It was Christmas morning, 2010. Waking up Christmas morning at my parents’ home in Rock Hill was bittersweet. It was sweet, because this day is the day Christendom celebrates the precious gift of Christ as Savior, the day God Himself “disguised Himself as a newborn” in order to rescue the ones He loves. Yet it was bitter as it was our first Christmas without my Daddy’s sweet presence. Oh how my heart longed to see Dad just one more time! I longed to feel his warm hugs and see his contagious smile. We were all trying very hard “to choose joy without feeling it!”
Later that
morning, I went outside (actually to take out the trash!) when all of a sudden,
it started snowing! I lifted my face towards the sky as the wet snow fell on my
cheeks. In my heart, I sensed the Lord saying to me, “Behold, I will make all
things new!” I smiled as I watched the snow begin to cover the grass and
thought, “No, I won’t always feel the way I do today. My heart is broken, but
God will in time make it new! I won’t always feel the emptiness that I feel
today. God will in time fill the void with His joy and laughter again!
I am sure
you too have experienced God in similar ways as you have witnessed the beauty
of His creation (general revelation). We
stand in awe in these special moments, sensing God’s incredible power!
Oftentimes these moments can lead us to seek God more deeply in His Word where
more specific, intimate knowledge of God and His ways are found. This is known
as special revelation.
So let me
ask you: do you think of the Bible mainly as a list of rules to follow, like a
chore chart or a book of heroes on which to pattern our lives? Is that really
what God had in mind when he inspired the Psalmist to write in Psalms 19: 7-11 that
His Word was delightful, “more desirable than gold”, “sweeter than honey”,
“making the eyes light up” and having “great reward to those for keeping them?”
But doesn’t this lead us to another question: how can the Lord’s commands be delightful when they are so difficult to
keep? And doesn’t the Bible say I will be greatly rewarded IF I keep them?
Stop right
now and read Luke 24: 13-27. You may remember this story! Jesus showed up after
His resurrection and joined two very sad, disappointed disciples who were on
their way back home to Emmaus from Jerusalem. They do not recognize Him at
first, but then verse 27 says that Jesus, starting with Moses and all the
Prophets, He went through the Old Testament and explained to them, “The point
of all that is Me!” Oh how I would love to have a copy of that sermon! Wow!
Perhaps He
said something like this: Don’t you see? I did not give you the Law as a list
of rules to keep? No matter how hard you try, you could NEVER fulfill the Law’s
demands. I never said you could! The time of the Judges and Kings showed you
that no earthly King could lead God’s people! You needed a heavenly King, a
truly righteous King, King Jesus! Only He in His perfect righteousness could
meet what God’s holiness required.
How do I
move from duty to delight? We MUST move past seeing the gospel as things to be
accomplished FOR God and see the gospel as what Jesus has already accomplished
FOR us at Calvary! “Psalms 19:11 tell us there is ‘great reward’ in keeping
God’s commands. WE CAN’T DO THAT. But
Jesus can and did. And there is great reward in Christ’s righteousness for all
who will trust in His finished work and thereby receive His goodness credited
to their account.” Now that’s the gospel!
THOUGHTS TO DISCUSS
Many of us are not used to thinking of God’s
commandments—and Scripture in general—as “sweeter than honey,” or something
that is delicious. Even if we can reckon with the idea of loving God’s law, we
may have trouble figuring out how not to think of it in the context of a
religious duty or a “chore chart.” But the Psalms speak of God’s children
delighting in God’s law.
Does reading the
Bible and following God’s expectations feel like a chore or a treasure to you?
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