Monday, September 13, 2010

Convergence

I've been thinking about the issue of "God's Sovereignty" and "Human Responsibility". And the more I think about it, the more convinced I become that these two incongruous-seeming principles unite in a single Person.

The Lord Jesus came out from God to man: He stands before us as God's provision for a sick and sinful world. He represents to us God's sovereignty.
and the life has been manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us (1 John 1:2, Darby)

Christ is the summation of all men can possibly want in God
Jesus says to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father unless by me. (John 14:6, Darby)

Christ Jesus, who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption; that according as it is written, He that boasts, let him boast in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:30 & 31, Darby)


But there's the other side too: Christ stands before God as a Man, as the Man. He is all God could ever look for in a Man, and He stands as the Responsible Man
I have glorified *thee* on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it (John 17:4, Darby)

While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying, *This* is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight: hear him. (Matthew 17:5, Darby)


I tried to speak about this in the assembly a couple weeks ago, and I think everyone thought I was babbling incoherently. Maybe I was.

Job longed for Someone who could stand as a mediator between God and himself,
For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him; that we should come together in judgment. There is not an umpire between us, who should lay his hand upon us both... Oh that there were arbitration for a man with +God, as a son of man for his friend! (Job 9:33, 34; 16:21, Darby)

What Job longed for---what we all need---is Someone who can relate to us and at the same time relate to God. Paul gives us the answer,
For God is one, and the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, the testimony to be rendered in its own times; (1 Timothy 2:5 & 6, Darby)

There is one Person---exactly one---who can stand for man with God, and stand for God with men.

The Lord Jesus, we are told, is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1). He is the brightness of God's glory (Hebrews 1). We cannot see God, but God has pointed to Christ and said, "If you want to know what I am like, look at Him!" He is the complete revelation of God, the God who used to speak through the prophets but has now spoken in the Son.

And at the same time, He is the One who can stand before God and say, "There is nothing you can look for in man that I am not. No demand, however exacting, can be made that I have not already fulfilled."

And this one Person is right now sitting at God's right hand, representing my interests in Heaven. It boggles the mind, but it ought to encourage the heart.