Insightful Musings on the Scriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
OK, dear ones.
Here we are facing a completely new day…one we’ve never ever had before…and never will have again. Just rattling off that series of words was kind of easy for my little fingers…but now that I pause to think about it, it strikes even me with an unexpected punch of profundity. There will be no second chances to get it right.
I guess that’s one of the great reasons the privilege is so wonderful to commit our way to the One Who knows the end from the beginning…the Alpha and Omega…to acknowledge Him in all our ways so He can be free to DIRECT our paths. Why in the world would…oh, never mind, I don’t have time to be consumed with more preaching.
May your paths be blessed today.
Love, Dad/Ray.
My little head has been known to get clogged with questions that cannot be substantially answered to my satisfaction. And here is one such question that has given difficulty to my thinking in the past. That is, if God is all-powerful, capable of doing anything, and if He is all-knowing, capable of knowing everything about everything, out of all the options before Him for creating a plan for man’s salvation from sin, why did He choose such a BLOODY approach? Why did He establish and submit Himself so completely to this rule that “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness?”
I am happy to report that my struggle with this kind of question is a lot more past tense than present tense. I have effectively drawn the simple and transcending conclusion that God is WISE and JUST. He knows and does what is best. And He clearly does not make it my business and responsibility to figure everything out and know all the details as to WHY. I acknowledge the reality of my own conscience that suffers from guilt when I submit to sin. I also know that trusting Christ as my Savior from sin affords me freedom from that guilt and peace that I can find by no other means. That stacks up to produce some pretty convincing evidence of the truth and validity of the Gospel for me personally, even though I may not precisely understand it all. My intellectual thirst for answers certainly does not become so intense that I am willing to pass it all off as foolishness and then drink the cup of rejection. I’m reminded of the quip that says, “He who has an experience is not at loss before he who only has an argument.” Paul said it well in 1 Corinthians 1:18: “For the message of the cross (this blood-ridden Gospel) is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.” This Gospel has a very real transforming effect on the minds of those of us who receive it—causing us to sing, not with cold liturgy, but with deep heart-felt emotion—“So I’ll cherish the Old Rugged Cross, till my trophies at last I lay down. I will cling to the Old Rugged Cross, and exchange it someday for a crown.” Amen? So be it!