Jun | 12 | Piercing the Paradox

Key Word:- HOPE

Title:- Piercing the Paradox

Philippians 2:12, 13…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

“This absent-minded, overgrown Elf of a man, who laughed at his own jokes and amused children at birthday parties by catching buns in his mouth, this was the man who wrote a book called ‘The Everlasting Man,’ which led a young atheist named C.S. Lewis to become a Christian.” So writes Dale Ahlquist of the American Chesterton society regarding the great G.K.

You will have to admit that God’s servants come in most unusual packages. Whether a ‘con artist’ like Jacob or a king, like David, God takes their life stories and seems to bend them to His very own design. Well, it really seems like that doesn’t it? I wonder though if it simply might appear to be the case, purely from our own minuscule perspective that is ? For it seems to me that God’s perspective is almost always, uniquely quite, quite different from ours.

As we enter onto this miry ground of the Sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man, let me point to you that there is a danger in this most misunderstood mystery, in this astounding and awesome truth. Maybe even Chesterton can help us here in steering us away from the falling rocks of our own ‘mount minuscule’ when he highlights the problem to us saying that, “The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite.” Did you get that? Friends, on this paradoxical playing field of the Sovereignty of God and the free will of man, beware! For here lie the roots of all misunderstandings which eventually grow into trees of heresy. Here as well, lay also the roots of all self-justification that grow into a tsunami of overwhelming sin. So be careful now, careful in the mud and mire of this most troublesome of paradoxes! Careful in using the “nearly reasonable but not quite” justification for the fulfilling of your selfishness, your little god-likeness of gobby, proud reflections. Stop blaming the outcome of your choices on the sovereign will of God!

You see, that con man Jacob was in fact authored by God! Yet it was Jacob himself who was, never the less, completely responsible for every scheme he ever initiated, and yet God did not bend His designs or timescales to accommodate even one of the wrigglings of this twister. God did not alter His plan concerning the man, yet nevertheless, the man was responsible for each and every decision! Again, Saul the King, even Saul as King, was authored and chosen by God, yet at his sin and disobedience, God then chose David over him instead. Where do the Sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man touch and taste and maybe even turn towards one another? Many have their theories in answer to this question, but while we leave that one for the thoughtful theologians to continue arguing over, today, we still have to try and simply live and live right well mind you, in the light of this great paradox.

So why not right now begin to pierce this great paradox and let its bursting waters wash you into a better freedom. Yes! Today, obey God, fight for truth, claim the land, trust and believe, hope and endure, for the unfolding of eternity is bound up in the decisions of your faith, or the failures of your sin. Walk carefully here. Walk powerfully here then dear friends. Walk for Him.
Yes, today pierce this great paradox and let its bursting waters wash you into a better freedom, for when you are faithless the Sovereign God is still faithful. When you are powerless, the Sovereign God is still all mighty. When you, the prodigal, when you have been profligate and pitiful even then, the Father's arms still await you open wide, decked with prepared newness and renewed blessing. When even the locusts have consumed your youthful years, God can make a single day become as fruit- bearing as a thousand in His most miraculous renewal. Yes, the only way out of the mud of the Sovereignty of God and the free will of man is to daily lay hard hold of the gracious goodness of our God! Trust in Him.

In the Scriptures, our Father presents us with a great mystery, a perpetual paradox. He is Sovereign and we are responsible. We are corrupt, but He is good! Walk in this, in fright, in fight, and in comforting fearlessness, for friends, we shall in the end, find that He works all things well, for He indeed, in astoundingly accurate actuality, works all things well.

Until that day, when we are in heaven and clothed with clarity at last, let us daily pierce the paradox by laying hold of His great goodness, for it is our only hope of victory.

Listen:- What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31-32

Pray:- Blessed are you O Lord our God maker of heaven and earth and Upholder of all things. I bow my knee to You today and serve You with reverent fear, smiling in the the cheer that Your goodness and Your greatness brings to me. Amen.