NOT ONLY IS GOD GREAT BUT GLORIOUS

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NOT ONLY IS GOD GREAT, BUT GLORIOUS

CHRIST JESUS, DEFINITIVE EXPRESSION AND SALVATION OF GOD

Rev. Dr. Robert E. Donaldson

Published March 2012

ISBN 978-0-9871661-9-7

PREFACE

In brief,

this has extensive work on matters relating to
liberty, before God and among men,
genes and man, genome and God,
Messianic Psalms, the Place of Pardon,
apologetic news, the realities of faith and features
the paganisation of Australia, a looming horror vigorously at work.
Moving to the realisation of the resurrection, fundamental to Christian LIVING,
it comes to review of solemn farces and sacred realities.

INTRODUCTION

Often you hear of crowds of excited people shouting that God is great. He is.

Less often do you find on the news depictions of people shouting, God is not only great, but glorious.

The one is common Islamic talk; the other is basic Christian doctrine.

God is not only great and powerful and final, author and judge, but He is far more than that. He has a being in character so glorious, so kind, compassionate, pardoning and yet just and true, that not only is He available to be known by man, rather than existing in some isolate seeming position, He came to man and showed Himself to man in Jesus Christ. He gave Himself for us, saved those who believe and will do so till judgment come, and would have ALL come to Him. Such is His glorious wonder that since nothing is too hard for the Lord, there is no mere assorting of good and evil, for with God evil has NO place, and there is no fail for a 49% life, regrettably not quite making the grade, but a pass for each and any who puts faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, His incarnate Person, His triumph physically over death and His power to control all things on this earth. Yet it is not without freedom, and HENCE, without responsibility.

There is no question of being unsure what God will do, and just hoping (John 5:11-12). God HAS acted, and works do not pile up while the disposition is secret anyway, a frustrating combination. Rather works are an outward expression of an inward faith by which God's grace, gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23, 5:15), indeed of His OWN righteousness is made. One can therefore REST in Him in the knowledge of His eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12), as one of His sheep, of which HE is the indefatigable Shepherd (John 10:9,27-28).

In pursuit of this gloriousness of God, this signature of His own holiness, we see with relish and realism that Jesus Christ, the final word (Hebrews 1), as the first (John 1), the first and the last (Isaiah 44:6, Revelation 2:8-9), the Author and finisher of faith, and rejoice that more could not be given, less would not be sufficient, that He is the Saviour of all men, especially of those who believe, in whom salvation is consummate, just as the Saviour consummated it in Himself (Hebrews 10:10-14).

Divorcing inferior or inadequate positions from the truth of God is important. It is as if someone joined BHP and asked where he did his work, replied, in a great company. But there are many great companies. It is unclear. It could involve torture and sedition, subversion, or brilliance and benevolence. Greatness is nothing without characterisability. What SORT of greatness did you have in mind ? Great crusades to crush and to kill, and to rule ? The earth as your universal throne, all subject to you ? Or is it God as your worship, His love and grace as your rule, His judgment as the reality to be avoided, helping others to do the same, His salvation to be freely found, without duress of any kind, but through information on our part, and the action of God as He will.

Here is life without intemperance, truth without terror. If there be terror, it is something from which to deliver, not to impose (II Corinthians 5:9-11). Here lies grace, not diplomatic deviousness, and here is not a desire to triumph over all, but that sin triumph over none. Yet if it must be so, and many prefer darkness to the light of the Lord, they answer to God, not to us. The world is not sought for conflagration by clever outwitting of others, but for deliverance as a site, for many, freely sought, where salvation is freely wrought, by the power of God who, knowing all and each one, misses none. Faith need not fidget, though thousands of Christians are reported slain each year for their faith; it serves God, not only great, but glorious. It serves Christ, not only Commander, but Saviour. It moves with Him, not only the truth, but the power of God and the wisdom of God, the life beyond life and its author, breacher of death, donor of immortality.

This work is intended differentially to feature the special features of God, amid many false prophets and dead on arrival denizens of culture without hope, life without vitality, self-sufficiency without ground. The deceptiveness of Satan and the generic position of humanity without Christ mean that those subverted cannot rationally be held in contempt, but in pity; the contempt is for the errors that seize them, as biblically shown so often and so strongly. What doctor would not deplore disease, and be confused with having contempt for the patient because adverse to, contrary against and seeking to overcome the infection and hence the disease infiltration!

CONTENTS

Chapter I

MAN BEFORE GOD

His Place, His Plight and His Liberty

Chapter 2

SIX STEPS IN the TREACHEROUS MALL for MURDER

with TWO STEPS OUT and ONE RESULT:

Deliverance and Declaration, and Eternal Life

Psalms 22, 35, 41, 55, 69, 109

Chapter 3

THINGS TO BE AS IF THEY HAD NOT BEEN

(cf. Zechariah 10:6)