“If
a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My
statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not
die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be
remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he
shall live. Do I have pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says
the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?” Ezekiel 18:21-23 NKJV
From
the beginning, even before the time of Christ, The Lord has continually called
upon His creation to “live”. The Lord spoke creation into being and since
that time has reached out, called out, and virtually begged that His human
creation trust Him and find their true life in Him. What brings The Lord
genuine pleasure? “That the wicked should turn from his ways and live!”
Clearly
repentance is not strictly a New Testament idea nor is Divine Mercy found only
in the New Testament. These are universally from the Eternal One.
So where is salvation found? Only in The Lord who made the heavens and
the earth, and it is in His Eternal Word “which was in the beginning” (John
1:2).
It
is important for Christians to understand that Jesus was not a “new” word; He
is THE Word which offers a “new thing” (Isaiah 43:19). This “new
thing” would include even the Gentiles who are called into the same Word “which
was in the beginning”; that is, the Messiah who is “the Word which became
flesh”. This is the same Word that calls all to repentance, giving the
Eternal God the “pleasure” He takes from seeing His beloved creation turn away
from the world that has enticed humans even from Paradise; the world that draws
us away from The Lord. Yet it is the Word that beckons us into the
fullness of Life; that fullness which comes only from Him.
Just
as The Lord’s Prayer is only a collection of words if we do not understand what
the Prayer means, so is “Jesus” just another word if we do not understand and
embrace all He taught. Some say Jesus was born to die but I would suggest
if this were true, Joseph would not have been warned in a dream to flee from
Herod who was determined to kill Him. It was not a tiny “child” who was a
threat to Herod; it was the Word which is a threat to all who insist on their
own ways, their own means, their own desires.
I
do not seek to diminish the power of Christ. Rather we must understand
the fullness of the Word from the beginning, the Word which calls us to do
“what is lawful and right”. The Law demands as much, and so does
Jesus. Yet were it not for Jesus, we Gentiles would still be covenantal
“outsiders”. That is the fullness of His Love.
Jesus
is not a “thing” we declare to the exclusion of all He taught. Christ is
the fullness of all that is being taught to us even today through the Holy
Spirit, and it is this fullness we former “outsiders” have been invited into;
“for there is no partiality with God” (Romans 1:11).
Just
as there cannot be one devotional or one sermon that can cover all we need to
know, there also cannot be one phrase or one verse that brings the fullness of
the Word into clarity for us. The Word invites us into something much
greater and more joyful and more lasting that anything we know now.
Embrace the Life you have been called into, and revel in the Word which has
invited you in!
Blessings,
Michael
No comments:
Post a Comment