The Riddle of the Old Testament

In Exodus 34:6-7, the Lord reveals Himself to Moses, saying, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty...” (ESV).

Here is the great riddle of the Old Testament. The Lord forgives sin; yet He by no means clears the guilty. How can this be? The answer is seen in the cross of Christ. Christ took our sin and guilt upon Himself, and suffered there for our sins. In this way God has forgiven us who believe in Christ. We are no longer guilty, for Christ took our guilt and suffered its penalty! The Lord says He is “abounding” in steadfast love and faithfulness. Because Christ died for us and
has been raised for us, God is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness to you who believe! Satan doesn’t want the Christian to see this or believe this. He wants us to look at the trials we are going through and conclude that God doesn't love us. We must fight against Satan’s lies every day! We must fight to treasure God’s abounding love toward us. Nothing can separate us from it!

The Glory that Will Be Revealed

This morning the Lord blessed me with Romans 8:18-21:

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.... the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God." (NIV)

Paul says something that is vital for us to believe, that the weight of our present sufferings is nothing compared to the weight of the glory that will be revealed in us! Just as creation will be liberated from the curse upon it, so we, as adopted sons of God, have been liberated from the curse contained in the Law, a curse upon anyone who does not do everything written in the Law. Yet it is not obvious to the world that we are the adopted sons of God. However, there is a coming a glorious time when it will be revealed, a time when we will be finally and completely transformed into the image of Christ, both spiritually and bodily! We will be transformed into an existence perfectly suited for face-to-face enjoyment of God Himself! Pray that God opens your eyes to understand more of the great weight of this future glory, and how the weight of our present sufferings is nothing in comparison.

Who shall separate us from Christ's love?

Again this morning I was really blessed by Romans 8, this time by verses 35-39:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be abled to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (NIV)

These verses acknowledge that we may very very well face trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakendess, danger, or sword. In fact, the Old Testament speaks of facing the threat of being killed for the Lord's sake all day long. The question is, will such things separate us from the love of Christ? The answer is, absolutely not! Instead, in the midst of all these things, we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. As was mentioned back in verses 28-30, God has determined a day in the future when He will glorify us, finally and completely conforming us to the likeness of Christ! On that day, all the hardship will come to an end. And as verse 28 indicates, right now God is using the hardship to bring about His plan of conforming us to the likeness of Christ. This is the greatest love, to be freed from sin to stand face-to-face with Christ in holiness and purity, to be freed from sin to truly gaze upon Christ without shame! He is the greatest treasure!