"Ignorance of God's attributes is no small thing. It has profound effects. How can our hearts be gripped by the glory of God if we are ignorant of who He is? How can our lives be transformed by His grace if we remain ignorant of it? How can we passionately preach that Christ loves us and saves us from the wrath of God, unless we have a true understanding of both God's wrath and His love?...[Knowing God] will increase your faith, awaken a deeper love for God, and cause your heart to rejoice in Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." (From the Introduction of a study on The Attributes of God at Desiring God)
There are 3 aspects of God, when I remember, that always bring me back to my knees to worship Him. They are His holiness, His wrath, and His grace and mercy. They bring me to my knees because they remind me of WHO God is, WHAT it is God did for us, and WHY I ought to be thankful to GOD.
The first aspect of God that brings me low is His holiness. The definition of holiness is separate. I like the way John Piper puts it, "by saying God is holy means God is God...God is one of a kind...In a class by Himself..." So, what does that mean, for God to be God? To further exemplify what this means, here are a few attributes of God and how He is in a class by Himself, separate from this world:
- God is eternal - God has no beginning and no end. We are finite, we have a beginning..."The Lord is the God who lives forever." (Isaiah 40:28)
- God is creator - God can create out of nothing. We can also create, but we need some sort of raw material to create. God speaks and it is. "In the beginning God created..." (Genesis 1:1) "Don’t you know who made everything?...He created everything on earth." (Isaiah 40:28)
- God is all knowing - God knows everything. Our knowledge is very limited...The smartest man in the world pales in comparison to what God knows..."His understanding is beyond measure." (Psalm 147:5) "No one will ever know how great his understanding is." (Isaiah 40:28)
- God is sovereign - God controls the outcome of all things. We think we can plan our days, but ultimately God is in control. "He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven. He does what he wants with the nations of the earth. No one can hold his hand back. No one can say to him, 'What have you done?'" (Daniel 4:35)
These are a few of God's attributes that show His separateness from this world, but here's a story from R.C. Sproul's book The Holiness of God that will really bring to light God's holiness:
"And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God." 2 Samuel 6:5-7
"Uzzah [was] forbidden to touch the ark...He touched it anyway. He stretched out his hand and placed it squarely on the ark, steadying it in place lest it fall to the ground. An act of holy heroism? No! It was an act of arrogance, a sin of presumption. Uzzah assumed that his hand was less polluted than the earth. But it wasn't the ground or the mud that would desecrate the ark; it was the touch of man. The earth is an obedient creature. It does what God tells it to do. It brings forth its yield in its season. It obeys the laws of nature that God has established. When the temperature falls to a certain point, the ground freezes. When water is added to the dust, it becomes mud, just as God designed it. The ground doesn't commit cosmic treason. There is nothing polluted about the ground...God did not want His holy throne touched by that which was contaminated by evil, that which was in rebellion to Him, that which by its ungodly revolt had brought the whole creation to ruin and caused the sky and the waters of the sea to groan together in travail, waiting for the day of redemption. Man. It was man's touch that was forbidden.
We are separated from God because we are full of sin. God is everything we are not.
The second aspect of God that brings me low is His wrath. God HATES sin and sin deserves just punishment.
John Piper brings out 2 points about God's final wrath, it is eternal, having no end, and it will be terrible.
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘You are cursed! Go away from me into the fire that burns forever. It has been prepared for the devil and his angels.'...“Then they will go away to be punished forever.” (Matthew 5:41, 46)
"Everyone hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. This included the kings of the earth, the princes and the generals, rich people and powerful people. It also included every slave and everyone who was free. They called out to the mountains and rocks, 'Fall on us! Hide us from the face of the One who sits on the throne! Hide us from the anger of the Lamb! The great day of their anger has come. Who can live through it?'" (Revelation 6"15-16)
"The wrath of Jesus himself-will be so terrible that every class of human beings will cry out for rocks to crush them rather than face the wrath." (John Piper)
God is perfectly just and our sins have to be paid for.
The last aspect of God that brings tears of joy to me is His grace and His mercy and the epitome of His grace and mercy is embodied in the person of Jesus Christ. Yet, before we can understand how Jesus Christ embodies God's grace and mercy we must understand what God's grace and mercy includes:
- God is love - "For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you." (Psalm 86:5) Look at the words that describe God's love, abounding and steadfast. Abounding means to be fully supplied. God is full of love! Steadfast means firm, not changing. God's love never changes!
- God is patient or is long-suffering - "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." (Psalm 103:8) God's patience is being slow to anger to pour out His wrath. If you look up slow to anger in the Old Testament, it is usually accompanied by the phrases, "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." God's mercy, grace, and love causes Him to be slow to anger.
- God is forgiving-"For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you." In both the Old Testament and the New Testament God forgives the sin of His people. God forgives those who call upon Him.
Jesus, therefore is God's greatest display of His mercy and grace. "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us...He saved us by washing away our sins..So now we have received the hope of eternal life as God’s children." (Romans 5:6, Titus 3:5, 7) God, in His Son, died for US! Eternal death is punishment for our sin. God, in His Son, paid that punishment for us when He died on the cross. That is God's mercy, He spared us from the punishment we deserve, eternal punishment, the second death! Then, God, in His Son, saved us and gave us eternal life! By the shedding of Christ's blood, we are offered forgiveness of our sins and life for all eternity. That is God's grace, He gave us a gift we don't deserve, Jesus, He is our second life, which is life eternal! And God showed His mercy and grace to us because He is love, He is patient, and He is forgiving.
As I remember these aspects of God, I fall low in my spirit and I am humbled because of WHO God is and WHAT He has done! I become thankful...
What other responses does remembering God invoke?
Thoughts to be continued...
Some references I used:
- A study on The Attributes of God from the Desiring God site
- The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul
- A list of God's Attributes by Charles Spurgeon
No comments:
Post a Comment