9 July 2010
Psalm 16, 17; Deut. 31:7-13,24-32:4; Rom 10:1-13; Matt. 24:15-31

Moses completes the writing of the Law and commands the people that every seven years all the Law is to be read to the people so that they may have no excuse for knowing the will of God for their lives. In the book of Nehemiah we see a people who have forgotten the law, they have not kept this command and when it is read and the sense is given to them they begin to weep for their sinfulness and have to be encouraged to eat as the day is the Lord’s. Do we have an adequate sense of sin that we should “acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness” and is “the remembrance of them grievous unto us.” Those are the words of the confession of sin in Rite I, and I often have to pause and ask myself if I truly understand sin and righteousness enough to see how horrible a thing sin is in order that I might more fully appreciate the great love of God in Jesus’ taking on those sins. I am a great sinner and in need of a great savior.

Jesus continues to tell his disciples how horrible will be those days before His coming again. These same things are written in the book of the Revelation given to John at Patmos, the end is horrifying and yet there are those who will not turn to the Lord to save them. The fallenness of humanity is so great that even in these things we cannot or will not see the Lord. Jesus’ promise is that He will come in the heavens, just as He ascended before the eyes of the disciples.

For Paul it was a great grief to see his brothers and sisters in Judaism refusing to see the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. He knew that it took a work of God to open his own eyes so that he was able to see and receive that salvation. He formerly thought of himself as righteous, deserving of special note by God but in that encounter on the road to Damascus he saw both Jesus and himself clearly and realized the effects of sin in his life were such that without God’s grace in opening his eyes by blinding him he could never have been saved. It is simply the recognition of belief and the confession of the lips of Jesus Christ that allows us to enter eternal life. How can we not celebrate and praise Him to the highest heavens? How can we keep our lips sealed in front of the world if we know the greatness of God?

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
I keep the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
my body also rests secure.
You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of joy;
in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.