God is not like you
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I have a stack of unfinished blog post drafts in my queue. Writing comes harder these days, probably because I don’t have the two- or three-hour uninterrupted stretches of time it usually takes to get my thoughts down coherently on any topic, and also because I’ve been battling a weird sense of the pointlessness of it. It used to feel more like a calling to write out what God had put on my heart. Now I so often feel too small and insignificant to have a voice, when there are hundreds and thousands of other voices speaking at the same time, about the same things. Why not leave it to them?
But I know from many hours spent in the pages of God’s Word that His calling doesn’t have to make sense. It only has to be obeyed.
So even though there’s probably only ten minutes left of this naptime, and even though this might not be written as carefully as usual because of it, and even though someone else is probably out there preaching exactly the same thing at this moment, here’s what has been weighing heavily on me in the last several months:
God is not like you.
I’m hearing Christians justify their voting choices based on “who Jesus would vote for.” I’m noticing that Christians substitute the causes of social justice for the truth of Biblical justice. I’m watching Christians wait on the government to love their neighbor for them, because we’ve forgotten how to do it ourselves.
And the basis of it all seems to be this strange assumption that God has the same priorities that we do, that Jesus would be part of the same political party that we are. Is it becoming more and more shocking each day to consider that God might not actually agree with us on all the opinions we so strongly hold? How dare He?! As my Bible teacher used to say, “God made man in His image, but for generation upon generation, we’ve been trying to make God in ours.”
Did Jesus come as a political activist or as Savior of the world? Does God uphold peace at any cost or truth at any cost? Is love the avoidance of discomfort or the willingness to absorb whatever discomfort it takes to rescue someone else? Should the radical grace of Jesus for the lost inspire pride in one’s lostness or grief over one’s sin?
The answers to these questions seem obvious at a glance, but the words and actions of so many Christians prove just how confused we are about what ought to be basic.
Jesus is nobody’s mascot. He isn’t in your party and He didn’t vote for the person you voted for. He doesn’t celebrate your pride or fear your discomfort. He isn’t too holy to stoop down and save you right where you are in your moment of desperation and He’s not waiting for the government to do His job.
He is not like you. He is not like me. He is not waiting for our counsel or our approval or our opinion. He’s already King, already Creator, already Rescuer.
It’s nothing but grace that He has invited us in.
1 The Mighty One, God, the Lord, has spoken,
And summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God has shone forth.
3 May our God come and not keep silence;
Fire devours before Him,
And it is very tempestuous around Him.
4 He summons the heavens above,
And the earth, to judge His people:
5 “Gather My godly ones to Me,
Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”
6 And the heavens declare His righteousness,
For God Himself is judge. Selah.7 “Hear, O My people, and I will speak;
O Israel, I will testify against you;
I am God, your God.
8 “I do not reprove you for your sacrifices,
And your burnt offerings are continually before Me.
9 “I shall take no young bull out of your house
Nor male goats out of your folds.
10 “For every beast of the forest is Mine,
The cattle on a thousand hills.
11 “I know every bird of the mountains,
And everything that moves in the field is Mine.
12 “If I were hungry I would not tell you,
For the world is Mine, and all it contains.
13 “Shall I eat the flesh of bulls
Or drink the blood of male goats?
14 “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving
And pay your vows to the Most High;
15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”16 But to the wicked God says,
“What right have you to tell of My statutes
And to take My covenant in your mouth?
17 “For you hate discipline,
And you cast My words behind you.
18 “When you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
And you associate with adulterers.
19 “You let your mouth loose in evil
And your tongue frames deceit.
20 “You sit and speak against your brother;
You slander your own mother’s son.
21 “These things you have done and I kept silence;
You thought that I was just like you;
I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.22 “Now consider this, you who forget God,
Or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver.
23 “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me;
And to him who orders his way aright
I shall show the salvation of God.”Psalm 50
