Insightful Musings on the Scriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Good night, special ones.
Whew! Have had a very full day, and now it's late evening and my little bald head is so spent that it wouldn’t work right. It keeps blanking out. I must give it up and go to bed.
Love, Dad/Ray.
This line captures my attention. Ponder the phrase, “Zion’s cause.” What is it? What is the basic divine cause behind Jerusalem becoming such a focal point of Biblical attention? Without engaging in a lot of critical research and analysis like a scholar, let me offer my own answer to that question while sitting right here thinking about it. Let me preface my answer by raising another question that I think is closely related: What is the central core theme of the entire Bible? Here’s my three-part answer:
- God made it all.
- Man’s sin damages it all.
- God’s amazing love and grace fixes it all—without which there is no solution.
Another way to sum it all up is to suggest that the premise of the Bible is actually SIN—that man, resulting from his NATURAL SIN NATURE, is a sinner in need of a savior. There is no other way to compute the Christmas story, the crucifixion story, or the resurrection story independent of that premise. If that premise is not true, then none of these things make very much sense. To be sure, if man is not a sinner, he would certainly not need a savior. But the Bible proceeds to expound that although man is that, a desperate sinner, Christ is a Mighty Savior.
Consider the preceding words of the FOCUS VERSE—“For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution.” It is a misrepresentation of Biblical truth to draw from this that God is at all happy or gleeful over this drastic settling of accounts—elated to condemn and punish. The verse following famous John 3:16 sets us straight—verse 17: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” While we’re at it, let’s also review verse 18—“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.” Therefore, men are in error who wish to condemn God for being so condemnatory. Why? Because He’s not doing the condemning—they are. By rejecting His offer of their one and only solution to their sin problem, they are “condemned already.”
Let’s put forth a bizarre example. Imagine a prisoner on death row. He’s given a message by the judge that offers him pardon. How crazy would it be for the prisoner to be offended by the judge calling him a prisoner?—and refuse the offer of forgiveness and freedom? Go figure.