Perfection vs. Redemption
David became spiritually weaker due to his moral collapse involving Bathsheba, he and his family were plagued by consequences, and he forever lost his reputation before men. But, after repenting, he became humbler and more dependent on God. And to God this was a just trade-off. “I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul,” became David’s attitude. (Is. 38:15). But though he was reclaimed from sin, never again in this life was he called a man after God’s own heart.
For 38 years Moses walked with God perfectly, “as seeing Him who is invisible.” (Heb. 11:27). Yet, at Kadesh, Moses blasphemed God’s character by lashing out at the people’s grumbling and accusations toward himself, after all that he had endured from their hard, self-centered hearts. But even though he repented afterward, he forever wore its heavy burden and could no longer lead Israel.
“We are consumed by Thine anger, and by Thy wrath are we troubled.
Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance.
For all our days are passed away in Thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.” (Ps. 90:7-9).
Moses finalized his office as under-shepherd, faithfully repeating all that the Lord had taught the nation, put his things in order, handed the work over to Joshua, and walked up Mount Peor, accepting his divinely determined fate.
Adam, together with his beautiful Eve, spent his endless days glorying in the unaccountable wonder and infinite variety of creation, continuously glorifying his Creator Lord God in song and praise for his Edenic home. But, all that pristine joy came to an end after falling from paradise, even though he could be thankful for the blessedness of redemption—but that not until some 235 years after his fall. (Gen. 4:25,26).
Christ and His Father enjoyed perfect peace in a perfect universe before the entrance of sin into their heavenly home. “The four beasts … rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,
The four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev. 4:8-11).
But after the controversy with Lucifer They must forever manage under the weight and suffering of sin. “And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain.” (Rev. 5:1-6). And They will forever and ever, through all eternity, retain the infinite burden and pain of the sin problem, even after wiping away all of our tears.
"I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” Revelation 21:1…. Every trace of the curse is swept away….
One reminder alone remains: Our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded head, upon His side, His hands and feet, are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has wrought. Says the prophet, beholding Christ in His glory: "He had bright beams coming out of His side: and there was the hiding of His power.” Habakkuk 3:4, margin. That pierced side whence flowed the crimson stream that reconciled man to God--there is the Saviour’s glory, there "the hiding of His power.” "Mighty to save,” through the sacrifice of redemption, He was therefore strong to execute justice upon them that despised God’s mercy. And the tokens of His humiliation are His highest honor; through the eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will show forth His praise and declare His power. Great Controversy, p. 674.
Is the humiliation and submission of our redeemed race an acceptable replacement for the loss of our pre-sin perfection? Can God be happy with this prospect? Can God’s final product in redemption be accurately called an acceptable remedy? Does it make the great King disappointed at what He could have had in an unfallen Adamic race throughout eternity? Father, forgive us for hardly comprehending what we’ve done to You.
And, how are we with this final arrangement? How are we with the perpetual stigma of failure that will require God’s grace forever? How are we with eternal humiliation before Him? What other option do we have? We’re stuck, since we are entrenched causes of the loss of Eden and accessories to Satan’s Great Controversy? Would we prefer anything differently? What a blessed predicament to be stuck in! Yet, what a burden this will put on the Father and Son. The wounds on Christ, with the perpetual limitation of a human body, and the wounds in the Father’s heart of the loss of billions of human and angelic children, which we were accessory to.
If we categorically group every saved sinner together in the experience of all the millions of Davids and Moses’s, Adams, Samsons, and Solomons, etc., we end up with a vast population of a race with a heart to obey, but weakened in resolution, tainted by rebellion and dispossessed of purest praise and glory in God as Creator, and with ruined track record (compared to the never-tainted angelic hosts and the unfallen worlds).
Can this condition be allowed in heaven? Is God’s plan of redemption through grace fool-proof, can it really last? Can we rest assured that His redemption is strong enough to withstand some potential assault of doubt and rebellion at some point in the dim future?
Evidentially, we can because it will. What we need to remember is the power of God’s gift of contrition. The humbling that the redeemed will know, at the knowledge of God’s perpetual pain from the Great Controversy, will go down so deep that it will staunch any and all future new thought or inclination of rebellion to appear in any heart or mind.
The redeemed may not have the untainted reputation, the ability to grasp the reigns of leadership of God’s hierarchy, or possess the unfettered praise of pre-fallen Adam, all of which the unfallen angelic hosts still retain, and which this Adamic race could have possessed through all of eternity; but the race will be saved and perfectly safe from sin, and will hold a special new place before God as kings and priests. They will hold the position as God’s delivered prisoners, living tokens of His power to save from the utmost destruction and abyss and darkness. They will be His ensign and badge of forbearance and grace, as they will forever live under His grace and imputed favor. They will forever live under. And they will love to live under—under His unmerited acceptance, under His undeserved love, under the weight of their sin in the sight of the bruised, mangled, and tortured body of Christ which will be the manifestation of God’s bruised, mangled, and tortured heart and soul.
The cross will eternally stay in the forefront of the redeemed thinking, His name in their forehead. The day of atonement, when Christ’s mercy toward sinners met the thunderous Niagara of our Father’s justice on sin, when Jesus “poured out His soul unto death,” “was numbered with the transgressors,” “bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Is. 53:12). The cross will be riveted in their memories, never to be forgotten, its ramifications never to go unheeded.
Their rebellion will be dissolved and they will be purged of sin’s inclination to exalt self. The saved will find it their greatest joy to serve God in the capacity as walking, talking trophies of His condescending love. Never will they balk at their role to manifest His willingness to uplift the weak from disgrace. This will be their sole source of glory, world without end.
“A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
They shall come, and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done this.” (Ps. 22:30,31).
“And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life…. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him:
And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads.” (Rev. 21: 22-27; 22:3,4).
They will walk in the light of His self-sacrificing love and “affliction shall not rise up the second time.” (Nah. 1:9).
For 38 years Moses walked with God perfectly, “as seeing Him who is invisible.” (Heb. 11:27). Yet, at Kadesh, Moses blasphemed God’s character by lashing out at the people’s grumbling and accusations toward himself, after all that he had endured from their hard, self-centered hearts. But even though he repented afterward, he forever wore its heavy burden and could no longer lead Israel.
“We are consumed by Thine anger, and by Thy wrath are we troubled.
Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance.
For all our days are passed away in Thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.” (Ps. 90:7-9).
Moses finalized his office as under-shepherd, faithfully repeating all that the Lord had taught the nation, put his things in order, handed the work over to Joshua, and walked up Mount Peor, accepting his divinely determined fate.
Adam, together with his beautiful Eve, spent his endless days glorying in the unaccountable wonder and infinite variety of creation, continuously glorifying his Creator Lord God in song and praise for his Edenic home. But, all that pristine joy came to an end after falling from paradise, even though he could be thankful for the blessedness of redemption—but that not until some 235 years after his fall. (Gen. 4:25,26).
Christ and His Father enjoyed perfect peace in a perfect universe before the entrance of sin into their heavenly home. “The four beasts … rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,
The four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev. 4:8-11).
But after the controversy with Lucifer They must forever manage under the weight and suffering of sin. “And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain.” (Rev. 5:1-6). And They will forever and ever, through all eternity, retain the infinite burden and pain of the sin problem, even after wiping away all of our tears.
"I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” Revelation 21:1…. Every trace of the curse is swept away….
One reminder alone remains: Our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded head, upon His side, His hands and feet, are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has wrought. Says the prophet, beholding Christ in His glory: "He had bright beams coming out of His side: and there was the hiding of His power.” Habakkuk 3:4, margin. That pierced side whence flowed the crimson stream that reconciled man to God--there is the Saviour’s glory, there "the hiding of His power.” "Mighty to save,” through the sacrifice of redemption, He was therefore strong to execute justice upon them that despised God’s mercy. And the tokens of His humiliation are His highest honor; through the eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will show forth His praise and declare His power. Great Controversy, p. 674.
Is the humiliation and submission of our redeemed race an acceptable replacement for the loss of our pre-sin perfection? Can God be happy with this prospect? Can God’s final product in redemption be accurately called an acceptable remedy? Does it make the great King disappointed at what He could have had in an unfallen Adamic race throughout eternity? Father, forgive us for hardly comprehending what we’ve done to You.
And, how are we with this final arrangement? How are we with the perpetual stigma of failure that will require God’s grace forever? How are we with eternal humiliation before Him? What other option do we have? We’re stuck, since we are entrenched causes of the loss of Eden and accessories to Satan’s Great Controversy? Would we prefer anything differently? What a blessed predicament to be stuck in! Yet, what a burden this will put on the Father and Son. The wounds on Christ, with the perpetual limitation of a human body, and the wounds in the Father’s heart of the loss of billions of human and angelic children, which we were accessory to.
If we categorically group every saved sinner together in the experience of all the millions of Davids and Moses’s, Adams, Samsons, and Solomons, etc., we end up with a vast population of a race with a heart to obey, but weakened in resolution, tainted by rebellion and dispossessed of purest praise and glory in God as Creator, and with ruined track record (compared to the never-tainted angelic hosts and the unfallen worlds).
Can this condition be allowed in heaven? Is God’s plan of redemption through grace fool-proof, can it really last? Can we rest assured that His redemption is strong enough to withstand some potential assault of doubt and rebellion at some point in the dim future?
Evidentially, we can because it will. What we need to remember is the power of God’s gift of contrition. The humbling that the redeemed will know, at the knowledge of God’s perpetual pain from the Great Controversy, will go down so deep that it will staunch any and all future new thought or inclination of rebellion to appear in any heart or mind.
The redeemed may not have the untainted reputation, the ability to grasp the reigns of leadership of God’s hierarchy, or possess the unfettered praise of pre-fallen Adam, all of which the unfallen angelic hosts still retain, and which this Adamic race could have possessed through all of eternity; but the race will be saved and perfectly safe from sin, and will hold a special new place before God as kings and priests. They will hold the position as God’s delivered prisoners, living tokens of His power to save from the utmost destruction and abyss and darkness. They will be His ensign and badge of forbearance and grace, as they will forever live under His grace and imputed favor. They will forever live under. And they will love to live under—under His unmerited acceptance, under His undeserved love, under the weight of their sin in the sight of the bruised, mangled, and tortured body of Christ which will be the manifestation of God’s bruised, mangled, and tortured heart and soul.
The cross will eternally stay in the forefront of the redeemed thinking, His name in their forehead. The day of atonement, when Christ’s mercy toward sinners met the thunderous Niagara of our Father’s justice on sin, when Jesus “poured out His soul unto death,” “was numbered with the transgressors,” “bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Is. 53:12). The cross will be riveted in their memories, never to be forgotten, its ramifications never to go unheeded.
Their rebellion will be dissolved and they will be purged of sin’s inclination to exalt self. The saved will find it their greatest joy to serve God in the capacity as walking, talking trophies of His condescending love. Never will they balk at their role to manifest His willingness to uplift the weak from disgrace. This will be their sole source of glory, world without end.
“A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
They shall come, and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done this.” (Ps. 22:30,31).
“And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life…. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him:
And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads.” (Rev. 21: 22-27; 22:3,4).
They will walk in the light of His self-sacrificing love and “affliction shall not rise up the second time.” (Nah. 1:9).
posted by David | 12:41 PM
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