Who I AM (Part 2)

God is Truth

“The Lord said to Samuel… ‘I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.’ But Samuel said, ‘How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me.’ The Lord said, ‘Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord” (1Sa 16:1,2). God told Samuel to lie? Well, he did offer a sacrifice but his purpose was far more dangerous to Saul’s future. Later, God wanted to entice Ahab to his doom and asked His spirits who had a plan for accomplishing His purpose. One answered, “I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets… You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the Lord, ‘Go and do it’” (1Kin 22:22). In John 7, Jesus tells His brothers that He would not go with them to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast, “However, after His brothers had left for the Feast, He went also, not publicly, but in secret” (Jhn 7:10). “God is truth,” but the truth is not always so clearly visible. “Truly you are a God who hides Himself, O God and Savior of Israel” (Isa 45:15). He is not found by those who seek the truth. Rather, He is revealed to those who know His truth. Christians who are sticklers for the integrity of their words will inevitable fall victim to a web of misunderstanding. God is not so easily packaged and neither are His words. Truth is revealed, not discovered. Remember this and we won’t make lies out of truth and turn truth into opinion.

God Forgives

Why does God forgive us of our sins? “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions… and I will not remember your sins.” We love to hear and preach that from the pulpits, but what’s missing? “For My own sake.” God says He forgives us because it benefits Him. “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” Why? “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.” God tells us in 2Corinthians 5.21 that “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for our behalf…” Why? “So that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” We were saved for a purpose other than our own deliverance. God has forgiven us that we might forgive others. He has saved us so that we might reach out to others. God loves us so that, well, you get the point. God forgives us because He wants unblemished instruments at work within His temple. The key is that He forgives us so that we can go to work, at least that's what Titus 3.5-8 tells us: "He saved us.... so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works." Those who want forgiveness without the work are as worthless as gold-plated swords. I’d rather be a useful and forgiven toilet brush in the kingdom of God than a useless antique portrait in the hallways of hell. How about you? (Isa 43:25; 48:10,11)

He is God

“If I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word” (Jhn 8:55). Do we know God the way Jesus did--by keeping His word? Jesus says, “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God” (Jhn 8:47). How painfully obvious is this statement? If we do not hear His word, then we are not one of His children. Who is the best witness of God’s character? He is, of course! Then why is it that the vast majority of Christians define God outside the revelation of His Scriptures? He told a man to lie. He commanded men to kill, even honoring a woman who covertly stuck a pike through a sleeping man’s skull. He admired the faith of prostitutes, chose tax collectors and fishermen over priests, called a murdering adulterer a man after His own heart, gave commandments that were not good, gifted wisdom to a man who called life meaningless, chose the weak and poor rather than the strong and rich, and became a man that He might inflict Himself with His own wrath that we might live. The single word “God” cannot encapsulate everything that He is, or as He would say, "I am." Knowing a God who I believe is "altogether like [me]" is easy and requires no sacrifice. Knowing a God who defines Himself through the body a self-sacrificing paradigm of truth will take an eternity. He's provided His word to grant us a headstart on knowing Him. We should take His offer.