I was sitting in the Remembrance meeting one morning, and a man stood up and read Luke 15:1–2, "this man receives sinners and eats with them," he looked up and added, "Thank God He does!"
Here are the Pharisees accusing the Son of God of eating with sinners. That's not the only accusation they make against Him, of course, but it's one that sticks because it's true. They know they can't accuse Him of being one of those sinners: there's nothing in what He says or does to support that accusation. They don't like that He's known for eating and drinking – as opposed to fasting – but they haven't seemed to have gotten traction accusing Him of gluttony or drunkenness (Luke 7:33–35). So the accusation that He receives sinners seems like it might get some traction, because it's demonstrably true.
The last chapter of Jonah is in a similar vein: here's the prophet of God, and he points his finger straight at God and rants, "I knew it! I knew it! I knew I couldn't trust you! You're always forgiving people and showing mercy to them! You're always repenting of the evil you said you'd bring!" (Jonah 4:1–3).
Both of these stories are remarkable in that someone is accusing God of something that He actually did. When I think of someone bringing an accusation against God, I don't jump to the accusation being true. Jonah knew God's character better than most of us do. Odd as it sounds, the Pharisees seem to have understood Christ's character better than the disciples did.
But what the Pharisees didn't understand, what Jonah might not have understood, and what we so frequently miss is, God's mercy to sinners is our only hope.
The difference between Jonah, a Pharisee, and the man who stood up and read Luke 15 in the Remembrance is that he thanked God for His mercy. The other two resented it.
I have been accused of being a "calvinist," which isn't entirely true, but I suppose it's not entirely untrue either. There are many caricatures that come with a label like that. Some of those are built around more than a germ of truth. But there's a truth lurking in there that I'm not sure some of my friends recognize: my only hope for salvation is that God would act unfairly towards me.
It seems to me that a good working definition of grace might be something like: God acting towards me the way He wants to act, with no regard for what I deserve.
Salvation must be an act of sovereign grace, because it's only possible if God acts unilaterally according to His heart, not according to His estimate of me. So when I bask in what Calvinists call, "unconditional election," it's because I recognize that apart from God acting on His own with absolutely no help from me, there's only condemnation for me.
Hymn #181 in the Believers Hymn Book is a favorite of mine. Consider verse 3,
Preserved by Jesus, when
My feet made haste to hell!
And there should I have gone,
But Thou dost all things well:
Thy love was great, Thy mercy free,
Which from the pit delivered me.
Do we really understand that? Do we really appreciate that we were on our way to hell, and doing everything in our power to get there faster? When I think about grace, this hymn comes to mind. I was doing my best to rush to hell, and the Son of God stepped in and ruined all my efforts. He didn't wait for my permission, He didn't wait until I asked for help: He stepped in and stopped it.
So we might consider meditating on Jonah's words. We might want to think about his accusations against God. And while we think about the prophet ranting at God – maybe even jabbing his finger in God's face – we might want to add a "Thank God!" at the end of every line.
4 comments:
When I was younger, a brother told me that every designation of a believer in the N.T. is inclusive and leads to unity. Men seek to brand their brethren with names like Calvinist, Baptist, Exclusive etc. What they are often doing is using these terms to cover over the fact that they are unable to argue against what a man believes. My stock answer to those who would designate me Calvinist is, ‘how many of Calvin’s books have you read’? The answer is usually none. A current trick with many is to say that if you believe in individual election (any other kind is meaningless) you must also believe in limited atonement. This is untrue but the labelling sticks and allows them to cancel you - brethren invented cancelling long before social media did!
My honest position is that a compass does not have only four points. There are four cardinal directions and four ordinal directions and a fully defined compass has thirty two points. I am a thirty two point Calvinist! God’s greatness cannot be confined to man’s systems of theology.
A Scottish preacher of a past day taught us: ‘Election secures for God a people, when, otherwise, there would be none’. That’s a good summary of Romans 9-11 in my view.
It may be suggested that not every saved person is led of the Spirit; for those who are led are so supplied with true counsel and guidance that manifestly they need no outward commandments. This wonderful relationship which provides such blessed realities may easily be perverted by sincere persons if they do not know the right relation to God through which true guidance may be secured. Not only is it demanded that a right understanding should obtain relative to the leading of the Spirit, but that there be freedom from fanaticism, undue emotionalism, and superstition. Since the whole course of a life may be misdirected and that in spite of sincerity, it is needful to an imperative degree for the believer to learn for himself—for no others experience is a pattern—how to be led of the Spirit. No step can be taken in the world apart from divine guidance. But little help can be gained by imitating the experience of others or by following rules which men have made. The leading of the Spirit as the very term for the ministry implies is a most intimate and personal experience. To those who by constant attention and prayer are made familiar with the Spirit's ways of guiding them, the leading becomes one the richest experiences known to the believer's heart. The importance of substituting infinite wisdom for finite guessing can never be overestimated. It is the purpose of God that a child inside a home shall through obedience avail himself of the wisdom of his parents. It is likewise the purpose of God that His own child through being guided by the Spirit shall avail himself of the infinite wisdom of God. It is worse than useless for the believer to depend on his own wisdom and even more useless and dangerous for him to seek the wisdom and counsel of others, even if believers. In matters of which men can know nothing they are rightfully termed blind. On this point Christ asked: "Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?" (Luke 6:39). Lsc vol VI p226 Leading of the Spirit
The character of our life is that of constant
dependence on divine power. If we are "on every side" without being distressed, it must be because the power of God is working. If "perplexed" without being in despair, it is because the power of God is there. But then I must hold myself entirely as a dead man as regards nature, and in the possession of a new life in Christ. "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body " (2 Cor. iv. 10). With Paul the flesh was not allowed to interrupt the power of this divine life, so that it flowed on in an unhindered way. This is a blessed state, and we should know it in our measure. Whenever the life is in activity it always rests on its object; while the character of the life is that of perfect obedience and simple dependence. The obedience of Christ is very different from our thoughts of obedience, which often imply a will opposed to God, and, moreover, it involves in us much that is to be abstained from, as well as many claims to be yielded to. With Christ, the Father's will was the motive, the only motive for whatever He did or suffered. Hence the motive I have in, acting, as far as I am a new creature, is the doing of God's will. Bible Treasury N7 p58
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