Perhaps it is worth clarifying up front that when I say “God,” I mean the Triune God, the one, true, living God who created all things. In other words, I’m speaking of the God of the Christian Scriptures, the Bible. All the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but Yahweh made the heavens. He is gloriously good and has no equal.
This is mostly a spur of the moment writing…something to fuel my devotion this morning. Three is somewhat arbitrary as I could spend the rest of my life writing about the things I find so wonderful about God. But I also have a few other responsibilities that He has called me to do, so three will be enough for now. So in no particular order…
1. God is just.
As my faith grows, I realize more and more how good it is to know and love a just God. Of course, it’s always good to know that some day all the buttheads who have been mean to me will face their Maker and answer for their words and deeds. My prayer is that they would repent and fall upon the mercy of Christ. But, if not, I know God is just and will judge every man accordingly.
I love that God is just, because it means no one’s sin will be overly condemned. God can and does factor all variables into the equation on a case by case basis. He knows a person’s family history, all the trauma experienced, all the willful sins committed, the level of intelligence and wisdom, the extent of one’s effort toward morality. On judgment day, there will not be a single sin judged with anything but the fair justice of God.
I love that God is just, because He commands me to be just in Christ. My sense of self would never allow me to be truly and impartially just. Sure, I can find some causes, but as soon as I associate with a particular political party or social group, I truncate justice, because all human pursuits of justice are partial…they’re jaded one way or another. But God is perfectly just in every situation toward every person. And my Christian obligation is nothing less than that. Being salt and light requires that I pursue justice for all. And as a steward of God’s grace, I implore all people first and foremost to be reconciled to Christ. That’s how I must desire all people to be judged justly…whether I agree with their lifestyle, their gender identity, or haircut.
The fact that God is just has brought me much delight even as it has exposed my partial heart that wants justice for myself at the expense of justice for another.
2. God is simple.
This might be confusing at first blush. This attribute of the Triune God does not mean he is somehow unintelligent or easy to understand. To say God is simple is to say that he cannot be reduced beyond His essence. He is not conflicted within His being. This begins to become astonishing when I considered that I can be conflicted over what kind of eggs to make in the morning or what is the best SUV to purchase for a growing family. It becomes even more astonishing when I begin to reckon with my mixed motivations for doing nearly anything and everything in life. Even opportunities to serve my wife or a friend come with a mixed bag. If I let some of the motives rule, I’d resent every time my service went unnoticed or under appreciated (according to my personal, fleshly sense of justice, I might add!).
God is not this way. There is no discord within Him. When He acts, He is wholly consistent in His being. When He speaks, He has perfectly pure motives. When He gives, He gives freely, because He is not a divided being like us.
This is really good news for double-souled creatures like you and me. We never have to question God’s motives. We never have to wonder if He is really looking to get even because we forgot to pray yesterday. No, for those purchased by the blood of Christ, we can ALWAYS trust God to do good to us (Rom. 8:28). Life is hard and bad things happen to “good” people, but God intends good always for those who love Him and have trusted in Christ.
I love that God is simple.
3. God is patient.
There is not a person on planet earth who doesn’t love this about God. Of course, millions upon millions of people have no idea because they are not seeking a relationship with their Maker. However, if God were not patient, our world would look significantly different. We have examples in Scripture of God opening up the ground and swallowing sinners…of too-comfortable priests dropping dead after touching the ark of God…of the corpses of lying land owners being carried out of houses. The world would be pretty sparsely populated if God chose to move more swiftly toward judgment. Even minor infractions against an eternal, infinite God are horrific in His sight. We don’t measure sin in terms of “bad” and “good” but in unrighteous and holy. A holy God obliterates all impurity because holiness is never contaminated and it either purifies or destroys all unrighteousness.
I love that God is patient with me in Christ. Jesus’ blood cleanses me of all sin and forgives me. He makes me righteous before the Father. And long before God in Christ delivered me from darkness, He was fully aware of just how stiff-necked I would be even after such a wonderful salvation.
Who is this God who would see my heart, notice every harsh tone, observe every complaint and yet still bear with me and seek my good?
I love that God is patient because it spurs me to action. To presume upon His patience is a failure to understand His grace. He does not save so that we can eat potato chips and click through Netflix. He saves so that we can be made into the likeness of Jesus…who is the only true man who ever walked the earth. And it is this understanding that brings me full circle back to just how amazing His patience is. He knows I’m frail. He knows I’ll mess up. He continues to bear with so that His working of righteousness will be completed in me.
He is patient with my flimsy efforts, because His power is at work in me. He’s patient in teaching me for the umpteenth time, because He knows my frame that I am but dust. He’s patient with the areas of my life that still need much refinement, because He knows the end result will be beautiful.
I need God to be patient…and He is. I love that about Him.
Comments
Post a Comment