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CHAPTER ONE
Psalm 103
The All-encompassing Grandeur of
God in His Glory
The
all-encompassing grandeur of God in His glory
Overwhelmed by the
sheer scope and munificence, the boundless bounty of the lavishly liberal God,
in His giving and presentations, David calls on his soul, his communing
self-conscious life, indeed he extends it, saying "all
that is within me," let it bless His holy name. Thus girding himself to
leave no part out, in his soul's delight in the Lord, and EXPRESSION of that
delight, he also wants to ensure that NO PART of His benefits be forgotten or
ignored.
His Vast Benefits
"Forget
not all His benefits."
Faced with fault, in
His people, He forgives (just as we are challenged to forgive others at the end
of the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6), and forgives all. He heals all your
diseases. This David had found, and great were his trials and tribulations,
perils and conflicts, privations at first and persecutions. While for all saints
all diseases are not in practice always cleared up, as in the case of Paul
noted in II Corinthians 12, if this be so, it is for good reason. Thus in the
case of the apostle, so great were his benefits, powers and privileges with God
that lest his head swelled and his heart grew gross, he was by a 'thorn in the
flesh', an affliction, kept in check. In the case of Job, it was a specified
part of his trial, to show that he was not a self-seeking, self-serving cynic
whose only interest in God was what he could get out of it, as if on a
commercial basis, this much in, that much out.
NO disease is beyond
the Lord, and in the midst of His enormous strategies to bring man to heel, to
repentance, to wisdom before he is ready to destroy his very world rather than
repent (as is coming to be the case, as predicted in Matthew 24:22, sin
literally stopping at nothing), He can and often does heal beyond what could
even be imagined. He relieves the distress as in Psalm 107, when folly has
caught the heart, foolishness the mind and waywardness the spirit; and for just
such cases, there He challenges man to praise the Lord and acknowledge the great
goodness of the Lord, instead of hiding hatred or unbelief in some foppish form
or invented procedure. It is for the heart to speak, and the mind to order its
thoughts aright.
The Lord "redeems your life from
destruction", David proceeds. Destruction is our due. Often one finds
this thought. If civilisation in its child-abuse, slave-abuse, religious
pretence to forward rights abuse, civic authority to squash reasonable desires
instead of finding how to meet them, God-abuse, in the form of dismissal with
smirks when the folly is found in His denial, who made the power to have
rational thought in the first place, for no chance can invent what is not there
... at all:
if this
proceeds, in the divine mercy the time comes when He answers the question, Would
it be better REMOVED, instead of perpetuating horror and distress! Sodom He
removed, for good reason, as also the North of Israel, this becoming the alien
Samaria. Judah was exiled for 70 years a little later. Further, Babylon was
smashed to nothingness (as foretold in Isaiah 13:19), with Nineveh, as predicted
in Obadiah, and Tyre as in Ezekiel 26.
Dramatically in the case of Tyre, in His judgment, duly
fulfilled, came this sentence:
"And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a
place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have
spoken it, saith the Lord GOD."
It is a wonder to be redeemed from destruction:
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1) bodily, in
the resurrection to come with the return of the Resurrected Jesus Christ
(Philippians 3:20-21, Luke 24:39);
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2) in mind, in the renewal of the Spirit of God, which embraces,
encourages and illuminates (Ephesians 4:23);
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3) in spirit (Titus 3), where guilt departs with guile, and truth
forms like an ocean,
illimitable and yet beautiful, tossing its glory on all sides,
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4) from hell, that infernal given substitute with the
supernal,
devastation with fulfilment, the haven for hatred in lieu of the glory of God,
with the peace of God and the sure prospect of eternity, friends with Him.
Who, knowing the Lord, could ever forget THIS deliverance!
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Indeed, so great is
that deliverance that the dismissal of destruction is a forerunner to the Lord
who "crowns you with lovingkindness and tender
mercies." What was out of place, is placed outside, and what was not in
place, now occupies it not as an occupying force, lordly in its take-over, but
as a pitiful Father, glorious sovereign, source of meaning and object of desire,
the founder of life, dashing to pieces what confounds and founding one on ROCK,
even Christ (I Corinthians 10), God being the ONLY Rock for life (Psalm 62).
Moreover, when the
asthenic, the weak comes to disrelish life, He is able to bring fatness to the
soul, renewing one's life like the eagle's. Where pride or apathy strikes, then
weakness may ensue; but what joy He can give as if virtually to intoxicate with
the elixir of youth (103:5), even when age reminds that this phase is drawing to
a close (as in Isaiah 40:26ff.). He can indeed teach one things not foreseen,
like an eagle, tossing its chicks on outspread wings, teaching them to fly with
a solicitude and realism mixed (Deuteronomy 32:11-12).
His Magnificent Mercy
In Its Scope
Firstly, the Lord, despite the fallen and squalid state of much
of the peoples of this earth, "executes righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed." Where His name is denied, so His
grace may be missed; but when the Hebrews of old were as a covenantal people*,
made into slaves following the fantastic gifts Egypt received through Joseph's
rule under Pharaoh, a degradation occurring with new rulers, God took thought
for them. Indeed, He manufactured a mission through Moses not only bringing them
out of slavery but far from the enslaving land. In a non-theocratic land like
our own, there is no such covenantal relationship to God, though it IS true that
our Constitution has a Pre-amble which, whatever its legal standing, states
that the States agreed to unite as one Commonwealth IN DEPENDENCE ON
GOD-ALMIGHTY. Nor is there any question, in the then still cordially
Britain-related land, which 'god' they had in mind.
That is one of the
significant facts about all this talk on changing our Constitution. It is made
to appear multi-cultural and good and all that; but in fact, if it is going to
make each equal, then special privileges by race would not be tolerated, though
they currently apply to a large degree. It is not law which is needed, but
compassion mixed with intelligence and objective morals such as formally
obtained in earlier times. It is useless to call that compassion with degrades
and kills; and indeed an aboriginal leader has excoriated the practice of making
mere dependents who have no challenge.
While a people who had some parts of Australia before us are by
some made into some kind of religious ferment, with special impartation
privileges, so that through this, an entirely different religion takes off,
making anything as good as anything else in 'nature' amidst all, Australia
tends to lose all character and to become the plaything of whoever and whatever
wants to put its great or depraved foot in our land. Thus it is more and more
divorcing from what coincided with its former greatness and solvency, in a
falling phase of mere transformation by slackness. ITS benefits like those of
any other kind of slackness, are that the slippery slope leads to that crushed,
crashed meaninglessness where this or that moral or racial or civil germ
flourishes to make a national pandemic, leading to deserved destruction. That,
it is almost the norm for many a nation, forgetting its base and becoming base
itself, in both senses of the term.
However, where the
people draw near to God, and His ways do exalt a nation (Proverbs 14:34), then
as in Dunkirk, before much of the moral ruin that has afflicted Britain
especially in its relationship with the Common Market, you find great
deliverances. Indeed, great were those both for Britain and the USA, for many a
year, before decline became a passion and alteration towards relativistic
seediness became de rigueur for many. Where, however, the Lord's ways are made
known, there is an approach to righteousness and His delight in it.
Slow to anger is He (which you see in how long so many were
delivered amid peoples, individuals and nations), even amid growing evidences of
falling, as from a high crag to the rocky base; but the time comes (Amos 4). He
does not always strive, we read; His is not a mere desire for a meaningless
rigour but for a real righteousness, not founded on illusion, but on Him who
made us and knows what He is about. Indeed, each Christian knows this, that
"He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor
punished us according to our iniquities," Psalm 103:10.
In Its
Profundity
How great is the mercy of the Lord ? In height,
"as the heavens are high above the earth." In
distance ? "as far as the East is from the West"
has He "removed our transgressions from us." How
personal is this mercy ? It is
"as a father pities his children." While great
and gross are unnatural follies even among parents, and amid States, which dare
to tell them how NOT corporally to discipline at all and as now is becoming
more common amid a besotted culture, likewise to use drugs to deal with wrong channeling of children's ways, as with attention deficits and the like, there
is a better way. It relates to the natural tenderness and affection, care and
responsibility of parents towards their young, prominent even amid magpies who
do not let their babes tumble up, but bring them up. Mixed with truth, this is a
continuing wonder.
If it is unnatural for a father to misuse his children rather
than care tenderly for them, how much more is it so with the God of all
creation, when HE deals with His own special children whose faith in Him began
in repentance, was founded in truth, based on redemption, covered with mercy,
stretching, as is becoming for the Eternal God, TO eternity (as in I John
3:1-3). In these, His adopted children, His "seed" remains, as surely as Jones
or Brown seed remain in the physical being of such as bear those names (cf. John
5:24, Ephesians 1:11).
While pretence is always noxious, and superficial dreaming is no
substitute for any kind of reality (Hebrews 6:4), nor is tasting swallowing, nor
touching finding, nor knowing about the truth the same as receiving it (Hebrews
10:26-29), it is still true that what by faith takes His covenant in His own
blood, trusting not man but God, this in the day of His coming
(John 6:51,54, 4:14), He will raise up, vindicated and victorious through His
life (Matthew 20:28, Colossians 3:1-3, Philippians 3:20ff.). It is SUCH a
challenge to mean thinking: the MORE you rely on Him only, the MORE you gain of
Him altogether, and when you try to supplement the basis of your salvation, you
merely deny it (as in Romans 10). Affirming it, you grow.
It is WHEN you are saved that works abound with joy, WHEN you are
planted that fruit becomes relevant! (Matthew 15:13).To try to FIND salvation
through your contribution of will (John 1:12, Ephesians 2:1-10) or any other
current part of you, however, is to risk becoming co-saviour and mere worker of
folly. Since He desires all (Colossians 1:19ff.), it is necessary in repentance
to trust Him ALSO for His willingness beyond your own will, and simply CALL on
Him, knowing there is no mystery about His mind to man, and that it is not man
but his irreconcilability that He hates, with man trying to make himself
acceptable in himself, or by himself, slighting the Gospel, walking in pride or
pretence, heart amiss.
Those who do not merely give to Christ their calling card, but call on Him in
faith as Lord above all people, trust Him as Saviour above all including
themselves, rely on His mercy and being regenerate, KNOW God (John 17:1-3), who
being His children, rest in Him (Matthew 11:27ff.): These are equipped with
eternal life (Hebrews 6:19, 9:12,10-10-14, John 4:14). HE is their anchor!
It is a thirsty site, hell, but there is no
thirst for those who once drink of the water He gives, eat of the bread or take
His sacrificial offering to heart by faith (John 6:62-63), for on these, He has
conferred eternal life, His body and blood the necessary entry fee. It is these
whom HE, being Himself therefore risen, raises up at the last day (John
6:51-58), who having once so eaten and quenched their thirst, are moved to
continue as a life in Him, so to imbibe and to feed, faith in His bodily
resurrection the catapult to trust! (John 6:54, Romans 10:9). As He abided in
His Father, so these abide in Him (John 5:24). There is no treachery in truth,
nor mud in His mercy. What a Father God is, and what a Saviour is Christ, the
Christ of God, "the Lord's Christ"! (Luke 2:26).
We still at least have no difficulty in
knowing what the love and cherishing of parents towards their young MEANS! Like
that is the tender-hearted pity of the Lord, who sees and seeks for His
children, born again by His Spirit and word into His kingdom (John 3, I Peter
1:23,Titus 2-3, I John 3).He knows those who have a reverential trust in Him,
who relish His authority and delight in His wisdom (Ps. 103:13-14). Not His are
weird notions about the nations or individuals, for He knows how we were
fashioned from the elements as chemical basis, and inhabited with spirit as a
living mode. He is not some kind of self-filled zealot, like many socialists,
who dictate their will, often divorced from God and acting as if to replace Him,
or Communists, who kill for conformity, or sects, which instil their own
personal authority into what could have been churches, and make new notions the
rule. God Himself does not alter, nor does His word, nor does His way for man:
it is intensively merciful, and not without discipline and pity (James 5:11,
Heb. 12, Ps. 102).
His Covenantal Faithfulness and Strength for Obedience
"His kingdom rules over all,"
(Psalm 103:19) and what doubts it has many opportunities such as that classic in
the case of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4), to find it out! He is very deep and the
superficial parodies of Him and His authority which man sets up have become
intensively oppressive, disruptive, draining and dictatorial, often fearful of
free speech, or even removing it on specious pretexts. In a little (cf.
Answers to Questions
Ch. 5),
that will become most obvious (Psalm 2, 72, Habakkuk 2:14, Isaiah 11), but amid
the lavish freedoms given to man, He still teaches these things amid our
ceaseless calamities, and brings pause to the corruptive arrogance that so soon
sweeps over man and his governments, like a misty haze dangerous to shipping in
the early morning. He knows man's weakness and yet apportions His own strength
to His own people, to endure, to understand, to attest Him, while the divine
drama comes to its last act. To children's children His covenantal mercies rush
ahead, like scouts in a new territory, even for all who realise His truth and
are bound to His will and ways, freely by love, joyfully by faith.
This they do in mercy and pity, in compassion and in dutiful
courage, if by any means any may even now be found - if you will, in the byways
and in the hidden places. Strength He gives (Ephesians 3:16), and those who find
this (Acts 5:32), let them also "bless the Lord,"
even His angels and missionaries, servants and disciples, to whom God
gives His Spirit, doing His word. Do not even professional doctors have keys and
paradigms to follow; how much more the word of God for those who fear Him, and
love Him, and delight in Him, not cutting off His mouth in some figment, but
loving every word of it. Bless the Lord O my soul, and all that is within me,
bless His holy name.
NOTES
*1 EXCURSION
ON WHAT REASON REQUIRES
AND REVELATION PROVIDES
The relationship of man
to God by covenant is fundamental. God is not mocked by arbitrary and
unsustainable irrationality, which would reduce Him to becoming a mere
participant in what avoids creation by being there always, so that all that is,
good and bad, evil and brilliant, sick and strong, corruptive and redemptive
becomes rolled like a thin cream, into a surface that erupts from time to time.
That avoids the necessity for a sufficient cause for the entirety of delimited,
legislated, ordered and organised differentiae, by simply bypassing it. Begging
the question may be fit for a dog, in that the master can hand to its mouth the
tit-bit desired. It is not adequate for rational thought for the very reason
that it takes for granted what has in that case no source for the grant at all!
You cannot have it both ways. Have God and find the grant; have only the Being
structure and there is no source either for it or for anything it needs. It
becomes like a derelict car, never made, always rusting, useless for lack of
care and concern as to its purpose. Take the BEING type of religions. All is one
or one is all (cf. SMR p. 1012).
Either the entirety is made into one roiling, embroiling, unaccountable whole,
or evacuating of anything but process, it yields by self-contradiction the truth
about itself, from a source not consulted, so that the nature of process is to
be found from process, as if it lectured on itself, without mind. If all were
process, how would you know! (cf. SMR Ch. 3).
Of what use is it to
have the entire world conceived as the body of some Brahmin, for example, in
relative independence, but not his nature, when 'body' is in its very meaning,
an appendage which is personal and expressive of what is the will of the mind
and the desire of the spirit, as a means! This is mere contradiction in terms.
If only one system is all, with its various entities and sub-entities and forms
and forces, good and evil, mad and sane, then there follows an inescapable
conundrum.
First, it is contrary
to reason. The marriage of opposite in a unity is mere talk: it is logically
impossible, just as having an account for 10,000 dollars credit is not the same,
nor alignable as one with a debt for the same amount. Vacuous verbiage achieves
nothing.
Secondly, it is without
reason. What is the basis for this conglomeration, with its varied members,
ranks and files, contradictions and appendages ? Why has such a series of
mini-systems, moving within macro-systems able in its unwieldly and inapposite
clashes, come to be ? If it has all these forces and dynamics, dealings
and design features so that it is in its multiplicity of beings and forces,
kinds and characteristics, blights and creativities, then notionally put them in
a 'god' bag or not, what is its ground ?
It just is ? In that
case, it is without ground, basis or origin of its orienteering. It is a begging
the question entity, invented by the mind of man who as such, has no
access to truth, since it is all embroiled with a total system of truth and lie,
with multiple powers which limit, harass or counter others, whatever titles may
be given. Though causes exist within it, for its multiplicity of entirely
diverse and dynamic entities, it has no cause. It presents an oversight of
itself, an overview, from an entity within it, and yet this is a totality
in which the results are incorporated in the cause, so that it does not ab
initio produce them, but merely co-exists with them. What is the
ground for the concept of operative causality in the midst of causative results
? How can there BE such a BEING as this entity, which is allegedly all one, when
it is already in being, and so CANNOT be the ground of that being!
You could isolate if
you would, the creative part, or the legal or legislative part, or parts, as you
prefer, and put them all notionally into a vast pot, making them a variety of
being, and yet it is still on the adjoining fire, part of the entirety and not
operative as its preceding Creator. It therefore neither is ground for the
multiple non-conformities of the creation, nor explanation, nor basis. It exists
with all the rest that exists.
Moreover, truth is not
available in such a system. If it were, then the relative independence of the
'body' of Brahmin, so long as it is conjoined in being with him, limits
objectivity, and interprets multiplicity. Nothing constituted by clashing
clangours and mutually impelling force, let alone contradictory passions
and mutually destructive entities is able to arise above its constituents. It
may appear to do so, or have this ascribed to it, but as
far as mutual interaction goes, necessary for what is in part constitutive of a
Being, truth does not and cannot have place. There is nothing free from it all
absolutely which is not subjectible to any of it, and yet is aware as from
without it, of what it is doing in fact. Incorporation is not illumination.
That is why you have
this churning, yearning for truth and immense difficulty with 'roaring silence'
and the like, the complete inability summon direct to the mind and soul, the
spirit of man, the essence of the whole, leaving a sort of evacuation program,
so that with the elimination of all the 'parts' you find nothing is left,
nothing specifiable or characterisable, an impersonal target always escaping
connotation for its being. You see this in such an approach as found in
the Taitinya Upanishad*2.
In fact, either the
originative is the origin, or there is no originative cause, and irrationality
is the summary of the whole.
Thus if only any entity
or god or theme be within what is eternal, then being a mere part, it cannot be
free as is a separable being: for if it were, the whole would be no whole
at all, what is in view, not one but two, with one a separable entity, the
ground and basis of the other. That is what is normally called God: origin,
maker, Creator, one without contradiction, need of explanation as no series of
systems is attached, but one changeless and everlasting Being, self-sufficient
and sufficient for all that is, and is not itself.
Knowing all because
Creator of all, without attachment of any kind, as God, with creation, but
related only by will and decision, program and intention, He is not a looming or
underlying principle, person or power, but singular in character, single in
being, and ultimate explanation of all, He is the judge of all and the saviour
for all. HOW is He the saviour of all men, especially of those who
believe (I Timothy 4:10). This as is in Isaiah 48:15ff., is wrought by the
nature of His singular Being. Reality is to be found out, not guessed, whether
in a new continent, star or in the Creator. You learn by finding out. God exists
as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Son the incarnation of His word, by which He
rules and created the universe (Colossians 1:15ff). He sends (as One, the
Speaker), goes (as One the Word) and with His Spirit acts. Salvation comes from
God as God for man as man. You may take it or leave it, but not alter it, any
more than any other gift beyond your own power, and available as you pass
(Proverbs 1).
It is NOT as a
principle which mingling with destruction has a character which does not rule,
but exists in unsolaced complexity, inept and inadequate to be itself,
participant in what contradicts itself which likewise is even part of it. It is
not that. God did not give us reason in order to be unreasonable, or the power
to argue in order to abuse it with irrationality as if this were a possible
course for it, mingling its overthrow with its use.
GOD Himself can tell
what He has done, if He so chooses, and why, and what is needed for its current
position, objectively. He can likewise do what it takes for it, just as He
made it; and truth is the obverse of His own majesty actions. What He says and
does are correlatives, though access to that truth is on His own conditions, as
is so much that is of value in general, adorned with conditions. With Him, you
have to find it, though it has been made clear for millenia (cf. SMR
Ch. 1). It is however freely given. Just as
creation was, salvation is,
It is a matter of work:
His. That is why self-saving modules of philosophy or religion are so vain. We
require work to be and to be put right when swerving and careering amiss.
Creation is work as we all know by our own experience. Giving form and
format, character and expression, being and distinctiveness to things according
to one's mind, plan and purpose is a labour of mind and power, imagination and
discretion, with such further plans as mind and purpose devise. So likewise is
salvation. It is not part of destruction, or allied to it in any way
except what is by definition logically the case: contradiction. That is just one
reason why ONE BEING religions fail, and must do so (cf. SMR pp.
996ff.,
1011-1026). Salvation is not
associated in any being with its opposite, or any system of thought of a unitary
character.
On the contrary, it is
resolution of destruction: it is from this that it saves. It is free from it,
enters into it, deals with it, and leaves it redeemed. It is done by labours
within what is to be saved, as one works on a panel-beating for a smashed
vehicle. It is not part of its object of salvation, or it would participate in
its ruin. It is not responsible for the ruin, being as Creator the institutor of
the exact opposite.
Salvation is a labour
of the Creator who, seeing the abuse of his creation, acts to rescue within it.
But what does He rescue ? Is man with his responsibility in weighing courses of
action, and resolving issues according to his satisfaction or will, or some
vision of his own, to be absolved as if he knew only what can pass muster as
rational and responsible, as if he were some angelic being ? Does he not both
wreak vengeance and indulge ambition to overcome by guile, what is far better ?
Is he not conscious when he bypasses the gifts and power of God, and acts in his
own psyche ? Is not lust in his ways and intoxication in his dreams, which
seizing the reins of power, become other people's nightmares! Is man to be blind
because history is awake!
Since man daily acts in
ambition, devastation whether of the morals which make him workable, or the
design which makes him an assignable entity, or in, on or over the bodies or
minds of those obliterated or obfuscated by his follies, what is the use of
pretending that goodness is his nature ? It is contrary to the evidence. If some
prefer to ignore their Maker, what is good in that ? If others prefer to
make fresh versions of Him, contrary to the evidence, what is the value in
that ? If some want to force their imaginations on other people, as in Communism
(Index-Mini) Islam (cf. More Marvels
... Ch. 4) in many of its ways and codes, Romanism as
in the Inquisition (Ancient Words ... Ch.
14) and participation in counsel of kings (SMR p.921),
what is good about that ? Is not conniving and surviving and forcing without
ground, elevating what has no evidential authority over millions, a folly that
wreaks vengeance on man, before any divine retribution!
To obviate man's
wreckage, which continues to wreck, since at present it is only partial and
threatening as Christ foretold (Matthew 24:22), is the power and pursuit of an
imagination that refuses to face the disease. Imagine something, call it
religion or atheism or agnosticism, and gallop! This is not so much begging the
question but ignoring it, like a flighty horse. To rectify man amid his
wreckage, this is labour and in the God of truth, verification and
validation is expressed in the Bible (cf. TMR
Ch. 5, Barbs ...
6 -7, Deity and Design
... 8); and it is called
salvation.
It does not apply to
this world until the contradictions and contrary dynamics, instead of
interminably confronting each other, are overcome in judgment; but when that
time comes, so does a time to exhibit in this world, the glory of God as
in Isaiah 11 and Psalm 72, Revelation 20.
In the meantime, which
is now, a testing time amid the various forces, with God in His own being, not
one of them, or with them, or contained with them, but their Creator, what
occurs from Him, which is beyond, over and for it ? It is the salvation
which by Him, together with creation is work done; and it is made available just
as bodies were made available for the spirit of created man at the first.
This salvation has two parts. First and now, when found and accepted,
received and applied, it is a coverage of the guilt of contrariness without God
(cf. Isaiah 52-53), or in war on Him, or in indifference to Him (like a child
ignoring the rules of the table, or a horse those of the stable), a provision to
exempt by sacrifice, from a vast and literal impertinence on the part of fallen
man. It proceeds through repentance to redemption by this self-same sacrifice of
the Saviour.
By labour in bearing
this sin, a work available for one and for all, in application, and covering as
many as will come (Romans 8:32), by HIm, guilt is covered through sacrifice. The
adequacy of the covering is in itself covered by the blood of the sacrifice,
which being that of the only begotten Son of God, sent in major thrust for this
very purpose, is a sufficient atonement, bearing the debts with credits, the
evil by the overpowering liberality of divine good, the dynamic of devilishness
with the power of God. So does He act for the spoiled design of God,
fallen man, gifted with an abused liberty, and a surging licence!
Purging by purifying,
pardoning by accepting the bill, He has intervened once for all, sufficient for
all, effective for some, relatively few, but overall, very many indeed (I John
1:7-2:2, Matthew 7:15ff., Revelation 7). Thus God who senbt made Him whom He
sent, who knew no sin, to become sin for us (that is a sin offering,
bearing it as in II Corinthians 5:17ff.). As always, it affects only those who
receive it by faith (John 8:24), for those whose sin He bears as in Isaiah 53,
these are those who are HEALED by His stripes. He does not throw spiritual cash
about, but assigns and consigns it where it comes to lodge.
That is a gift sent
FROM outside this world and no part of it; but it is PLACED inside this world,
just as the Saviour was in His incarnation time so to act; and it is
sufficient for any sinner within this same world, while entirely useless for
those who, like impudent children, refuse to know their sin, and seeing nothing
beyond themselves and their squinting vision, are wilfully limited by their
selves. The convicting power of God can be resisted (as in Acts 7:51-53).
Laundry that is never deposited is never washed. What is never washed but far
from perfect, is never clean. Thus God speaks in Jeremiah 13:27:
"Woe
to you, O Jerusalem, will you not be made clean ? when shall it once be
?
Certainly this is selective. God who selected first what the creation should be,
then acted to make it with labour, saves some and not others. Some do not DESIRE
salvation, some do not admit they need it, others fear to consider it: but in
the end, each takes or does not take it. It is present from the power of the
Creator-Redeemer, who is not a principle or feature or functionality within it,
but its origin, explanation and historic institutor; and it is capable of
rejection by man who surveys with the power of the spirit put in him, and the
evidence presented to him, and using his own will, seeks what he wants.
He may
want purity but refuse to pay the price; he may not want purity and love to find
in its denial, a temporary satisfaction. He may want to BE God, or to be PART of
God or some other ruinous feature contrary to reason, revelation and
demonstrable reality. There are many reasons WHY man may avoid salvation, free
though it is (Ephesians 2, Galatians 3, Romans 5). He may prefer to confuse
himself, lest the light come to his mind and the guilt stain himself so
obviously that it can no longer be hidden (as in Matthew 13:15ff.).
However, equally he may yield and surrender to the call to be clean (Luke
14:31-33), from God, and accepting washing from evil (Titus 3), find in this
same Christ release from the debt of guilt, and acknowledging the claims of God
as his Author, become an adopted child of God. Certainly, his now damaged
equipment, whether in mind or will, is a liability for such choice.
However PART of this salvation from God is precisely the provision for the
operation of the will of man, without violation or seduction.
Thus
though being surrounded by internal sin, man in and by himself CANNOT choose
God, yet it is God who can operate the will of man, having known each one of our
race before time brought that one to be, that choice to issue or that issue to
resolution. This is called foreknowledge, and truth has it. When man comes to
the point of salvation, then, God is there before him in time, in knowledge, in
foreknowledge, and the result in truth is known to Him; for the clouded will of
man does not shroud from God, and the deadened spirit of man is not exempted
from the transformative presence of God, and lifelessness is not identical with
inability to revive. Yet for all that, man does not choose in the flesh, but as
enabled by the Spirit in terms of what God knew before time worked to warp man
and disease blinded him towards God.
What
God releases, rather like the power in an atomic bomb, but for construction not
destruction, is the truth in man's disposition, for or against God, as freely
apparent before time. As it IS the truth, there is no complexity, and the desire
obscured is now the fire released and man becomes freely a child of God.
God
does all things well.
There
is all but unspeakable myth-making and obfuscation by man; but the soul that
finds God, as with David, blesses God with ALL his being, seeking every part to
praise Him, as He in every part releases man from his doldrums, false dynamics
and other components of the storms on spiritual norms, which being vested in
God, are found for their termination, likewise only in Him, and in His
salvation.
*2
See SMR p.
996.
In this area
more extensively, see also
Appendix to Religion, Religiosity and Reality in Christ Jesus,
and *6
therein, in particular.
The title of
this Appendix is
APPENDIX to CHAPTER FOUR
CLUBS USED ON CHRIST
HIS PEOPLE AND HIS
WORD.
The volume itself is
found
here.
In this field
more broadly, see SMR
1011-
1026, with emphasis on Buddhism, and
996-1008 - more concerning
Hinduism and such categories.