When one has clearly seen God, the human dilemma, and the faithful graceful initiative of God, one question overwhelms. What does God want? How should I respond to him?
In this series we are affirming that God desires that his human creation recognize him as God and pay him respect and honor in worship. The answer to what kind of worship is appropriate can never be guided by our own preferences and desires–the answer must focus on what God wants. Worship that exalts God is according to God’s will and Word.
The realization of the human dilemma posed by sin’s entry should once for all convince us that we humans do not have the ability to guide our own footsteps, but in our freedom of choice we yet tend to think that we know more than God, and that we are more capable of understanding what pleases him and honors him than is he. How else can one explain the human tendency to ignore the Word of God or to change it and explain it in relative terms.
God clearly seeks reconciliation and restoration of relationship through the death of Jesus, demanding that we penitently respond to his graceful overture. But this is not a story of mushy love and overlooking sin. When Christ returns, he will not come as a gentle lamb representing a God defined solely by love. Rather he will come full of the fury and wrath of God against sin. The fact is that the biblical nature of God has almost disappeared from contemporary teaching and preaching. As a result, we have a tepid view of what it means to be a Christian. We rarely speak of the army of God; we are certainly not desirous of being militant or aggressive, we would hardly want to wage an offensive offensive, we are pretty content being community—church dinners, camping, conferences.
In view of the human mess, the only solution to which is Jesus Christ and him crucified, one must ask where is the preaching about the Coming King with his measuring line of justice and plumb line of righteousness. Who talks about the Jesus with a sharp sword coming from his mouth, striking down the nations, ruling with an iron scepter, leading his righteous army in battle? No wonder the average contemporary church has become so passive, so pleasing, and so innocuous. No wonder churchgoers and most Christians are so passive. The Christ they hear about passively loves everyone and everything, regardless.
The righteous grace of God which demands a human response requires a rigorous reexamination of the story of the Christ: learning form the Old Testament about the God of heaven, learning from the Gospel the story of Jesus. Watch his actions, hear his words afresh. Let me tell you what you will see—you will see the kindness of God (come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden) and the sternness of God (woe to you…). You will see the nature of God in Christ, consistently revealed.
God wants human beings to recognize and respect him. That doesn’t happen when the average Christian in our society hardly thinks about God, cares little for the people of God, cares even less for the people of the world whom God loves, and is hardly distinguishable in daily living from the surrounding world. What does it mean to recognize God, to respect (worship) God? What does it mean to ascribe to him honor and glory and praise and adoration?
God wants human beings to recognize their dilemma, the sin dilemma, the criminal nature of the human experience, the nature of reality. Lifting up God’s nature to full view—especially as that nature is visible in Jesus—sets a different standard, and one we cannot meet ever by our own efforts or our own merit.
God so much desires reconciliation and the restoration of broken relationships that he paid the ultimate price, made the ultimate sacrifice in sending his Son to the cross. His love is demonstrated in Christ; the heart of God is in the heart of Christ, emptying himself, sacrificing himself, the God who serves, stoops down, shows himself. To see this side of God—his love, his grace, his generosity, his mercy (hesed), his loving kindness–leads us to repentance (Rom. 2:4).
God calls us to turn, to change, to be transformed. God calls us to “pay a price”. It cannot be true that there is a version of Christianity that requires nothing. There is no non-participating plan. There is no costless, cheap discipleship. If we do not clearly see this connection, we cannot make a deep, lasting decision to be a Christ-follower. We follow at a distance, we are discouraged at the first problem, we are not all the way in, and so we are uncomfortable, because we know we are not all the way in, and thus we suspect that we are at least partially out. Submission to the Lordship of Jesus (#1) cannot be separated from salvation in Christ (#2). The Bible does not separate them, neither can we. And….we have to get them in the right order.
Those to whom Paul was writing in the first century understood Lordship. If an individual gave himself to a “lord”, he gave up everything. He surrendered every aspect of his life. Rights, possessions, even names were given up for the Lord. They made the decision (and sacrifice, at least in our terms) willingly because of what they understood they would get in return: membership in a new household with benefits, protection, security, honor. Debts paid, clean slate, old enemies vanquished, old problems gone. That is what we get when we follow Christ.
This is a message of self-denial, not for the purpose of denying self, or self-deprivation, but for the purpose of laying down our lives for our Lord, and trusting him to take care of everything. We must surrender all to Jesus—this is the first decision, it is based on the goodness of God. There will not be biblical repentance until we get to this step. We have overlooked it; ignored it, not seen it. All must belong to Jesus—our future, relationships, will, and resources. More will be required, but the “more” is not a problem, because we have made a “once for all” decision. When people come to Jesus with this spirit, they come broken, needing and expecting a complete transformation.