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Saturday, October 11, 2014

The Lord of Heaven and Earth

I suppose most people in redemptive history have developed a sort of philosophic idea in their minds and hearts of who God is [even atheists]. They may develop these ideas from something they read from somewhere else or from someone they have talked to. They may even claim to develop ideas on their own. For example, a Muslim believes that Allah is God Almighty. A Jehovah’s Witness believes that “Jehovah” is God but apart from the deity of Christ. The Buddhist believes in Karma and many rebirths or an ultimate Nirvana or “spiritual enlightenment” that comes from self-suffering or ascetic performance. The common denominator among most religions is not only man-centered and revolving around religious performance, but the God they claim to be “the true God” has also been molded and shaped into their fashion, as an idol. In this they attempt to free themselves from the law. False doctrine results in false epistemologies and fails to observe depravity of the human soul in its truest sense because it does not acknowledge the only perfect righteousness acceptable by God or the true heinousness of sin.

The Word of God [apart from Allah, the Watchtower and other non-canonized Scriptures] speaks for itself, apart from man. The true Word of God describes not only ultimate authority over man with propositions in the Scriptures, but His complete character is described simultaneously. In other words, not only is the true God the one who commands every man everywhere to repent, but that He also demonstrates His character in exalting His name. How does He exalt His name? He first and foremost does not look to man for affirmation in His exaltation because He is self-sufficient and self-existent. Not only is He perfect in Holiness, which makes Him perfectly righteous, but He is omnipotent, omniscient and unapproachable apart from His Sovereign decrees. He is not only an infinite number of things that man cannot understand with an infinitely wretched, feeble and worm-like mind, but He is simply incomprehensible. As He declares His name to be above all things, He declares not only repentance, but also reminds us that He has made everything the eye can see. He has made heaven and earth, the human body, all animals, the universe and single-celled organisms.
These things are only able to be explained by a human to other humans because God has made them. The fact that God made me reminds me of how he captures the entirety of creation with His Word. He reminds me that He has made heaven and earth, which is everything I can see and beyond my scope of comprehension. At the same time, He declares His own righteousness and that He is infinitely above all things. Because He has caused me to see that He is infinitely above all things, He also causes me to see who other religions acknowledge a great deal, but without reverence. This infinitely incomprehensible Holy God who has made heaven and earth has made Himself knowable in the person of Jesus Christ. He therefore strips any self-exultation of man. He brings him to nothing. He causes all insolent ascetic and non-Christ exalting religions to falter upon the rebellious and man-glorifying epistemologies that end in self-destruction. This God-Man is the very manifestation of God to man in the flesh as He declared Himself to be when He walked this earth. Muhammad never claimed to be God in the flesh. Neither did Gandhi. Jesus did not claim to be a good leader or just a prophet. He claimed to be God. This proclamation ultimately lead to His bloody death on the Cross. His power reverberates in the resurrecting power of the Gospel. The true Messiah claimed to be God. The true Messiah died. The true Messiah also rose again and ascended to the right hand of the Father. The true Messiah, Jesus Christ, came to save sinners who will not and cannot save themselves. The true Messiah is still incomprehensible, majestic, excellent and infinitely glorious beyond all measure. His unfathomable Mercy is heard throughout the land. He humbled Himself to be a man and to wash the feet of His disciples. Yet, He is also the Judge and Lord of Heaven and Earth; the maker of all things.
“But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
2 Corinthians 4:2-6

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