Insightful Musings on theScriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Good evening, dear people.
We just returned home recently from visiting some old missionary friends. I was getting ready to drop into the bed when I realized that the day has been so full that I didn’t send this devotional yet. So I walked out here to the pole barn studio in the dark with a nearly-full moon overhead, wearing my slippers and bathrobe, to do so. Such commitment.
I feel my head shutting down, so I’d better press SEND and see if I can find my way back to the house…and the bed…after I feed the dog and cat.
Good night.
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!