The tender heart of God
“For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant.” (Is. 53:2).
Jesus was different. If we are “made a spectacle ... to angels,” much more certainly Jesus was. 1Cor. 4:9. With the softest heart of the human race since Adam, He reflected the heart of His Father who begot Him and trained Him up in the divine way He should go. And the angels’ hearts sang again on earth.
He had communings with Him whose infinitely deep thoughts are not our thoughts, and whose infinitely pure ways are not our ways. His Father was always His confidant and counselor. As Jesus studied the Holy Scriptures, He distinguished the yearning of holy hearts for a rebellious nation and recognized the pathos of His own Father toward a fallen race. He heard the agony in His Father’s heart because of sin. By faith, He saw the depths of divine sorrow on His Father’s face.
Jesus had righteousness by faith. He loved the law; all aspects of it. More than the priests and the other religious leaders, He comprehended it all and the depth of it, and His strong appreciation of it reflected that comprehension. When He later told them, “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God,” we see His intimate knowledge of scripture, and that He saw in the word of God the power of God, as He also saw it in nature. Matt. 22:29. Their misinterpretations began with the seeds of unbelief, but Jesus had had perfect faith in His Father since the dawning of His intelligence.
Thus, perfect obedience was His one motivation in all that He did. He not only loved the Law, He knew it; He not only knew the Law, He loved it. For Jesus, both heart and intellect motivated His holy life, and brought every action of body, mind and soul into captivity to the will of God.
His sympathy for the most wretched, the most untouchable, revealed the shrouded heart of the God of the Old Testament. Much of the action of Israel’s God toward them had come out as not only demonstrative and bold, but also as careless and without pity, interested in only one way conversations. This was necessary in dealing with uncontrolled passions and self-indulgent idolatry in the hearts of the nation called by the name of His Father’s holy love. High-handed divine warnings and justice were forthcoming to meet the high-handed pride and hypocrisy that misrepresented the principles of righteousness to the outside nations.
But, in due time, the God of primarily justice would come to show the true fullness of His love. He would come in the tenderness that had been His from the beginning, expelling every distrusting thought. The people of Israel and of the whole world now were in the most pitiful grip of Satan. Now they could be reasoned and pleaded with. At the end of their rope, they could only confess that disobedience to God equaled slavery to a tyrant.
Now the Father could send His beloved Son to a world that would listen. And many did. And “as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” (Jn. 1:12).
“Ye have … seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” (Jas. 5:11).
Jesus was different. If we are “made a spectacle ... to angels,” much more certainly Jesus was. 1Cor. 4:9. With the softest heart of the human race since Adam, He reflected the heart of His Father who begot Him and trained Him up in the divine way He should go. And the angels’ hearts sang again on earth.
He had communings with Him whose infinitely deep thoughts are not our thoughts, and whose infinitely pure ways are not our ways. His Father was always His confidant and counselor. As Jesus studied the Holy Scriptures, He distinguished the yearning of holy hearts for a rebellious nation and recognized the pathos of His own Father toward a fallen race. He heard the agony in His Father’s heart because of sin. By faith, He saw the depths of divine sorrow on His Father’s face.
Jesus had righteousness by faith. He loved the law; all aspects of it. More than the priests and the other religious leaders, He comprehended it all and the depth of it, and His strong appreciation of it reflected that comprehension. When He later told them, “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God,” we see His intimate knowledge of scripture, and that He saw in the word of God the power of God, as He also saw it in nature. Matt. 22:29. Their misinterpretations began with the seeds of unbelief, but Jesus had had perfect faith in His Father since the dawning of His intelligence.
Thus, perfect obedience was His one motivation in all that He did. He not only loved the Law, He knew it; He not only knew the Law, He loved it. For Jesus, both heart and intellect motivated His holy life, and brought every action of body, mind and soul into captivity to the will of God.
His sympathy for the most wretched, the most untouchable, revealed the shrouded heart of the God of the Old Testament. Much of the action of Israel’s God toward them had come out as not only demonstrative and bold, but also as careless and without pity, interested in only one way conversations. This was necessary in dealing with uncontrolled passions and self-indulgent idolatry in the hearts of the nation called by the name of His Father’s holy love. High-handed divine warnings and justice were forthcoming to meet the high-handed pride and hypocrisy that misrepresented the principles of righteousness to the outside nations.
But, in due time, the God of primarily justice would come to show the true fullness of His love. He would come in the tenderness that had been His from the beginning, expelling every distrusting thought. The people of Israel and of the whole world now were in the most pitiful grip of Satan. Now they could be reasoned and pleaded with. At the end of their rope, they could only confess that disobedience to God equaled slavery to a tyrant.
Now the Father could send His beloved Son to a world that would listen. And many did. And “as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” (Jn. 1:12).
“Ye have … seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” (Jas. 5:11).
posted by David | 6:45 AM
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