Am I Growing in Love?

I often ask myself this question: Do I take more pleasure in seeing the guilty get what they deserve than in knowing that I am getting what I don't deserve? I confess that sometimes the answer scares me.

Why Climb the Bible's Mount Everest?

Because it's there.

Desiring God Blog's David Mathis is referring to Romans 8:32: "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" He writes:

At the center of God's magnificent Himalayan promises is his pledge to work all things -- especially life's most difficult things -- for the good of his people (verses 28-30; 35-39). These promises are so huge that they are hard to believe.

Is God really working all my worst circumstances for my good? Yes! That's what Romans 8:32 is saying. And it's doing so by reasoning from the gospel to God's goodness in all things.

Here's how it works. First, Paul recounts the gospel: "[God] did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all..." God gave his Son for us sinners. That's the good news -- the central truth of Christianity. This is what we believe to be saved, and this is what we keep believing to stay saved.

Then Paul reasons from this gospel to God's goodness toward us in all our deepest pain: "...how will he not, also with him, graciously give us all things?"

It's a rhetorical question—what Paul means is that God will most certainly give us all things for our good. Not only will he supply all our ultimate needs, but he will bring into our lives only the things that are for our good.

Do we believe that God gave his Son? Do we believe the gospel? Then we are free to believe -- really believe -- that God will work all things for our good.

That's the logic of Romans 8:32. That's Mount Everest. Giving his Son was the hard thing; making every painful trial in our lives work for our good is easy. May God give us the grace to trust him in our trials.

What better words of joy and comfort could we ask for?

Grace and Mercy Be With You

Grace and mercy. Two beautiful words. Two useful words. How else could you explain God's love? Scripture is clear that the only thing sinful man deserves from the hand of God is judgement. God is under no obligation to save sinners. Read carefully the first two chapters of Genesis and nowhere did God give Adam and Eve any hope that if they disobeyed him that he would save them from death. The die was cast; "The day you eat thereof, you shall surely die." Capital punishment was to be the consequence of disobedience.

But the God of the Bible is a multi-faceted God. His attributes are multitudinous. Several times in the Old Testament we read that "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." (Psalm 103:8 ESV) Oh what compassion the Heavenly Father displays! "He does not deal with us according to our sins; nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him..." (Psalm 103:10,11 ESV)

Grace and mercy.

GRACE - receiving what we don't deserve: forgiveness, deliverance, salvation.

MERCY - not receiving what we do deserve: death, Hell, separation.

May we worship the Lord and thank him for his grace and mercy.

Grace and mercy be with you!