Tension in Him

The Bible paints a remarkable picture of God. I'll never know Him fully even on the other side of the Jordan River, but on Sunday I was struck again concerning the absolute tension that He must have felt in the core of His being before the great propitiation of His Son. How strong His justice and holiness must have cried out as His love and mercy screamed back. How His justice and holiness wanted their satisfaction as the blood of sheep and goats spilled and did nothing to satisfy.

Oftentimes we put the Son and Father at odds with each other. It is almost as if the Father was the mean one demanding a sacrifice that would satisfy while the Son, full of love and compassion, complied to set us free. No, the struggle is much more profound than this as Christ Himself longed for the satisfaction that His death would bring. He longed for the debt to be paid and for mercy and justice to embrace and lovingly kiss each other.

Oh the sigh of satisfaction when God the Father heard the words "It is finished," uttered from the most perfect of offerings. When He gave up His spirit and the Father knew that the sacrifice was perfect, the penalty paid, and the debt forgiven. Finally the struggle was over and soon He would have His Son back sitting as his right hand - the Champion of Heaven.

A remarkable picture indeed, and one that is unique to this thing we call Christianity.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

tightvnc keyboard mapping problem in Ubuntu 9.04

Image
I have been, off and on, having an issue with the keys on my keyboard mapping to the correct values when using the tightvnc client when paired with the vncserver vino in Ubuntu 9.04. I am not exactly sure what keyboard layout the client and server was expecting, but it seemed like every time I restarted the OS the keyboard mapping problem would come back and I would be at square one again. Well, I think I have found the workaround I was looking for . Hopefully this will help anyone else that is having this issue.
Read more

The manifestation of the "I" and the gift of self - Part 1

I am continuing my journey through Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and I had never realized how body-focused the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Genesis truly are.  But then it all makes so much more sense when it was brought to my attention that the body we have been given in a manifestation of me, or to put it another way, the "I". And it goes beyond that still. Not only does it reveal me, but my body also reveals, in no small measure, the image of God. That is not to say that God is made of flesh like me as is depicted in so many Renaissance paintings. The old man in the sky is nothing like the God as revealed in the Bible. However, the love that God is, the holiness that he is, the justice he is, the righteousness that he is...all of it is shown to the world through my body. In a very real way, my body allows for others, and for me, to participate in the mystery (the hiddenness) of the image of God. That is by design; from the beginning.  If God is revealed in nature...
Read more

Let me learn what I need to learn

In the “I don’t know what God is trying to produce in me…” portion of the blog: I work across (not with) an incredibly loud person. We are in cubes and he refuses to use a handset when he is in a conference call…or headphones. Everything is done via speaker phone. Maybe his handset is broken? I don’t know and am too timid (read “interested in keeping the peace”) to ask him. Of course he shouts into his speaker phone as well when he talks. Now he even refuses to use a keyboard. He has a speech recognition program that allows him to speak to the computer rather than type. Good for him! Now we can all hear “Comma…open parenthesis…close parenthesis…tab…tab...tab…” Was it my sin or my parents sin that relegated me to this placement in the office. We all know the answer to that but man…it sure feels like I am getting punished for something.
Read more