God With Us: Father's Embrace
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UNIVERSAL HUMAN FEAR: "GOD IS NOT WITH ME"
I think every person lives with some variation of the ever-nagging thought that there's a higher power with a good and a bad side. A god with a naughty and a nice list, if you will. A deity from whom we are separate until we get back in line.
So we set out to please and appease this god hoping to get him to draw near. We wrestle with the idea of a god who demands things of us, and we only feel safe if we become enough of whatever we think this god wants of us.
…we only feel safe if we become enough of whatever we think this god wants of us.
This is how we discover the impossibility of becoming enough. Say we believe we acquire this enoughness. Will we not inevitably drop the ball again, realize there's no pot of gold, or worst of all, think well of ourselves for what we've become and call others to match us?
UNIVERSAL GOOD NEWS: GOD IS WITH US
The thing about the Gospel is that Jesus didn't get us on God's good side or empower us to do it. The Gospel didn't change God's mind about us. Emmanuel is God in a body - 'God With Us' - God's mind about us, if you will.
The Gospel changes our minds about God. Left to our devices and natural inclinations, we will live against the grain of reality believing we are unloved and not with God. Even the most confident among us suffer this fear.
The Gospel didn't change God's mind about us…The Gospel changes our minds about God.
The issue facing humanity then, which Christ became incarnate to address, was not that we needed someone to convince God to keep us around. The problem is that humans do not trust the one who made and loves us. Believing the God of galaxies has no time for our badness, we do everything we can to find purification and reconciliation.
This is the lie Christ debunked. God put on flesh to convince us that we have been taken captive with illusions of God. Jesus said if we have seen him, we have seen the Father (John 14:9). But, the story of Jesus is not the kind we like; he is an ultimate loser.
HOW WITH US CAN GOD REALLY BE?
Suppose we're finally honest with ourselves, like an alcoholic for the nth time in a hospital bed, this time on the edge of death. We finally admit we're ultimate losers, too. We are simply unable to measure up to the expectations we think God has of us.
It's in spirals of self-doubt and hopeless despair that we are finally ready to see clearly. That's why God came to be one with us instead of prescribing ways to restore withness on our own (John 17:21, 23; Romans 8:9-11).
It's in spirals of self-doubt and hopeless despair that we are finally ready to see clearly.
Read Kruger's words at the top again. That is the perspective of Jesus, his words to you and me. God made himself in his own image so he could enter the center of the core of our painful unbelief (Kruger's insight on this is not to be missed. I heartily recommend his book, Across All Worlds).
We seem to think that Jesus came to fix disobedience. Although we continue in disobedience, we seek out more and more novelty solutions to make us more obedient. In light of our incurable disobedience and discouragement, can Jesus be considered sufficient?
Jesus didn't fix unbelief by providing a new spirituality cocktail for humans. Through the mystery of his incarnation, death, and resurrection, Jesus did something we will never fully understand: he replaced our unbelief with his belief.
Through the mystery of his incarnation, death, and resurrection, Jesus did something we will never fully understand: he replaced our unbelief with his belief.
He came to restore our trust in the Father by showing us what the Father is really like. His invitation to us is to join his trust in his Father. You don't have to fix disobedience. You don't have to fret over your unbelief.
WHAT 'GOD WITH US' MEANS FOR YOU
Jesus Christ is the Father's embrace of all of us, expelling the liar and the lies. That God is with us means that our nightmare has been exposed as such. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it... From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace" (John 1:5, 16, NRSV).
Jesus Christ is the Father's embrace of all of us, expelling the liar and the lies.
You are not rejected. You are not abandoned. You are not separated. You are not left behind. You are not left out. You are not ignored, abhorred, or tolerated. You have not been issued an ultimatum or a death threat.
You are, and always have been, the child of God. You will never cease to be the delight of his eyes and the desire of his heart. Your home is the living God who holds all things together (Col. 1:17).
In closing, remember the story of the so-called prodigal son.
Your self-righteous offers to be the Father's slave (like the younger son in Luke 15:18-19), and your self-righteous claims of always being faithful (like the older son in Luke 15:29-30), will forever be buried in the Father's embrace as he declares "...you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours" (Luke 15:31).
Your self-righteous offers to be the Father's slave… and your self-righteous claims of always being faithful… will forever be buried in the Father's embrace…
Let this thrill of hope draw you into the party. Raise a glass to the scandal of the Father whose love endures all things.
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