Thinking Lightly

I've been slowly getting back into translating Romans from Greek to English, and recently my work in Romans 2 jumped out at me.  Here is my literal translation of Romans 2:4-

"Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, being ignorant that the kindness of God leads you into repentance?"

Do you "think lightly" of God's kindness and forbearance and patience?  Is it a small thing to you, something that rests lightly on your mind and heart?  The truth of God's new-every-morning mercies in Christ is the most massive, weighty reality in the universe, a reality which should be daily, hourly crushing the sin out of our souls, taking our breath away, and bowing our hearts down before the throne of grace.

Yet too often in the church and in my experience, God's grace has been a small, light thing.  Too often I reckon "the riches of His kindness" to be more like a $5 bill and less like the inexhaustible, precious treasure that it really is.  Too many mornings, the patience of God is a small thing to me.  I rise with my alarm clock and go about my day, not stopping to realize in wonder and awe that God again caused the sun to rise this morning on millions of people-- myself included-- who deserved to die in their sleep and yet have another day of divine forbearance and mercy in front of them.  Think of it!  The sun rose this morning-- a testament to God's love for His enemies.  "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may  be sons of your Father who is in heaven.  For He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the just and the unjust." (Matthew 5:44-45)  And the same love for His enemies that the sunrise proclaimed this morning was also demonstrated, in an even more magnificently glorious way, on the cross.  "While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son." (Romans 5:10).  Every morning, we should be staggered by the sunrise!

O, that the weight of God's kindness and forbearance and patience would fall with sin-shattering, joy-maximizing implications on His people!  By His massive mercy, may we today find His kindness to be wealth beyond compare, His forbearance to be an unending fountain of hope, and His patience to be a firm foundation of peace.

All Authority in Heaven and on Earth

I realized after my Through-The-Bible reading today that there has been a theme emerging in the last couple of readings from Matthew.  I would summarize Matthew 7:28-9:8 with these words: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."  This section of Matthew highlights the divine, omnipotent authority of Jesus.  The word "authority" actually appears 4 times in this relatively short passage.  For example:

7:28-29- "The crowds were astonished at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one who had authority."

8:1-3- Jesus has authority to simply 'will' a healing; "I will; be clean."

8:5-13- The Romans centurion understands the nature of Jesus' authority ("I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me.  And I say to one, 'Go' and he goes...)  Jesus commended his faith, and healed the man's servant.

8:14-17- Jesus has authority over all ailments and diseases.

8:18-22- Jesus has authority to command his disciples to leave all to follow Him.

8:23-27- Jesus has authority over the natural world, including the winds and waves.

8:28-34- Jesus has authority over the spiritual realm and all the forces of Satan.

9:1-8- "The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sin."

In this section, we see a general progression from the more 'mundane' authority to more explicitly supernatural and surprising authority.  We first see Jesus teaching with authority, then we see Him in progressively more dramatic healings, then with control over nature, then with control over Satan, and finally with the absolute divine authority to blot out sin.  

I think that this passage is designed to make us more and more amazed at the power and authority of Jesus, so that we will say what the disciples said, yet with hearts full of faith, "What sort of man is this, that even the winds and waves obey Him?"

Wondrous Sovereign of the Sea

Today in my Through-the-Bible reading, I read about Jesus calming the storm.  Matthew 8:26-27- "And He said to them, 'Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?'  Then He rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.  And then men marveled, saying, 'What sort of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey Him?'"

Jonathan Edwards answers their question in his phenomenal sermon, "The Diverse Excellencies of Christ:" "By His walking on the sea in a storm, when the waves were raised, He showed Himself to be the God spoken of in Job 9:8, that treadeth 'on the waves of the sea.'  By His stilling the storm and calming the rage of the sea by His powerful command, saying 'Peace, be sill,' He showed that He has the command of the universe, and that He is that God who brings things to pass by the word of His power; who speaks and it is done, who commands and it stands fast."

The disciples were amazed and afraid, because as good Jewish men, they knew their Old Testaments.  They knew Psalm 65:6-7, which speaks of "the One who by His strength established the mountains, being girded with might; who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples."  They knew Psalm 89:9- "You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them."  They knew Psalm 107:29- "He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed."  They knew who this One in the boat with them must be-- Yahweh Himself, the Lord of the heavens and the earth.

The Fear of the Lord

I'm up late tonight writing Daily Verses for next week, and I spent some time researching for help with the devotional on Acts 9:31- "So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.  And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied."  Now there is a good recipe for church growth-- the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit!  But as I pondered on that I started to wonder, what exactly is "the fear of the Lord?"  

Fearing God is not about being afraid.  In fact, it's often associated with lack of fear.  For example, Exodus 20:20- "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin."  And Matthew 10:28- "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather, fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

Fearing God is about opening our eyes to the reality to which sin blinds us.  We are inclined to be afraid of many things-- the future, the past, enemies, insecurity, money, relationships, death.  But we are not naturally inclined to fear the One in whose hand all things fearful rest.  To fear God is to recognize Him as the holy, righteous, omnipotent, sovereign Creator and Judge before whom every knee will bow.

Fearing God, as I learned in my word study tonight, has many promised benefits.  Here is a partial list of them, just from Proverbs (I think I've stumbled across a key theme of Proverbs here):

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge."  ~1:7

"The fear of the LORD is to hate evil." ~8:13

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom."  ~9:10

"In the fear of the LORD one has strong confidence." ~14:26

"The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life." ~14:27

"Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble without it."  ~15:16

"The fear of the LORD keeps one away from evil."  ~16:6

Can you see how awe of God's holiness and glory brings about all those promised results?  True wisdom and knowledge begin when the solar system of our lives is reoriented around God at the center.  A realization and love of God's holiness shows sin to be what it really is-- an affront to the character of our Creator.  To fear God is to see Him as the Sovereign One, in whose hands are all human events, and therefore we have a basis for a life of strong confidence.  Fear of the Lord, it turns out, is the fruit of faith, and therefore a fountain of eternal life.

Most importantly of all, fear of God doesn't just lead us to our Judge; it also leads us to our Savior.  The more we become aware of the great holiness and glory of God, the more we despise our sins and daily seek refuge at Calvary where the wrath of God was absorbed.  The fear of the Lord allows us to see our holy Judge as our glorious Savior.

"The fear of the LORD is Zion's treasure."  ~Isaiah 33:6