The world is the immeasurable totality of energies and forms, a tissue of relations extending into ever-increasing enormity and withdrawing into ever-decreasing minuteness. All this was thought, willed, and realized by God. Nothing was supplied for him, neither models nor matter. And all these forms and arrangements, so full of truth, which science strives unceasingly to penetrate, only to see again and again that they continue into the vast unknown; this profusion of value and meaning which ever and ever again impinges upon the human mind yet can never be fathomed—God has made them.
~Romano Guardini (1885-1968)
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through Whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the Word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the Name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You”? Or again, “I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son”? And again, when He brings the firstborn into the world, He says, “Let all God’s angels worship Him.” Of the angels He says, “He makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire.” But of the Son He says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness beyond Your companions.” And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of Your hands; they will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe You will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will have no end.”
~ The Encourager, writing in Hebrews 1
Oh beloved, it is true. We know that the The Truth finished The Way for us to the Father through the giving of His Life. Good Friday is the celebration of the finished work of Jesus. There is, however, a great mistake made by many of us who believe.
Good Friday was the final inflection point of His work to pay for our sins. This we know. Without His perfectly perfect life as a real Man on this earth – completely fulfilling the Law – we (read each and every one of us) would have been lost in the fetid oceans of this fallen cosmos. And, at our human death, we would have entered into a lake of fire – eternally separated from His Love.
Our problem though, is that we put this redemption into a specific series of acts and situations, limited to the 33 or so years that our Precious Brother was on this earth. And it is in limiting the redemption of the world to only the time that Jesus was on this earth, that we miss huge part of what the plan of His Great Salvation is all about.
Everything is about Salvation. Everything He has made, was, is, and will be about making us into the brothers of The Son, and sons of The Father.
Life itself
All creation
Gravity
Energy
Stars
Oxygen
Water
Food
Trees
Bugs
Bread
Wine
Everything.
Oh, fear not that this fool of a writer is diving off into some sort of pantheistic rant. The tree nor the bug nor the star is deity. Rather, what i am attempting to say is that, not only does creation declare the glory of G_d, it is His glory pressing in around us to sustain us in the path He has set before us. As a woman’s hair is a manifestation of her own beautiful glory, the universes are His.
And in creating both universe(s), and us, the truly crucial act of redemption done at The Cross, was more of a crossing of the T. Said more simply, the cross was vital – and could have only been accomplished by Him. But, so were (and are) so many other things – and He too is the only One who can accomplish them all.
Can we see it? Jesus said it. He is the Bread of Life, He is The Vine; apart from Him there is no nourishment or hope or growth or anything. There is nothing that is not made and sustained by Him. And so, anything we think we bring to the table in serving Him – has already come from His. Even our faith in Him is a gift of His Grace.
So, everything He has ever done, does do, and will do is working for our good. So, was Good Friday important? Absolutely. Let us just not forget that His redemption of us is something that happened only 2000 years ago. His work is so much larger than that. It is eternal in scope, so large that it was accomplished before the foundations of the world – and will continue forever.
Tonight is your night beloved. Time to believe in the enormity of His Great Work on our behalf. He is indeed Mighty to Save.
