“Do not fear, for God
has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not
sin.”
There are many things wrong with that verse as we listen with fallen ears. First is a logic problem: God says not to fear, yet He is wanting fear of Him to be before us. Second is the tempting aspect. Tempting is the devil’s work, so why is God doing it here? Finally, there is the command to not sin, which just blows the whole thing out of the water.
Thus we are in the same boat as the Israelites and retreat. We place considerable distance between us and God in order that the thunder, lightning, trumpets, and smoke don’t get us.
We create this distance by obscuring Jesus and His work in creating programmes and turning Jesus into a life-coach, instead of a Savior. What this distance looks like is this: while attempting to live the Christian life, we place more importance on how we are doing, rather than what Christ has done for us.
We give ourselves more Law. We take God’s ten commandments and turn them into 10 thousand. From diets to discipleship, all of these programs take on a sacramental character, offering and giving God’s love to us, the better we do.
And the better we do, the more we have to do. And the more we have to do, the more we ask, “When will it all end?” We ask, because we know it never will. There will always be someone better than us. There will always be another way of doing things and there will always be another fad in the church.
Repent. This should be your first clue that you are living under the Law. When your tasks and to do lists for God get longer instead of shorter and your quest for holiness has no light at the end of the tunnel, you are hearing God demand perfection and you will not reach it.
That is where the Law ends: with your death under the sheer weight of its demands. The Law ends when the peals of thunder rupture your eardrums, the strikes of lightning scorch your sinful flesh, the trumpets drown out your words, and the smoke asphyxiates your entire respiratory system.
This is why the Law is filled with “you shall nots”, because the Lord speaks from heaven saying you shall not do this, you shall not do that, on and on, because the Lord will do it. You shall not; the Lord shall. And when the Lord works, His final commandment to you is, “You shall not die”.
Jesus has spoken from heaven. Jesus is causing His Name to be remembered and Jesus is coming to you to bless you. Jesus is not seeking a holy place, He is creating one. Jesus does not seek the lovely, but makes lovely whomever He finds.
Therefore, the Law kills, but the Gospel makes alive. The Thunder, the lightning, the trumpets, and the smoke are all tests, not of your own mettle, but proof of the Faith given to you in Baptism.
That Faith withstands even fear of God, in the sure and certain hope of Christ Crucified for you, that even though you die by God’s hand, yet shall you live. Even though sin overtakes you and the devil tricks you, Christ is raised from the dead, for you.
In light of the cross, testing from God will strengthen your faith. In light of the cross, the fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom. In light of the cross, your sins are forgiven and all your works are sanctified simply because you have been baptized into Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment