Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3 ESV)But it doesn't end until it gets to here:
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Revelation 7:9-12 ESV)What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything? What is it all about it? What is the purpose of it all? What is God doing anyway? The answer to all of these questions is found in the verses I copied and pasted above. Life, history, the universe, everything has as its purpose the glory of God in the display of his attributes. What is God doing? God is showing off. And what he is showing off is something so amazing, so wonderful, that everyone must see it. And everyone will.
Do you have any idea how amazing God is? No, no you don't. And neither do I. But every time I get close, every time I see a glimpse of his glory in Scripture or in the world around me, I just want to fall on my knees in awe of Him. God is incredible beyond imagination and he has been showing that to us since the beginning of time. Only a fallen race could miss it.
And that's where we find ourselves. We are a fallen race. The good news is that part of God's glory, the main part, the essential part--the most glorious part--is that he chose to display his magnificence through his redeeming love and grace--by restoring the fallen. That's what God is doing. God is marching through history, orchestrating this great pageant of life, the universe, and everything, to demonstrate his glory in his redeeming love and grace.
In the Revelation God gives us a sneak peek into the end of redemptive history and what do we see there? We see an innumerable multitude of every tribe, nation, family, and language on earth, all of whom have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, all of whom are magnifying and praising the glory of God in a way that would never have been possible without the fall.
Think about that. Without sin we could never be in awe and wonder of God's grace. We praise God for his justice, and rightly so. But how much greater is his mercy, especially when we fully understand that in Christ God is merciful, not at the expense of his justice, but his mercy is completely compatible with his justice, indeed the natural result of it! (I know that's a mouthful and a lot to grasp. So if your head is spinning trying to get it, chock it up to my poor communication skills, then tuck it away for another day. But trust me--in Christ, God's mercy is justice for the redeemed.)
So what is God doing in creation and history? God is showing off. That's right, God is showing off.
Imagine if you could get in a time machine and go back to the 1920's and attend a Yankees baseball game. For a baseball fan this would be a tremendous opportunity. Now imagine that you want to get to the game early. Why? Batting practice. You want to see Babe Ruth go out and do batting practice. So you're sitting there in the bleachers out in left field and the Babe steps up to the plate. Whack! He smacks one over the right field fence. Whack! There goes another one. Whack! This one to center! Smack! Another one to right. But now he gets a smile on his face. You see him step back and take a look around and then step back in the box. Then he points to left field . . . whack! He smacks one over the left field fence. He points to center. Smack! This one goes over the center field fence. What is he doing? He's showing off! He's displaying his greatness! Oh, you think you've seen something? Let me show you what I can really do!
And that's what God is doing. God is not content to show us just some of his glory. Why? Because God is good and God is loving and God desires that we should know ALL of his glory in its fullness. So God is giving us the best show possible. And at the end of time if we could sit in a seat and watch the full history of creation from beginning to end we would see how every detail redounds to his glory, and we would sit with our mouths wide open and be in awe. And we would fall on our knees and say, "God forgive us for ever doubting you for a moment, how mighty you are! and how wise! and how just! and how holy! and how full of grace and mercy and love! Who are we that we should be the witnesses of such great acts, such a mighty display, much less the recipients of it?"
So what does this have to do with Abraham? Well, you see, it begins in Abraham. Abraham is the acorn and the redeemed of every tribe, nation, family and language, well, they are the mighty oak tree. In fact, they are an entire forest of oaks all descended from that one acorn. In Abraham God begins his great redemptive work. Oh, he could just judge us all and we would have to admit that he would be right in doing so. And we would be in awe of his justice. But, don't miss this, instead of merely judging us, God is going to really show us something . . .
What do you think? Is God's "showing off" a part of His character? If so, what does that say about us, who are made in the immage of God? Are we too showboats of our own prowess? Then when we show off our own ability (apart from God) which I would admit is sin, and God redeems us (because his ability to reedeem is greater than our ability to sin) then what is really happening. Is it the unfolding of a carefully preordained spitting contest? Not, that it is a bad thing. Consider for instance a large but carefully planned firework display. From the perspective of the observer the show is terrifying and supprising, yet awesome and wonderful. The fact that it is preordained matters not! I get that and enjoy the unfolding of God's glory, but does that mean that sin is not as bad as we thought. It is really a NESSASARY plot element in the story of God and human kind. The more we sin, the more God wins (by virtue of having another match to win)?! Also in that sense has God knowingly created us to be the redeemed antagonist in his great plot. Who is really the bad guy, the antagonist himself or the one who authors the antagonist?
ReplyDeleteI love this discussion. I purposely waited a few days to respond so as to think about it some? Are we the antagonist or is the Serpent the antagonist and we are the pieces?
ReplyDeleteI deliberately chose the words "showing off" so as to be provocative. If we were to ask my younger daughter whether or not it is okay to "show off" she would tell us 'no', because showing off is all about self-aggrandizement. I know this because I've had this conversation with her. Actually, she couldn't put her finger on why it was wrong but I helped her along. She was, however, firmly convinced that it was somehow wrong.
Self-aggrandizement, for us, is wrong, but that's because there is always something greater than us. We are told to be humble. We are only human. But this does not apply to God. For God the opposite is true. God's glorifying of himself is the ultimate good! How could God do anything less? We live for self and that is sinful--because there is something greater live for. But for God? For God to live for anything less than himself would be wrong--for he is the ultimate good. Living for God is the highest good, both for us and for God.
So the highest possible good, according to my theorem, is for God to be glorified in the fullest possible way, and, yes, this would necessitate the entrance of sin, I think. I think that moral evil provides the contrast needed to magnify the good. We need to fall in order to know his goodness, love, mercy, grace in their fullest extent. The angels themselves desire to look into these things--things they know nothing of experimentally.
So for whom is this display? for us? for the angels? for Satan? for the ages and universes to come?
So is sin really that bad, then? I think so, yes. I think its utter horridness (is that a word?) is an ontological certitude and a necessity--to provide the contrast. The worse sin is, the greater God's mercy is.
And as for the last question . . . something, something, Aristotle, causality, something . . . I can't remember the argument but I read it once. God is the sufficient cause, but not the direct cause or maybe God is the efficient cause but not the sufficient . . . oh, never mind. I can't remember how it went, but it made sense at the time. Maybe I'll go look it up, but not tonight! LOL God 'allowed' for sin without being the direct cause of it. He created a moral universe and for a 'good' reason. As long as he rights all wrongs his justice is not imugned. There. Did I throw enough against the wall that something might stick? :)