and profit, suggesting how I could get involved with the concerns of this life rather than talk to sinners about their need to repent and receive God’s salvation. Jonah would rather they got what they deserved than repent and be saved. That attitude too easily lurks in my own head.

Jesus was different. He saw sinners as sheep without a shepherd, sinners in need of a Savior. So He died for them. He asks me which example will I follow?