Kiss the Son and be rehabilitated

The Law of God, the Spirit of truth, are the representatives of God the Father. The buck stops with Him. He is to be feared; for He is no respecter of persons. And similarly, the gospel, “good words and comfortable words” (Zech. 1:13), and the Spirit of all comfort and of all grace are representative of the only begotten Son of God. He is our peace between God and man.

The Law and the gospel represent the Father and the Son, respectively. “Fear God, and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come.” And, “Kiss the Son....” Love the Son.

In a strange otherworldly arrangement, the rest of the last scripture shows the Son, not only as adorable, but as almost a despotic narcissist. “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.” (Psa 2:12). Why should He be that way? Why sound so barbaric, like an ogre who eats his children? And what about, “Fear God, and glorify to Him.” Is God the Father a despotic narcissist, too? Does God eat His children? Sickening heresy!

Of course not, but Satan would love to have the human race believe that! God loves our race so much that He gave us His only begotten Son. And we devoured the Son! But then what is going on with Psalm 2:12??? Were the Israelites sadists who could love a God that threatened them if they didn’t kiss Him? Does God expect the same from us?

Or, was this speaking about King David being the son? Actually, today this interpretation is entertained by many rabbis. But how is “Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little” consistent with David’s affection for his people?

“My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear [How long before I can appear...] before God? 

My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? 

When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.” (Psa. 42:2-4).

No, David was not a narcissist. And David was not the “Son” of his visions. The Son referred to God’s only Begotten, Jehovah Adonai, the joy of all the worlds and the angelic hosts. The Son was the precious Jehovah Jr., Messiah the Prince, the only Begotten, Prōtotokos “first-born” “first-begotten”, “the beginning of the creation of God”. He was “Michael your Prince”, “Michael ... the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people” (Dan. 11:21;12:1). The Son is our advocating High Priest.

How about God the great Judge? Is He tender and kind? Does He love in kindness? Yes, to all who obey His Law, to all who He views are not a threat to His other beloved creatures! But to those who He detects slipping into spiritual hypothermia and their well-doing slacking off, He slackens His glory upon them and silences His voice in their soul. He instantly interprets their lack of energetic response to His glorious will as rebellion, and immediately sees them as a danger to His beloved kingdom. So He commissions His Son to fix the problematic slacking in their souls. If they don’t heed His warning message or His Son’s, but continue on in increasing slackness, then He increases His withholding of life-giving glory, and His Son sorrowfully drops the slacker a message that he will die in his sins. Such a threatening message comes far in advance of the final death, but it’s a last ditch shock treatment to wake up his conscience and heart, like the powerful medical device, called a defibrillator. According to Wikipedia, “Defibrillation is a treatment for life-threatening cardiac dysrhythmias...”

The defibrillator is a life-saving tool. God’s powerful resources to wake up our conscience is also His life-saving tool. His Son, who He commissions to minister to the wanderer for his rehabilitation, applies His power to save by speaking truth and grace in loving-kindness and tender mercies. Not grace only lest the slacking one fall into eternal slumber. Not truth only lest the slacking one be stripped of all hope and worth. In either case, if the Son were to approach the situation with only a one-sided work of total grace or total truth, then He would contribute to the loss of a soul and the Father would judge Him a worker of iniquity. This has never happened, and never will happen. “He hath done all things well: He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.” (Mark 7:37). All that the Father put the Son through from Gethsemane to Golgotha proved the Son’s eternal love for man before all the universe, and sealed Him in the perfect upbringing of Adam’s race.

Are we ready for the Son’s perfect rehabilitation? Are we saying, “We will not have this Man reign over us”? The word “rehab” has humbling connotations, for sure. But, despite the humiliating side effects, it means restoration. Does the Son have any takers? Or, is the humiliation a special benefit? Isn’t our humbling beneficial rather than detrimental? The sinner has slipped into selfishness. He has become self-centered, as if the whole kingdom should permit only him to carry on in rebellion against the Law of self-sacrificing love. Were he to continue unstopped by God’s cutting assessment of him, wouldn’t a new controversy spring up in ferocious wrath?

Therefore, the gospel begins with the decimation of our pride.

“But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” (Gal. 3:22). “Now we know that what things soever the Law saith, it saith to them who are under the Law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” (Rom. 3:19). “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Heb. 4:12,13). And it ends in deep repentance and our uplifting from shame and guilt.

And in perfect peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.