There’s just something about grace. It’s beautiful, it’s free and somehow, it’s altogether offensive. Have you ever struggled with the “I’m not good enough” plague upon your mind? Or perhaps: “I’m not doing enough/ achieving enough”. Or maybe it’s that roundabout guilt from past sins that rises and ebbs at times, but never seems to disappear? Paradoxically, these thought patterns can sometimes stem from pride. A pride that fails to understand the free gift of grace offered to us by God. A pride that teaches that we still somehow need to earn our salvation, or God’s forgiveness. A pride that deceives us into believing that we are somehow capable of earning it.
But isn’t it by faith we have been saved? So can’t we take pride in our faith? The Bible tells us that no one can come to the Father unless He draws them. Despite our multiple attempts to prove the opposite, we are irretrievably wholesale products of the breath-taking and incomprehensible grace of God.
How does it make sense, that we would do nothing, merit nothing, sin and fall short of God’s perfect standards, reject God and through our disobedience, necessitate his brutal death upon a cross, and yet by a simple act of faith, receive not only eternal life but right standing before God? Receive the right to approach his throne of grace as priests and sons of God? Receive immediately upon a simple decision to return, beautiful clothes and a signet of sonship, replacing the smelly rags of disobedience and debauchery? How does this make logical sense?
What better representation of God’s incomparable enduring love than his eternal relationship with his chosen people Israel. Centuries ago, God appeared to an unremarkable man who worshiped idols, and invited him to follow him. Creator God had such an incredible relationship with this man that he bound himself with this man through irrevocable promises. God himself promised this man an “everlasting covenant”. That this man would be the father of nations. He promised that kings would come from his line. That this man’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. That his descendants would inherit a defined area of land (Gen 17). Indeed, in relation to this latter promise, God took the burden of fulfilling it entirely upon himself (Gen 15). In the cumulation of these promises, a child grew within the womb of this man’s 90-year-old wife, the child of God’s promise.
A son from this man’s third generation, was named by God, ‘Israel’. His 12 sons were to become 12 tribes of this people group to whom God made many promises.
Later, after years of slavery that God had prophesied to Abraham, another man, Moses, led Israel’s descendants out of Egypt into the promised land. There, God made another covenant with his people Israel, through their leader Moses. He established rules and commandments they must follow. There were blessings for abiding by these rules, and curses or punishments for failing to adhere to them.
God kept his promise to Abraham, and his descendants did inherit the land. Kings did come from his line. God made a promise to King David that his descendants would always sit on the throne in Israel.
What was the response of this covenantal people? Sadly, they often chose to reject God. They worshiped other gods, they ignored God’s prophets. This resulted in judgment and exile from the land. Later, when God sent his son, the Messiah, Jesus, though some recognised him, he was ultimately rejected and crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem, death by slow suffocation.
We know that Jesus came and established a new covenant. This is the covenant of salvation by faith through grace. We know that the Gentiles can also avail of this covenant. Jesus became an ultimate sacrifice for the sin of all mankind.
But what about Abraham? What about the “everlasting” covenant? And isn’t there a new covenant now? Doesn’t the church inherit all the promises of God to Israel? When we preach replacement theology, that the church has supplanted Israel, and God’s covenant with Abraham is nullified, or when we believe that somehow the Jewish people have lost any unique significance in God’s plan, that when they come to Christ they cease to be ‘Jewish’, we have in our seeming zeal for ‘the new covenant’ failed to recognise an incredible aspect of God’s character. We have failed to understand grace.
Did God choose us or love us because of our perfection? No. Did we earn God’s love or favour? No. Could we ever do anything within our power to make ourselves right or pleasing to God? No. While we were still sinners Christ died for us.
So why is it that we believe that God ceases to keep his promises to Israel despite their disobedience and rejection? Why do we deserve grace, but Israel not? In replacing Israel, and denying them their covenantal rights and inheritance, we are robbing God himself of his incredible, loving and faithful character.
How could it be, that God should ask Hosea to marry a prostitute? Shouldn’t Hosea, a righteous, God fearing man have married a pure wife? How could it be that God should ask Hosea to take her back after she had run away from him into the arms of another? How could it be that God should ask Hosea to pay a price to take her back? To suffer financial loss to take back an undeserving spouse? How could it be that God would say that he himself is wooing this philandering woman back? How could it be that God would woo her into the desert and “speak tenderly to her”. How could it be that God would betroth her to him “forever”? Elevate her to the status of a wife? How could it be that she should one day identify with the God of the universe as “my husband”, and no longer “my master”? How should it be that he should elevate this undeserving woman to an incomparable status of revelation and intimacy?
It doesn’t make sense. It destroys all of our earning. It demolishes all of our self justification. It annihilates all of our pride. How can you love someone who doesn’t deserve it? Even just a little bit?
When you have experienced God’s incredible love and grace, you start to love what he loves. You start to feel passion for what touches his heart. Dear church, this is our job. We are called to love what is close to God’s heart. We are called to love his chosen people. To comfort his chosen people. We are called to believe and preach his eternal promises and truths about and for his chosen people. We can do this because we ourselves have met with God. We have experienced his incredible grace that doesn’t make sense. We have seen his enduring faithfulness in our own lives that is completely unwarranted. We have benefited from his radical forgiveness. We have seen his power to soften the hardest heart. And we believe that nothing is impossible for him.
God is not finished with Israel (Romans 11:15). God has not forgotten Israel (Zech 8:2). God has not rejected Israel (Romans 11:1). God has not supplanted Israel with the church (Romans 3:1-3). God is not asking Jewish people to leave behind their privileged Jewish identities in recognising their Jewish Messiah (Romans 3:1-2). God is inviting them into the fullness of their identity and inheritance. He is inviting them into their son-ship that was bought with the death and blood of their Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ (Zechariah 12:10-14).
“This is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord Almighty is his name: “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord, “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.”” (Jeremiah 31:35-36 NIV)
Comments
Post a Comment