The norm or measure by which any thought or action is to be judged a success or failure, right or wrong, is love.
~Joseph Fletcher
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and 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. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
~paul, The Least of The Apostles, in Romans 3
Oh beloved, it is true. There are parts of the Good News of The Gospel, that are so astoundingly deep as to defy the ability of language to describe. However, what is even more astounding is the simplicity of the concepts that escape our grasp.
It seems that is more the scale – the penetrating immensity – of who He is that causes our breakdown. There is this foolishness in a writer exploring the mysteries of the Gospel. He or she sees a tiny bit as The Holy Spirit reveals a piece of the whole.
It is not like a piece of a puzzle – for the Gospel is not puzzle; even a child can understand it. It is more like a taste from the feasting table of the ages to come. But, the taste is so amazingly satisfying and whole and real and good, that there is simply no comparison to anything in this world.
And words fail. The Word towers in infinite immensity over our ability to contain Him in script. Even so, the pen is the mightiest of human tools, so we must use what we have to attempt even that which we cannot do.
So here goes…
Why did G_d save us? And why did He save us the way He did?
He made us. And in making us. He made us like Himself. He bestowed upon us levels of freedom and power, that if taken into our own hands, for our own purposes, would wreak havoc with eternal consequences. There is a nobility in this act, that nearly drives the mind mad. G_d, in His utterly selfless Love created immensely powerful beings who could, if they chose, spit right in His face.
The converse to this truth of our freedom to hate Him, is that the potential also exists for a loving relationship with Him so real and so intimate that we could become one with Him forever. And this could only become true in us, if we had the freedom to be the utter opposite of one with Him. We had to be free to utterly reject Him and go solo into eternity.
And spit we did. We became nearly instantly wretched, and focused on our own wants. We were so short-sighted as to think our wants were more important than the primary need of a human being – that to be in good relationship with Him and each other.
We didn’t even really need it in writing, but G_d showed us the direction He was wanting us to go, through the revelation of His perfection in the body of law given in the first five books of the Bible. But, we were literally too selfish to even really want to read and obey. We looked at the perfection of G_d and (in our foolishness and selfishness) thought we could compete on our own merit.
The astounding pride we developed echoed the sentiments of an archangel who proclaimed that he would make himself like the Most High, and inhabit the same sphere of authority of the One who had made him. And we, like them, fell.
But G_d has a weapon that utterly trumps our fallenness and pride. Though we were fallen and falling completely short of our potential and His glory, He showed that there are parts of Him so deep and so real and so powerful, that they brook no resistance.
G_d looked into the mess we have created, and saw that there was nothing left in us that had any potential to redeem us from the penalty of our selfishness. We were (we thought) wanting to live on our own, and storm the gates of heaven on our own merits. But He knew it was simply not possible… And even so, He wanted us with Him.
So G_d did the impossible. He absorbed the penalty of our sins, and both paid and paved the Way with His very own blood. He gave (again) in utterly selfless Love, that we might come to our senses and once again have the opportunity to choose Him.
It was the only way possible. We were too broken. The separation from Him was too enormous. And so, G_d did the right thing. He helped the helpless. And the help He gave was beyond our wildest imagination. He did not just pay some fine for our sin, He washed it away and replaced it with His perfect heart of Love and Righteousness.
If you are tempted to worship Him right now, you are getting the point.
But, just like anyone who has been in bondage to a self-imposed problem, there is a choice we must make for everything to change. We must first change our minds. We must actually believe there is no other way to get better, but to accept the help being offered by another.
And the price tag is enormous. It is so large that most will never want to pay it. G_d, in showing His own Righteousness and Love and Strength is calling us to utterly abandon our own. Everything has to change in us. All our paradigms must be destroyed.
The choice here is so hard, that we even need His help to believe. For the change in us requires a shattering of who we were so violent as to kill a part of us that we might become fully alive. It is exceedingly more difficult than us trying to do open heart surgery on ourselves.
Don’t do, believe.
Don’t try, trust.
Don’t run, rest.
Don’t be afraid. Love.
Let Go. Let G_d.
