Fall on the Rock

Real Biblical Christianity calls us to deny ourselves (Matthew 16:25). It is the call to fall on the rock and be broken or have the rock fall on us and be crushed to pieces (Matthew 21:44). It is the declaration of a both mysteriously present and coming King who is both currently in part and will one day in fullness make all wrong things right. These wrongs include both the way in which the broken world has brought about suffering (sickness and death) and whether or not we have lived our lives according to His Standards.

It is a fearful thing to consider that there is someone greater than us who has Standards that we have not kept. This leaves us at a great impasse - Someone higher and more powerful than us will hold us accountable for what we’ve done in our lives. If we really let this sink in then we must acknowledge that our positive flattering self-talk where we water down our wrongs and amplify our rights won’t hold. It might comfort our inner thoughts and sooth our sense of conscience, but it won’t carry any weight before the One who sees and knows all.

The Law is Perfect and Transcendent (Psalm 19:7). The Word of God is Living and Active (Hebrews 4:12). Able both to give definition of right and wrong and to see into the hearts of those to whom it would apply. With that in mind I begin to see what I really am before God - a creature laid bare before His sight (Hebrews 4:13). A sinful man who regularly fails to keep His Standards. A man of whom the Rock will fall upon and who will be crushed to pieces. A future where what awaits me is the Judgment of God.

I agree with the apostle Paul saying - Oh a wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this death (Romans 7:24). I concur with Isaiah - Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips (Isaiah 6:5). And my heart resounds with the cry of the Philippian jailer - what must I do to be saved? (Acts 16:30).

Well, what then? I have come to know that I am guilty of sin. I have transgressed His Commands. I am unworthy of God. And that is it.

Or is it?

In a week we will celebrate Christmas. A beautiful time of year where our culture celebrates wonder and generosity. But in the midst of family and nostalgia there is a faint sound in the Spirit. A quiet hope in the air. A hidden message underneath the neatly wrapped gifts and familiar Christmas carols.

God sent His Son. To a world full of sinners - people who missed the mark, people who fail over and over again - God sent His Son.

God’s Son - they called Him Jesus - became a man and lived a perfect life. The Transcendent and Perfect Law measured Him, and He was approved. Guiltless. Faultless. Without spot or blemish.

Yet the world hated Him. And in perhaps the most beautiful display of Divine poetry, God orchestrated it so that the hatred the world had for His Son - perhaps the most insidious of all acts when they murdered Jesus on the Cross - was the very thing that opened the door for our salvation.

God causes all things to work for the good of those who love Him. The darkest and most shameful act of all opened the door for humanity to be saved.

So here then it is. I am a sinful man who regularly falls short of God’s standards. Jesus lived a perfect life and completely met the standards of the Law. He was unjustly killed not only because the world hated Him but also because He was offered as the sacrificial Lamb in my place.

Thus the Promise of God is this - if I put my faith in Jesus. To follow Him as my Lord and to trust Him as my Savior. Then God will apply the righteousness of Jesus to my account because of the Payment for my sin made on the Cross.

Jesus got what I deserved - which was a cruel death at the hands of people who hated Him - so that I could get what He deserved - which is Eternal Life in Heaven.

So then this Christmas season you may ask - what must I do to be saved? The answer is “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and ye shall be saved”(Acts 16:31)