Staying in His lane

Elihu tells us that if God were to "think only of Himself," the entire creation would perish (Job 34:14–15). That's a remarkable claim, and it brings us face-to-face with God in a way we don't always think of Him: He is the God who refuses to leave well enough alone. He is the God who refuses to mind His own business. He's the God who refuses to stay in His own lane.

J. N. Darby points out that God's reaction to the Fall is to ask two questions: "where are you?" (Genesis 3:9) and "what have you done?" (Genesis 3:11, 13). And he notices that God asks "where are you?" before He asks, "what have you done?"  We tend to think of those in reverse. But the bigger point is that God comes looking for man when he sins. It's a story we all know, so maybe we don't think how astonishing it is that God's reaction to the Fall is to come looking for us.

It's important we realize that God owes us nothing. He would have been perfectly just (and justified!) to simply condemn Adam, Eve, and all of their race. Were we to be thrown into hell, it would be no worse than any of us deserve. We have all sinned, we all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

But God isn't content to be just. He is the God who "devises means" – the God who plots and schemes – to be merciful to sinners (2 Samuel 14:14). One of my daughters once said God stays up all night poring over the law books, looking for loopholes so that He can be merciful to us. That's not strictly biblical, but it expresses the idea of the wise woman of Tekoa. So I'll give my daughter a pass on her definitely-not-biblical-and-yet-very-correct description. And notice how this aligns with the language of Romans 3:26: one result of the cross of Christ is that God could both justify and be just.

The old preachers used to say the only time in all of Scripture when God is seen to hurry is when the Father sees the prodigal returning and runs to meet him (Luke 15:20). 

And really, isn't that the astonishing thing about Genesis 18:20–21? God calmly tells Abram that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is so great that its stench has risen up to Heaven. So what does He do? He comes down to see if its really all that bad. That's a remarkable thought: that God Himself would come down from Heaven, looking to see if He can give Sodom and Gomorrah one last chance. It's a remarkable glimpse into who God is.

And we've noticed before that when God invites the Son to sit on His right hand (Psalm 110:1), He promises to make all the Son's enemies His footstool. But here we are: instead of being made His footstool, we have been lifted up to sit with Him in the throne (Ephesians 2:6). God isn't content to do what He really ought to do. He insists on doing so much more.

My working definition of grace is something like "God doing what He wants to do with no regard for what we deserve." I think I mentioned that before at some point. And the more we realize how little we deserve, the more we see that it's only God's sovereign grace that we have to thank.

I don't meditate enough on this.