Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Your Mercy Reaches Unto the Heavens”. The title of Tuesday’s lesson is a quote from Psalm 130:3. “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand”? Oh, I love this! After all the previous lessons striving to show us how retributive and vengeful our Father is, finally a quote that more accurately portrays our Dad. So often we depict our Father like the pagans depict their gods. Not at all like Jesus, His Son. Isn’t that one of the overarching reasons Christ came? To show us the Father? Yet we so often portray the Father so differently than the Son.
Paul saw this. In his incomparable chapter on love (1 Corinthians 13), Paul tells us that “love does not keep a record of wrongs” (verse 5, GNT). That’s right. Contrary to popular Christianity, God keeps no record of wrongs. Oh, we think He does, because we have a largely pagan view of our Father. And yet, He tells us He does not even judge us (follow this train of Scripture verses with me, for a moment). Jesus tells us, “for the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). Jesus Christ says that the Father judges no one. Later, Jesus says, “if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (John 12:47). My, my. The Son doesn’t judge anyone either. Especially those who do not believe on Him. So, it appears that there is no judge at all. But wait, Christ goes on… “he who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). The word that Jesus spoke is always a perfect mixture of love and truth. Love and truth will judge on the last day. And this is the judgement. A revelation of the truth, in the light of love. A revealing of yourself, your true self. Revealed in great love… for you.
“For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light” (Luke 8:17). “For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14). This is the judgement. A revealing of the truth. Perhaps truth you have kept hidden. Truth that is dark, evil, deceptive and even Satanic (self-focused). This will be revealed. God keeps no record of wrongs. And He doesn’t need to. We ourselves will pronounce judgment on ourselves. Our lives, who we really are, will judge us. In the light of love and truth, the darkness of evil and falsehood will stand in mark contrast. That will judge us. “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved… And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God” (John 3: 17, 19-21)
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). This truth about the Father (that he keeps no record of wrongs and the judgement is but the revelation of truth, revealed in love for you), is a big part of what sets us free… if we will. But it is a truth that not all can or will hear. Because the terrors of the “Law” are necessary. “The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ… But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor (under the Law)” (Galatians 3:24-25). The terrors of the law and the terrors of any “judgment” based on the law is an essential part of keeping us sinners safe… until we come to faith in God. But once we truly see the Father as He is, and come to trust Him, then we will wholeheartedly follow Him. And then the Law, as law, will no longer be terrible. And any “judgment” will be seen for what it really is. A revealing of the truth. The truth about ourselves. Truth that we will then long to reveal. Because in the light of God’s love and truth, the darkness of our hearts and minds will become repulsive to us. Even now the darkness is repulsive. Even now the light is our fondest desire. Even now, we “proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Praise God!
With brotherly love,
Jim