The text today is a
picture of two persons who are complete opposites of each other, yet the exact
same person. It is like seeing a student
in Math class; he has his textbook out, looking all student-like. But inside the textbook, hidden from the teacher’s
view, is a copy of this month’s Spiderman comic book. So…do we have a student, or a goof-off?
Doctor Jekyll comes to
tend your chicken pox; he turns into Mr. Hyde and eats your lunch. Do we have a medicine man or a monster?
In Psalm 50 we have
God as a severe judge, not silent, moving like a raging storm, and big-time ready
to hand out devouring fire to His enemies.
In Mark 9 we have a compassionate Savior introducing his
companions to his glory – the truth of his kindness as he plans to die for the
sins of all the enemies of God.
Which one is really
God? We want to know! Will the real God please stand up?
The first picture we see is…
The Awesome Sovereignty of a
Judge
The Lord, the Mighty
One, is God, and he has spoken; he has summoned all humanity from where the sun
rises to where it sets. From Mount Zion,
the perfection of beauty, God shines in glorious radiance. Our God approaches, and he is not silent. Fire devours everything in his way, and a
great storm rages around him. He calls
on the heavens above and earth below to witness the judgment of his people. “Bring my faithful people to me—those who
made a covenant with me by giving sacrifices.”
Then let the heavens proclaim his justice, for God himself will be the
judge. -- Interlude Psalm 50:1-6(NLT)
This Psalm proclaims the
might and holiness of JHWH, God the Father.
We see Him as the stern and sovereign LORD, creator, sustainer and judge
of the universe.
· He is ever-present (omnipresent)
· He is all-knowing and all-seeing (omniscient)
· He is all-powerful (omnipotent)
God is the one who is in
control. The Psalmist paints him as a
consuming, raging fire, certain to bring judgment to pass on every last sin
ever committed in HIS universe! His
creation; his call…that’s what Sovereign means.
The key feature that
identifies a Sovereign judge is justice. The Psalmist says that God will say in that
final judgment:
“Bring
my faithful people to me—those who made a covenant with me by giving
sacrifices.” Then let the heavens
proclaim his justice, for God himself will be the judge.
Psalm 50:5-6(NLT)
If you choose to not
believe in God, there is nothing I could do, say or show you which will ever
convince you of His reality or power.
That being said, if you choose to not believe in God, there will come a
time when you will believe, because you will see Him face to face. The Scriptures tell us that all creation at
all times throughout history has been and is moving towards God’s final
judgment.
As has been often said:
If
it’s true that God exists, it matters how we live, because there IS a
judge!
But
if the atheists are right and there is no God, NOTHING matters at all.
The first of these two
pictures of our awesome God is the awesome Sovereignty of a Judge.
The second picture we see is…
The Awesome Compassion of a Savior
Six days later Jesus took
Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was
transformed, and
his clothes became dazzling white, far whiter than any earthly bleach could
ever make them. Then Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with
Jesus. Peter exclaimed, “Rabbi, it’s
wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make
three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He said this because he didn’t really know
what else to say, for they were all terrified.
Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This
is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, when they looked around, Moses and
Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus with them. As they went back down the mountain, he told
them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen
from the dead. Mark 9:2-9(NLT)
We have looked at the
Sovereign LORD, the Judge – the one who will pronounce sentence on the
sinner. Now we see an interruption in
all that we know as consistent with consequences – a compassionate savior,
willing to take our sins and their consequences on his own back.
He was despised and rejected—a man
of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was
our sorrows that weighed him down. And
we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own
sins! But he was pierced for our
rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was
beaten so we could be whole. He was
whipped so we could be healed. Isaiah
53:3-5(NLT)
Jesus knew all that –
Isaiah had written it hundreds of years prior, and now Jesus was living
it.
Consider what happened on
that mountain…Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to show them something of
what heaven holds for those who remain faithful to God:
Jesus introduced the
disciples to Moses, the one who represented power over the world’s greatest
power (Egypt’s Pharaoh). And he
introduced them to Elijah, representing God’s judgment over sin (Israel’s
ungodliness). Here we have three men who
would form the basis of the church that Jesus would build. They are wondering about everything they see
in their master, every single day. But
this tops the pile; Moses is the greatest glory of Israel’s history and Elijah
stood against Israel’s greatest infamy, and there they are, standing and talking
with the Son of God. No wonder Peter
wanted to stay there and enter a building project.
But as soon as the words
are out of Peter’s mouth…Lord let’s do this and this…,
Moses and Elijah fade into the mist and that voice from above tells them to
abandon their agenda and listen to Jesus…the beloved Son.
The one we earlier called
the stern
judge is now revealed as the compassionate Father, and all you can
see is the Son is just like him. But he
looks so different; he is transfigured. If you look that word up in the dictionary,
among the meanings are makeover and metamorphosis. It would have to be a complete change, like
what a worm goes through to become a butterfly, to imagine what the Father and
Son have agreed needs to be done with our sins.
The stern judge is going to turn around and become the convicted
felon, dying in our place.
Making
Sense of two different pictures of the same God
So…back to the original
begged question: which is the real
God? The answer of course is both. Our awesome God has many aspects to His being
and character that we know…and probably lots we do not know.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9(NLT)
But these two pictures of
the righteous judge who condemns sin, and the compassionate savior who can’t
bear to let us die in our sins, is something we can understand.
In the character
of God which judges we see that He created a natural order which has
order/consequence for actions; to go against that natural order is sin and
brings about the consequence of death.
Had Adam and Eve not sinned they would still be kicking today! But they did sin, and so righteousness
demands a consequence; that consequence is hell. This is because a commandment implies
punishment for non-compliance. And Sovereignty
includes zero exceptions
Enter the compassionate
savior. Mercy and Grace to
forgive requires a sacrifice. Certainly,
as we enter the Lenten season leading up to the passion and cross, we will hear
the terms of God’s offer. It is the
compassionate heart of Christ that went to the cross for us when we were least
deserving of that grace.
When we were utterly helpless,
Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die
for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a
person who is especially good. But God
showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were
still sinners. Romans 5:6-8(NLT)
What an awesome God we
have.
…in the Name of the
Father, Because of the Son, Cooperating with the Spirit…Amen!
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