To Love and Obey

 So much is out of sorts. Completely out-of-joint. This is in accord with wide-spread rejection of the Lord, no less. 

The more things change, the more they remain the same. 

And how was it, in Jeremiah's day? That the people were destroyed for a lack of knowledge, and yet loved it that way. 

We eat of the fat of the land and choke on it, as things seem. Except that the Lord is merciful, we would have all been consumed. Yet, even so, He preserves a remnant for Himself. He has glorified His name and will glorify it again. And again. Eternally. 

The God of all creation has purchased a people for Himself. Bought by the shedding of His own blood--the death of the Son of God, suffering our lot, satisfying the infinite wrath we earned as debt by having faltered at the fore from serving and delighting in Him. We had ought to have been cast under eternal condemnation as our just desert, instead. Every one of us. 

Yet the sun still shines, the rain still comes to water the crops, even while we devise greater and further machinations to throw off the chains of the One who sustains our every heartbeat. Transhumanists?--indeed. We will never attain to the Creator. We cannot undo what is, no matter how we might pervert and warp our receipt of the gifts of life and wisdom we have been given. 

We cannot alter the fabric of reality, though we might aspire to redefine. Rather, all that comes is contortion--suppression of truth.  

And in His mercy, by so doing, we wreak havoc. Defiance of life as defying the Author of Life is unto death. Rejection of truth as rejecting the Fount of Truth is unto delusion. We do not have the power to alter what is. Merely, He allows us (in measure) to have what we desire, of a sort, when we desire other than Him--rejecting our source of life and knowledge is a rejection of soundness of body and mind. This cannot but impact every sphere of our beings--first, of the individual, then each-to-each by measure: family, community, society (including commercial and civic), federal heads of state, to national and international cooperatives. As goes the individual, so goes the family and the nation and the world, now. 

So, if we would rather have other than Light and Life, then we are given to have it--to the destruction of self and other. Our cities crumble under the weight of our malfeasance, as such. There are no private sins. 

And yet, He has intervened. He does. And He will. 

Though we are given over to slaughtering our most vulnerable citizens--the child in the womb and increasingly the elderly and maim--He has called out a people for Himself, in whom He has vested life abundant and eternal.

And yet even we take too lightly the weight of a transgression, so often. We forget too easily that every momentary giving over to selfish delight rather than submitting to God's delight has wrought, individually, the need for a Savior's deliverance. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. 

Do we consider that the first sin wrought an eternal separation from God, except that He intervened? Do we consider that that initial desire to seek separate wisdom and esteem invited death--spiritual, yet also temporal and eternal? There has no temptation overtaken any one of us except what is common to all, yet do we not persist in the imagining that our private sins (so called) impact no one else? Has Eve's sin so done?--has the first Adam's? 

By what self-deception then do we delude ourselves to think that if that first derogation of God's glory (by act of simple defiance and refusal to submit in trust) was met with the punitive judgment of death for all in Creation, that somehow ever thereafter any far greater defilements of body and soul and mind are triflings which impact no one, being "private" undertaking?

Even if for Christ's sake we had ought to realize otherwise, in that He has suffered sorely the weight of all punishment for each such for those who are the believing...then we know that no such sins nor their inevitable (if presently "unseen") consequences are borne by the perpetrator, alone. 

And even so, all the more, though "no one else" were to be impacted in a visible capacity, as we do err against the God of Creation, we err against all which is good. Rather, we take too lightly the measure of that transgression. Again and again, and always do we. 

He is longsuffering, friends. And all the more for those of us who are His portion--bought and paid by His own blood--He has come to dwell in us in Spirit and truth, and we grieve His Spirit as we err against Him. Is that a slight matter?

We are dull of mind and heart, though--we do not see, nor do we know. We are careless, putting evil things before our eyes, delighting in matters which are an abomination to Him. Entertained and amused by those things which our God hates. And we delight to do so. 

What a grief. Such a travesty.

Were He not merciful, we all would be consumed. As we had ought. 

4But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

He has saved. And will save--to the uttermost--those who are bought in Christ. 

Jesus lived in all righteousness. His heart never faltered. He always, only, ever loved the Father perfectly. He always, only, ever walked in the light of that perfect, unwavering, humble love--deferentially submitting to His, to Our, Heavenly Father's perfect guidance and will. Jesus Christ walked with our Father in perfect, loving humility. In unbroken fellowship, submitting to His will and delighting in Him. 

As we had ought and yet do not do. 

He, being God Himself, submitted to all of righteousness as also truly man. So that, as our kin, He would then be able to offer Himself as paying the debt we owe, then also satisfying the punishment we deserve for erring against Our Heavenly Father. 

He alone was perfect in all obedience and lovingkindness. Jesus Christ alone was perfectly submissive in unbroken fellowship with the Father. He alone could offer to satisfy a punishment, on behalf of another, for never having earned that punishment Himself. Yet, satisfaction in full required the ability to atone for transgression of an infinite degree--punishment indeed is in measure to the crime, as a factor of the degree of offense actual. 

We erred against the One of infinite worth. Appropriate, just punishment by all rights is of infinite degree. 

So, God, Himself alone was able to satisfy the wrath due: to quench the fire of infinite retribution. 

Jesus Christ came for that purpose. He was given a body, as a man, for that purpose. Truly God and truly man--He, alone, was able to pay our debt of obedience and satisfy the infinite wrath we deserve for having failed in our duties. 

That latter we fail to recognize, so frequently. Obedience to God isn't optional. It is our duty, as created beings who are sustained by our Creator. 

Today, of all days, let us remember that for love He sought and bought us. In love, let us return to Him. By grace, may it be.