Yesterday in listening to Lamentations from The Bible Experience, I was hit at just how great the suffering in Jerusalem was due to God's judgment. Well acted in spoken word, and I was caught in the grip of it. Yes, I could identify to an extent. Both personally, as God has had to put his hand on my life in some loving, firm, hard discipline for my good. And knowing that Scripture teaches God's sure judgment to come, and already present in some ways against those who resist the truth and do evil. So as the actor played her role well, I was surely weeping as I reflected on my own life and some of the difficulties we bear.
God does need to give us a sense of who we are, and who God is. We then come to realize that we are worthy of God's judgment. But the fact is that Jesus took on himself God's judgment against humankind at the cross. In other words God took the judgment on himself/God's self. We need to rest assured on that, certainly knowing by faith what this great salvation can do and has done for us. And living in that reality in Jesus as forgiven and reconciled to God and potentially to all humankind through Jesus and the cross.
Lamentations and our lives can help us catch a glimpse of the great salvation that is offered to all in Jesus, as we see how great is our need. In Jesus' death for us, and in his resurrection to bring us into this new life in him. May we have broken hearts over our own sin, and over the sins of others. And may we have this as we contemplate, seek to live in view of, and proclaim this great and wondrous salvation we have in Jesus our Lord.
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2 comments:
I have been mulling over something very similar this last week or so. In the wedding planning there comes the realization that there will be an "ex" spouse - as if such a thing existed spiritually - and new wives and old wives besides me - and yet, the responsibility for whatever pain I feel must rest squarely on me.
I made choices that I wanted to make for the simple fact that this is what my emotions desired. I did not seek God's best even when there was the nagging little feeling that perhaps this wasn't it - and so, must we all, I think, accept with lamentation the effects of sin we are responsible for. And as we do reflect on such, it should break our hearts as you say. And we must embrace God's judgement of sin and its inevitable consequences. They are ours for we have, in many cases, earned them. It makes salvation and forgiveness even more precious as this is contemplated, doesn't it?
Yes, Susan. Indeed.
We have to face the hard cold reality about ourselves before we can find God's grace and the warm reality in Jesus.
I think this is true regardless of how we've sinned, or whether or not we've been caught in the act and have done it, or not. We should all have the sense of being great sinners before God, and knowing in that light, God's great salvation in Jesus- knowing just how great our salvation is.
Sometimes I think it seems easier for those who have committed some great sin to realize just how great God's salvation is, compared to those who have kept the rules and have no such sin. But I wonder if that should be the case. Yet it is an example of God's wondrous and beautiful grace.
Those who are most aware of their debt love more, Jesus said.
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