Tuesday, October 29, 2013
363 - Did God Pull a Switcheroo?
Spirituality Column #363
October 29, 2013
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville
Let’s consider the confusing, co-existent Christian truths that while God never changes, the Bible’s Old and New Testaments make God seem very “changed” indeed.
The Old Testament tracks God as He creates the world, sets the heavens in motion, creates the firmament, fish, flora, fauna and mankind, declares His own glory, goodness and righteousness, instructs His nation Israel, demands obedience and worship, fearsomely inspires the prophets, and all along has a ring-side seat for a world of sin, calamity and chaos over which He reigns with wrath, judgment and retribution.
Who wants that God?
The New Testament gives us the suffering servant Jesus Christ. He was God born fully-man into poverty and questionable family circumstances who toiled most of His earthly life in the remote obscurity of an un-respected village. In His late 20s He began preaching a message of divine love and salvation few could fathom, drafted a ministry team of misfits few could understand, performed miracles few could ignore and professed truths few could grasp. He drove out demons who knew who He was and befuddled religious leaders who didn’t. Jesus was betrayed, arrested, abandoned, beaten, convicted, humiliated, tortured and crucified; dying gruesomely, miserably, alone on a cross.
Who wants to follow or obey or share the misery of that God?
We are to believe Jesus is the same strong God of the Old Testament, where 33 times we are told God is everlasting and unchanging. How does the same eternal God of wrath, judgment, and retribution become a temporal man who suffers the wrath, judgment and retribution of mankind?
We need only to understand that it is not God who is different; it’s the end of the story that is different. And Jesus Christ is the end of the story.
Notice that the New Testament actually has a conclusion – the Resurrection, Ascension, Reign, and Victory of Jesus Christ over death, sin and Satan, while the Old Testament – enormously and tellingly – sets up a narrative without an ending.
God’s Old Testament covenant of laws teaches us important truths about both God and humans alike. Truths such as, God is good, creative, righteous, and demands glory. And truths like, man generally does a miserable job of following God’s rules.
What’s changed in the New Testament isn’t God; it is God’s New Covenant of faith in Jesus Christ providing loving, flowing grace in the face of man’s many failures.
Mankind is still befallen by sin, calamity and chaos, so our merciful opportunity in Christ – for joy in this life and eternal life glorying God – is a real switcheroo.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that while learning grace is the first lesson of Christ, forgetting grace is the first mistake of many Christians.
October 29, 2013
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville
Did God Pull a Switcheroo?
By Bob WaltersLet’s consider the confusing, co-existent Christian truths that while God never changes, the Bible’s Old and New Testaments make God seem very “changed” indeed.
The Old Testament tracks God as He creates the world, sets the heavens in motion, creates the firmament, fish, flora, fauna and mankind, declares His own glory, goodness and righteousness, instructs His nation Israel, demands obedience and worship, fearsomely inspires the prophets, and all along has a ring-side seat for a world of sin, calamity and chaos over which He reigns with wrath, judgment and retribution.
Who wants that God?
The New Testament gives us the suffering servant Jesus Christ. He was God born fully-man into poverty and questionable family circumstances who toiled most of His earthly life in the remote obscurity of an un-respected village. In His late 20s He began preaching a message of divine love and salvation few could fathom, drafted a ministry team of misfits few could understand, performed miracles few could ignore and professed truths few could grasp. He drove out demons who knew who He was and befuddled religious leaders who didn’t. Jesus was betrayed, arrested, abandoned, beaten, convicted, humiliated, tortured and crucified; dying gruesomely, miserably, alone on a cross.
Who wants to follow or obey or share the misery of that God?
We are to believe Jesus is the same strong God of the Old Testament, where 33 times we are told God is everlasting and unchanging. How does the same eternal God of wrath, judgment, and retribution become a temporal man who suffers the wrath, judgment and retribution of mankind?
We need only to understand that it is not God who is different; it’s the end of the story that is different. And Jesus Christ is the end of the story.
Notice that the New Testament actually has a conclusion – the Resurrection, Ascension, Reign, and Victory of Jesus Christ over death, sin and Satan, while the Old Testament – enormously and tellingly – sets up a narrative without an ending.
God’s Old Testament covenant of laws teaches us important truths about both God and humans alike. Truths such as, God is good, creative, righteous, and demands glory. And truths like, man generally does a miserable job of following God’s rules.
What’s changed in the New Testament isn’t God; it is God’s New Covenant of faith in Jesus Christ providing loving, flowing grace in the face of man’s many failures.
Mankind is still befallen by sin, calamity and chaos, so our merciful opportunity in Christ – for joy in this life and eternal life glorying God – is a real switcheroo.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that while learning grace is the first lesson of Christ, forgetting grace is the first mistake of many Christians.
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