1.21 blog

In our last post, we noted that while God does reveal himself in his creation, that due to our fallen condition, we universally distort and supress that revelation. We misinterpret it, and we fashion a god of our own making. Apart from Scripture as our guide, we will get ourselves off track and find a god who happens to be eerily similar to us. (By the way, if you find that “God” is frequently underwriting your life goals, agenda, politics, etc., in other words, if God seems to always agree with you, that’s  a very good indication that you aren’t dealing with the True God. And really when you think about it, what’s the point in having a god who thinks the same thing you do? Why even bother?)

You may be looking for god, but as Martin Luther noted, if we find our way to god on our own, it’s not God that we’d find, but the devil. And even if we were to make our way to the True God, Scripture teaches us that he is a consuming fire, who will destroy sinners with his righteous wrath. Think about yourself.  The choices you make. The real reasons you do things. The thoughts you think about other people. God sees all of that. He knows. And he is righteous. You don’t want to find God on your own.

Thank God that’s not the last word though! Thank God that when Ahaz says, “I don’t need a sign,” God doesn’t say, “You know, this is really tiring. Ahaz, you can just go to hell.” Instead God says, “I’ll give you a sign myself, then.” And the sign is what we celebrated last Friday at Christmas. The virgin will conceive and bear a Son. They will call his name Immanuel. Matthew 1.21-23 explains that this was fulfilled when the Virgin Mary gave birth to a child named Jesus, who is the Son of God and the Son of Man. That he is Immanuel, which means, “God with us.”

Through the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God has found us. The only safe place to encounter God is Christ, where the human and divine natures meet in perfect unity (and one person). The only safe way to come into God’s presence is clothed in the righteousness that Jesus’ life and death have procured. The only safe way of relating to God is on the basis of what his Son has done in our place.

I don’t know why we have this tendency to look for experiences of God outside of/beyond Christ. But we do. Even Christians. We want to go “deeper.” Whatever that means. Usually it involves going deeper into myself. But God doesn’t want us to go deep in that sense. He calls us out of ourselves to Christ. God is happy to give us everything we need. But in our pride we have a tendency to look elsewhere. But think of it, that makes no sense. We don’t have to find God, he’s already come to us: Immanuel. What more could we possibly need?

Posted by: Gene Schlesinger