Until more recently as the Lord has revealed some things to me, I have often skimmed over the seeming "absurdity" of Paul's words in Romans 9 with little legitimate meditation: "For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, [...] who are Israelites." That just seems straight-up crazy! Paul is wishing that he, himself, might be cut off from fellowship with Jesus Christ, if only it might result in salvation for the Jews who had rejected their Messiah. Sacrifice the absolute greatest and most perfect relationship man can know? Obviously, Paul was burdened for them to, as we see it, an insane extent, saying that he had "great sorrow and unceasing grief in [his] heart" because of their rejection of Christ. Jeremiah cries out in a similar way, lamenting the foretold destruction of his people:
Yet, still Paul's statement seems to us completely absurd. Why in the world would someone voluntarily forfeit his relationship with the Lord Jesus, that unalterable unity that has been purchased for and promised to us by the precious Blood of the Lamb of Calvary? But wait! That's exactly it! The secret lies with the Cross. Jesus himself voluntarily forfeited absolute and perfect unity with His Father to take the sin of the world on Himself on the Cross. Darkness fell on the earth for three hours when the Holy God of the Universe turned His back on His Beloved Son. In the anguish of death and separation, Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" We think it crazy that Paul would sacrifice fellowship with the Father, but that is exactly what Jesus Christ did on the cross. It was the only means to reconcile Holy God with Sinful Man. Though the physical pain of the cross was excruciating, the agony of the separation of Father and Son was infinitely more painful.
So, the question I ask myself now is, Why does that same groaning distress not burn in my heart for those walking around in the stench of death and utter hopelessness? If the Spirit of God lives inside of us, why are we not moved with compassion to the same extent that Jesus was, to the same level of laying down our very lives for our friends, and enemies for that matter? Have we become too selfish, too stuck on our own satisfaction to lay it all out there and sacrificially love people? I confess that I don't walk in that kind of love every day. Therefore, I challenge each of us to spend a good deal of time meditating on Paul's desire for the salvation of his people in light of the magnitude of the reality of the Cross. That reality which separated the Son of God from His Holy Father for the sake of buying back the souls of men. Let our lives be radically altered by that realization and let us love like Jesus loves. Let us live in absurdity!
This post categorized under Personal Thoughts and The Church.
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Friday, August 04, 2006 at 12:17 AM. My sorrow is beyond healing,We see that Jeremiah is passionately distraught over the plight that his people have brought on themselves. Just like Paul, Jeremiah is in desperation over the reality that people are bound on a course of death, misery, and destruction.
My heart is faint within me! Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land:
"Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not within her?"
"Why have they provoked Me with their graven images, with foreign idols?"
"Harvest is past, summer is ended,
And we are not saved."
For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken;
I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?
Yet, still Paul's statement seems to us completely absurd. Why in the world would someone voluntarily forfeit his relationship with the Lord Jesus, that unalterable unity that has been purchased for and promised to us by the precious Blood of the Lamb of Calvary? But wait! That's exactly it! The secret lies with the Cross. Jesus himself voluntarily forfeited absolute and perfect unity with His Father to take the sin of the world on Himself on the Cross. Darkness fell on the earth for three hours when the Holy God of the Universe turned His back on His Beloved Son. In the anguish of death and separation, Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" We think it crazy that Paul would sacrifice fellowship with the Father, but that is exactly what Jesus Christ did on the cross. It was the only means to reconcile Holy God with Sinful Man. Though the physical pain of the cross was excruciating, the agony of the separation of Father and Son was infinitely more painful.
So, the question I ask myself now is, Why does that same groaning distress not burn in my heart for those walking around in the stench of death and utter hopelessness? If the Spirit of God lives inside of us, why are we not moved with compassion to the same extent that Jesus was, to the same level of laying down our very lives for our friends, and enemies for that matter? Have we become too selfish, too stuck on our own satisfaction to lay it all out there and sacrificially love people? I confess that I don't walk in that kind of love every day. Therefore, I challenge each of us to spend a good deal of time meditating on Paul's desire for the salvation of his people in light of the magnitude of the reality of the Cross. That reality which separated the Son of God from His Holy Father for the sake of buying back the souls of men. Let our lives be radically altered by that realization and let us love like Jesus loves. Let us live in absurdity!
This post categorized under Personal Thoughts and The Church.
