Tag Archives: Jesus

The Greatness of God’s Love

Posted on by
Reply

“When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers…
what is man that you are mindful of him. ” (Psalm 8:3-4 (ESV))

The question was asked last night at confirmation class, “If you wanted to convince someone of the greatness of God in creation, where would you take them, what would you say?” There were many good responses. One student brought a small Christmas tree to represent real trees. Her response was, “God makes the trees grow just like God gives us growth.” A great answer. Other students talked about going out in nature to watch the sunset (I notice none of them said sunrise), holding a newborn baby – all of these were excellent examples of the greatness and wonder of God in creation.

Psalm 8, I believe, is the psalmist answer to the question, “how would you convince someone of the greatness of God in creation.” Like my student’s answers, the Psalmist looks to the heavens – the stars in their glory and splendor – and hears the cry of newborn children, and turns to praise the greatness of God.

I am sure you have shared the experience. The vista on a high mountain pass; the roar of the ocean tide crashing against the shore; star gazing in an open field far away from city lights. One has to intentionally remind themselves of their disbelief, blinding themselves to the wonder of it all, to not be overwhelmed by the majesty and greatness of God in His creation.

But there is an even more convincing argument. The majesty of God is clearly evident in His creation, but it is not fully revealed in His creation. There’s more. There is a greater revelation. There is a deeper truth which will radically change your life – if only you will listen.

The Psalmist, looking at the heavens, suddenly turns to himself, “what is man that you are mindful of him?” Have you thought about that one? Consider the heavens – out there, deep in space, millions of miles away, stars are rotating around other stars; each formed and spun into motion and held together by the hand of God. Consider our own planet – orbiting at just the right distance from the sun for life to flourish, with its seasons bringing sun and rain, intricate complexities revealed in the beauty of simplicity – this is the work of God. God creates at the atomic level a work that requires the entire universe as His canvas, and still God above all things is chiefly mindful of man, of you, of me!

This is what really drives home the greatness of God. When you consider how small and insignificant we are in comparison with all of creation, God has proven over and again His love for us. In love God created us, that we might love and worship Him, finding our satisfaction in the praise and glory of God’s goodness. In love he has set us apart from creation, forming us in His image, crowning us with dominion, wisdom, and righteousness. In steadfast love God treated us with mercy and long-suffering when we sinned and rebelled against Him, thinking His love and His goodness something we could do without. In love He sent His Son, Christ Jesus our Lord, to redeem us from sin and death, that we might once again live and move in His love and worship and adore His name.

More than any other act in creation, this love which seeks out the lost and terminal sinner should convince us of the greatness of God. It is humbling; it is healing; it is encouraging; it is inspiring; it is life giving to be loved with such a great love.

SDG

The Unforgivable Sin

Posted on by
3

“Whoever says, ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar…”
(1 John 2:4 ESV) 

There was a time when Jesus’ warning against blasphemy really troubled me.  In Matthew 12:31-32 Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”  As a child, I was a little preoccupied with this, wondering what “The Unforgivable Sin” really was.  Was there one sin, one particularly nasty sin, which if committed, would forever damn you?  Did pastors know what it was, but not tell anyone so as not to tempt them with that sin?  What if I had already committed it?

I remember hearing Dr. John Gerstner when I was only 8 or 9 years old, teaching on the Perseverance of Saints (it must have been good, because I don’t remember much from that long ago.)  In Gerstner’s scratchy old voice, I vividly recall him declaring, “Because my salvation is the work of the almighty God, and because I am sealed with the power of his Holy Spirit, my savior will not allow me to blaspheme and thereby lose my salvation.  My salvation is secure because it is the gift of God.”  That helped to relieve my conscience, but I still wrestled with what it meant to blaspheme God. 

I remember one person telling me that suicide was the unforgivable sin.  His reasoning was, you have to ask for forgiveness after you sin in order to be forgiven.  Since suicide makes that impossible, it is unforgiveable.  I am so thankful that I’ve had some good reformed pastors who have exposed the problems with that line of thinking.  If our salvation depends on our ability to seek forgiveness for every fault, then we, like Luther, had better be obsessed with self-examination and repentance.  However, if we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, and that faith produces within us a spirit of repentance and trust in Christ, then our salvation is not at risk when our sins are unconfessed.  That is not license to go on sinning, but relief in knowing that our salvation is not dependent upon our own moral perfection.

What then, is this “unforgivable sin?”  Jesus helps to define blasphemy as “speaking against the Holy Spirit.”  In the immediate context of the passage in Matthew, this could mean saying that Jesus is the devil, attributing to Satan the work and power of God through the Holy Spirit.  This outright denial of the revelation of God’s Spirit to our hearts and minds is the denial of God Himself.  For those who continue to reject and deny the reality of God, and the truth of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, they have blasphemed the witness of the Holy Spirit.

But it is also possible for those who call themselves Christian to blaspheme.  After all, this warning given in Matthew was for an audience of those who already believed.  So what was at stake?  In the very next line in Matthew, Jesus says, “The tree is known by its fruit…”  In other words, if you are really alive by the power of the Spirit, then your life will reflect the holiness and life that the Spirit gives.  As John said in the passage above, “By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep hi commandments.  Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

I love this commentary from George MacDonald:

God says, as it were, “Let a man have committed any sin whatever, I forgive him; but to chose to go on sinning – how can I forgive that?  It would be to nourish and cherish evil!  It would be to let my creation go to ruin.  Shall I keep you alive to do things hateful in the sight of all true men?  If a man refuse to come out of his sin, he must suffer the vengeance of a love that would be no love if it left him there.  Shall I allow my creature to be the thing my soul hates?”

There is no excuse for this refusal.  If we were punished for every fault, there would be no end, no respite; we should have no quiet wherein to repent; but God passes by all he can.  He passes by and forgets a thousand sins, yea, tens of thousands, forgiving them all – only we must begin to do good, begin to do evil no more.

If you are content with holding on to your sin, in persisting in your way rather than submitting to the way of the Lord, you have no part in him at all.  To hold on to sin when God calls us out of sin is a slap in the face of our loving savior.  Shall we continue to live in the sin that Christ died for?  Would it be loving for God, for the Church, for brothers and sisters in Christ, to allow sin to go unchecked, uncorrected, unrepented, so as not to offend; when such a sin will ultimately lead to judgment and death? 

I, as dear old Gerstner taught me, believe that, ultimately I cannot blaspheme God because I have been saved, and am being made righteous, by God himself.  Under the first definition of blasphemy, God’s Spirit of Holiness will keep me from rejecting the truth of my savior Jesus Christ, by the continued renewal of the mind and the piercing of my heart through the sharp sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.  Under the second definition, God, who has begun a good work in me, a work of righteousness and holiness by the power of His Holy Spirit, will continue to sanctify me and cleanse me from sin, for He is faithful to complete what He has begun.

“If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.” (Psalm 130:3-4)

So let us rest in the sure and certain promise of God, that we are saved by grace through faith, and let us grow in righteousness, leaving behind all the sins that would weigh us down and keep us running the race that is set before us.

Know that you are forgiven, and be at peace!

SDG