Too often the modern impulse in churches is to make God our
cosmic buddy because of the incarnation and the new relationship made possible
by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Job has done what CS Lewis says is a modern thing, putting God in the
dock, making Him the cosmic defendant who we will cross-examine to determine
how He is guilty of the world not operating properly. What Job gets is a bigger picture of God. Here we see both the transcendence and
immanence of God in one snapshot. God
comes down to respond to and challenge Job and does so by emphasizing the
distinctions between God and man. Yes,
Job gets an unanswerable and withering response but He gets a response from
God. He matters to God! He understands that this isn’t a cosmic
beat-down, that it is God’s way of saying, I know it all isn’t fair, I know it
better than you do, Job, but you don’t have all the information you need to
make a judgment about Me. You haven’t
been from before the beginning, I have.
The transcendence and immanence are both comforting to us, we can rest,
God has it.
John sees the truth about Jesus. Did he know what it meant that Jesus was the
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world? Did he have any idea that the cross would be
the method? Did he know what it meant
that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit?
My answer is that I doubt it on all counts. John’s message was based in repentance for
judgment was coming and he never indicated that he understood that Messiah
would suffer and die. God had revealed
some things to him but the entirety of Jesus’ mission was veiled to all, even
John. He was doing a work of preparation
and now he saw the one for whom he was preparing a people so he pointed not to the
future coming but to the appearance and presence of the One who was promised.
When Jesus returns it will be as a fierce warrior who comes
to establish the eternal kingdom. He
will come against all who have rebelled against God and will destroy all the
enemies of God. All of heaven proclaims
Him and Him alone. Before there is
judgment there is worship. The heavenly
cheering section welcomes this moment.
Certainly it is painful to know what is to come yet from the perspective
of heaven it must be, sin’s reign must come to an end in order for the perfect
order of God to come. Are we, like John,
engaged in the mission of preparing a bride?
Are we grieving over friends and family who are lost, without Jesus and,
therefore, under judgment and without hope of eternal life? If not, it is we who belong in the dock.
At the Lamb’s high
feast we sing,
Praise to our victorious King,
Who hath washed us in the tide
Flowing from his piercèd side;
Praise we Him, whose love divine
Gives His sacred blood for wine,
Gives His body for the feast,
Christ the Victim, Christ the Priest.
Praise to our victorious King,
Who hath washed us in the tide
Flowing from his piercèd side;
Praise we Him, whose love divine
Gives His sacred blood for wine,
Gives His body for the feast,
Christ the Victim, Christ the Priest.
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