God’s taught me 2 amazing things lately.
1. I knew God was a God of joy. I have immense joy from God, who is both its source and inventor. I find much joy delighting in God. But one thing never occurred to me before. God is joyful. In fact, God is the most joyful being in existence! This blew my conception of God totally out of the water: I tended to see God as nice, kind, loving, even able to be pleased – but ultimately, cold. How cool is it that God enjoys things!
2. While driving home last night, I was listening to the local Christian radio station. This is often a depressing experience. But I heard this song:
I wish I could have been there
To see Your first step, hear Your very first word
Tell me, did You ever fall and scrape Your knee?
Did You know Your wounds would one day heal the world?
For just one moment
I wish I could have seen You growing
Learning the ways of a carpenter’s son
Just a little boy gazing at the stars
Did You remember creating every one?
If you passed by, would I have seen a child or a King?Would I have known?
I wish I could have been there
My only wish is to see You, face to face
Wish I could have been there
Just to see You, Jesus, face to face
And the question came into my mind, “Do I wish I could have been there?”
I was devastated by my answer. How could I claim to love Jesus, if I don’t wish I could have spent time with him? Which of my friends do I claim to love but have no desire to be with? Does this mean I love what Jesus did, what he achieved… but not Jesus himself?
Realisation. Relief. Amazement. The reason I couldn’t answer yes was not that I didn’t love him… it was that I didn’t think of Jesus as a person. Jesus is a topic, a subject of conversation, an idea to be debated. All the joy I’ve found in Jesus has been in Jesus as a theology and a doctrine.
Jesus is a person.
Jesus is a person.
Wow.
Praise Him!
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Hi Hayesy. This reminds me, I came across a question I’m not sure how I’d answer if I were a Christian. I’d like to know what you think.
If you were there with Jesus in his LAST days or weeks, knowing what would happen to him, and you had the power to influence his actions (he was apparently a person, after all) would you have saved him from being tortured and murdered by the Romans? If so, what of his great sacrifice? If not, would it have been selfish of you to let him suffer so that you could get your salvation?
Great question from SmartLX. Raises all sorts of issues. Some of which Jesus wrestles with himself in the garden. Remember Jesus called Peter Satan for trying to disuade him from his sacrifical destiny at one stage. Personally, I am less likely to be the one trying to save Jesus than the one swinging the hammer since it was such as I that put him there in thd first place.
i would think that the glory, power, majesty, brilliance of Christ would prevent us so sinful from being there, but it would have been awesome !!!!!
Yeah, great question!
Sam – the dsciples were there… SmartLX is talking about his last days on earth before the crucifixion. (Mind you, his actual last days on earth were a month after that.)
Honestly, I don’t know.
It’s worth noting that he went willingly, out of love for us and love for His Father, whose will he was obeying.
To be really honest, I don’t think I would have stopped him (making the rather large assumption that I knew fully what was going on, that his death was to purchase the forgiveness for my sin).
Does that make me selfish? Probably.
I AM selfish – that’s why I need a Saviour. And I don’t love Jesus like I should or like he deserves.
That’s what makes the gospel beautiful. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were still dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
Ultimately, I don’t think this is a choice God ever intended us to have. I would not have been able to stop him. He was on a mission that God had planned from the beginning of time. Jesus rebuked Peter as satanic when he tried to stop him (albeit for different reasons). “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”. It was the whole reason why he took on flesh.
God never intended us to be able to stop him – he doesn’t ask us to wrestle with this dilemma, he has already done it all and now simply holds out the offer: “come home, brother, all will be forgiven. Follow me, know me, love me; because you are loved by me”.
I know this misses the point of the question, but I still thank God for it.
He knows that we are selfish, and so he sent his Son to save us.
He knows that we have nothing to offer him, and that the only way we can come to him is humbly receiving.
He knows that we can’t love him perfectly, so he didn’t wait for us to do that.
He reached out, because we never would have. Praise God for it, and come to Him while He will still let you.
Thanks for that Hayesy. Goes to show you can make a sermon out of anything.
The question often causes tremendous cognitive dissonance when believers try to argue that it’s not selfish. Perhaps pride and a sense of moral superiority over non-believers (who are usually the ones asking the question) make this seem like a critical point to defend. Conceding it looks to be the way to reconcile it. Humility is apparently the answer. Fascinating.
Yeah I think you’re spot on.
Self-righteousness, moral superiority, pride… and I definitely felt that dissonance.
Additionally, there’s a philosophical yuckiness about having your salvation contingent on your selfishness (hence sinfulness).
Of course, it never was contingent on it.