Bring it on! The Lord calls the warriors of all the nations
to battle in the valley of decision. They
are called to come and prepare themselves for the battle to end all
battles. The imagery here certainly
sounds familiar to us as we have just worked our way through the chapters of
the Revelation when the judgments of God are revealed and the nations are
arrayed in Armageddon against the Lord. Joel
sees that day in the same way John saw it, the reaper there with a sickle to
destroy, the winepress of God's wrath trampling out the grapes of unrighteousness,
the vats overflowing with the blood of the wicked. The end result is that the city is only for
the righteous, the same as in the heavenly Jerusalem that John saw.
The relationship of the Law to the kingdom of God is that it
must be fulfilled in order to enter the kingdom, there must be a perfect
righteousness. Jesus fulfilled it for
us, we reap the rewards of His righteousness by putting our faith and trust in
Him, we agree with God that He was and is the perfect sacrifice for sin, once and
for all who believe. We must hang our
heads in shame for our sin in order that we might allow Him to be the lifter of
our heads, the giver of eternal life by grace through faith in Christ
alone. Our sins must be judged by us in
order to receive His righteousness. We must
come to that place where we see sin for what it is and then put our trust and
hope in Jesus. We may not enter that
heavenly city unless we give Him our sin and receive His righteousness.
Mercy triumphs over judgment. We are to be thankful for that truth. God's mercy is on those who fear Him. We receive mercy to the extent that we
recognize Him as God, the creator and judge of all things and all people and we
recognize that we are liable to His judgments, which are righteous, because of
our sin, our unrighteousness. Before we
can walk before Him in humility we must kneel before Him in sorrow and
fear. Jesus said there are two basic
commandments and the first is fulfilled in fearing the Lord, recognizing Him as
the One and only God of heaven and earth and as holy, righteous and just and walking
in His ways. The second is loving my
neighbor as myself, in that command is the recognition that all of us are image
bearers of God who have sinned and in Him there is no partiality. Therefore there is to be no partiality among
us, we are all sinners saved by grace and societal standing is immaterial. We are in the brotherhood of sinners and the
brotherhood of those saved by grace. No one
gets there on his own merit but Jesus.
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