Worship God Now

One day God will make all things right. He will straighten out what’s crooked and smooth out the rough places (Is.40:3-4; Lk.3:5), not the least of which is the humiliation of the proud. For “all mankind will see God’s salvation” – a salvation most have chosen to ignore and disdainfully mock throughout their lives (Is.40:5; Lk.3:6). Isaiah had earlier prophesied, “The Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted – they will be humbled” (2:12). Those who refuse to respectfully acknowledge God for who he is and all those who stubbornly seek to exalt themselves and choose to spend their lives clinging to their favored “created things rather than the Creator” (Rom.1:25) will be made to face the God they shunned. No rebels will remain when our Lord and his Christ resolve this sinful interlude between Genesis 3 and Revelation 19. Every prideful heart that has led men and women “to live life their way” will bow in silence before the Lamb of God. Indeed “kings will shut their mouths because of him” (Is.52:15). No more excuses, no more profanity, no more narcissistic and egotistical godless chatter. The world’s inhabitants will meet their Maker and confess that his Son is King. May we anticipate that Day with humble adoration (Ps.2). May our hearts long for men and women, teenagers and children to cling to him now with contrite hearts. May we proclaim, “Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (Ps.2:12).

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For God's Sake

While most people believe God saves people for "people’s sake" (i.e., because of his attraction to them and his inner compulsion to promote and honor them), Psalm 106:8 tells us that God is in the business of saving sinners for "his own name's sake" (i.e., for his own honor, promotion and glory). In considering his grace and mercy toward his people, God repeats through the prophet Isaiah: “For my sake, for my sake, I do this” and “I will not yield my glory to another” (48:11).  This is where we find ourselves most uncomfortable with the biblical view of God, in this case because his acts of love and mercy are shown to be self-centered – and self-centeredness, we presume, is such an ugly trait. Our discomfort in the face of these kinds of truths about God reveals our desire to see him as a human benefactor instead of the transcendent and sovereign God to whom all glory belongs. “All” is the operative word because he “alone” is the “central One.” “He alone is the Lord” who made all things (Neh.9:6). As heaven sings, “You alone are holy” (Rev.15:4). “There is no one holy like the Lord, there is no one besides you” (1Sam.2:2). “No one is good, except God alone” (Lk.18:19). We see then that God is not like a human benefactor or a human savior – he is not like us at all. Self-centeredness is an ugly human trait, but God is not human. While we may be tempted to think that we are the “center” of God’s life (as modern doting parents aptly illustrate), God loves for his own sake, as the exclusively holy Being in the universe, rightly maintaining himself as the center of his actions. This does not detract from our feelings of being loved and cared for by God, it only helps us to retain God as the center and the exclusive purpose for all of his divine actions. We will after all worship him for saving us not with inflated chests, but “to the praise of his glorious grace” (Eph.1:6). So then: “To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen” (Jude 25).

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Privileged Access

The priests of the Old Testament held a special and privileged position among their contemporaries. They lived as those who were granted an exceptional depth of access to God’s presence and God’s blessings. As such, they were held to a higher standard as compared to the rest of those who lived in the nation. In the New Covenant, while there may be distinction in roles and honor among Christians, there is no distinction in the privileged access we have to knowing God and experiencing his blessings. In fact, the entire band of Christ-followers is designated “a holy priesthood” (1Pt.2:5). Every Christian worldwide is held to the high standard of showing our respective nations that we know God intimately and that we, by his grace, daily walk instep with the Creator of heaven and earth. Understanding our high calling allows us to feel the weight of responsibility that the Old Testament priests must have felt when the prophets exhorted them to live to a higher standard than the rest of the nation. Consider Malachi’s words, “And now this admonition is for you O priests” (2:1). The concern throughout the book of Malachi in general, and chapter two in particular, was that the priests lived as the benchmark for the rest of the nation by “setting their hearts to honor God’s name” (2:2). It was a daily decision for them as it is for us. It begins in the recesses of our soul each morning. Will we resolve today to honor his name? Will we live for Christ? Will we demonstrate that we know God and walk instep with his Spirit? Set your heart today on honoring the God with whom you have been granted special access through Christ.

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Righteous Anger

While most Christians are chasing a modern fantasy of an irenic and affable day-to-day Christian experience, may we recognize the truth that we cannot be godly without regularly feeling and periodically expressing righteous anger. Of course I am not referring to the hot-tempered man of Proverbs 29:22, who, with selfish motive and slight provocation, explodes at those around him. I am referring to the experience of the godly Psalm writers who regularly declare, “I abhor the assembly of evildoers” (Ps.26:5), “the deeds of faithless men I hate” (Ps.101:3), “indignation grips me because of the wicked” (Ps.119:53), and “I loathe those who rise up against you O Lord” (Ps.139:21).  Unless you are living in the perfection of the New Jerusalem, you will not be able to be godly and anger-free. Christ certainly wasn’t. A cursory reading of Matthew 23 or a familiarity with Christ’s temple-clearing rampage will remind us that godliness includes a righteous frustration with the sin and blasphemy that is so ubiquitous in our fallen world. Speaking of “godly,” it is enlightening to note that of the 358 times the words for “anger” appear in the Scripture, over half of them are attributed to God himself. While we are obviously not in the position to respond as God would (and will) to the sin in our culture, historical accounts like that of Phinehas in Numbers 25:1-13, remind us that often we just are not angry enough at the sin and idolatry in our world. May God teach us to “be angry and sin not” (Eph.4:26).


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