This is a post I recently made on the necessity of feeling the weight of our sin in order for the beauty of the Gospel to shine forth. This post was meant to point out that the Gospel will be good news when we’re very much aware that our sin is bad news.
Kinda hard to blackmail someone who is “broken and contrite”. Good thing.
You’re right. Blackmail works to the degree that you’re afraid of your secret being exposed. It plays on fear. But, when you’re open about your sin and that you’re not trying to put on a false front, there is nothing more to fear and blackmail ceases to work.
The funny thing is, it’s not that this person doesn’t have dirt on me (nor that he sought it out, nor that he doesn’t have dirt on others); he does. The thing is I’m not afraid for that dirt to be exposed.
Like, in politics, every candidate is afraid of their past being exposed. The whole concept of politics seems to be that, of covering your weaknesses and presenting your strengths. But if you’re not afraid of being humbled by your past then what do you have to lose? Nothing. No one can blackmail you. The enemy cannot get you down because you’ve already been brought low because of your sin and find your hiding place in Jesus Christ.
[Rosanna said…] What greater joy than to think that my suffering, shame, etc. might contain a faint glimmer of hope of showcasing the mercy of God to other sinners … and the reward of seeing them RETURN to Him?!
That’s why, Rosanna, we are called vessels of mercy. We are not called righteous trophies, because we are not. Jesus is. And when God looks at us He sees Jesus. We are guilty, all. Micah’s confession of this is one of my favorites in all the Bible.
Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.
I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication. (Micah 7:8-9)
I owe John Piper my life when I expound on this (which he pointed out to me in his book, When I Don’t Desire God). Though Micah was sitting in the darkness that he himself brought upon himself because of his sin against the Lord, Micah turns his guilt into “gutsy guilt” by turning against the enemies who are trying to rejoice over his discipline, gets in their faces, and says, “Don’t rejoice over me, though I experience the discipline of God because of my true sin, God will turn from being my Discipliner to my Defense Attorney.” He will execute judgment for him, he says, and will look upon His vindication.
How does a person completely guilty of sin who receives discipline because of it turn around and say “Justice will be served, and I’ll be vindicated”? Wouldn’t justice be Micah’s damnation?
That’s because God showed mercy to Micah and He showed no mercy to Christ. Though Micah could not see it, God had a plan whereby all the sins God passed over would actually be paid and God would be just to justify the ungodly.
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:23-26)
I am getting ahead in the Desiring God study we’re doing, Rosanna, but this was the verse that last time I went through the book hit me like a ton of bricks. Previously, like with Micah, God seemed to wink at sin. It seemed that His mercy was over against His justice, as if the two attributes of God were in conflict. As a result, the value of His name was questioned. If God’s name is so valuable (which He spends so many places talking about His name and His glory and the value of His worth above everything in the OT, Psalm 106:6-8; Ezekiel 20:5-9; 1 Samuel 12:19-23; Deuteronomy 9:27-29; Exodus 14:8,18; ET CETERA), how can He allow it to be profaned by these people and still reward them with mercy and the reward of His fellowship? How can He give access to what is Supremely Valuable (namely, Himself) when His name isn’t valuable enough to defend with justice?
I value Rosanna more than any person in my life. If I stood idly by while someone came in and hit on her, said vulgar things about her, and finally assaulted her, it would be clear that I do not value her. She is not worth much to me if I allow her to be profaned. But in the OT, God seemed to wink at such people who maligned what was most valuable to Him (namely, Himself, see Isaiah 48:11 for the clearest exaltation of His name as the root of His forgiveness). He shows mercy toward people who maligned Him. What does this mean about the value of His name?
That’s what the cross SHOUTS louder and clearer than anything. That is why it is, as Piper calls it, the blazing center of the glory of God. As Paul says, Jesus was presented on the cross because God had “passed over former sins.” The worth of God was called into question, and the cross is the answer to the tension found in the OT between God’s great mercy and God’s great justice. In the cross, as the song that you love points out, Rosanna, the love of God and the justice of God conspire to bring maximum glory to the Father. It’s a Divine Conspiracy: permit sin to occur, show grace, pay for the sin Himself, get glory. That’s redemption. That’s redemptive history.
In other words, in the cross we see God’s great passion for justice (shouting, “My name will not be profaned!”) and His great passion for mercy (shouting, “I will blot out your transgressions because My Son will pay for what you truly deserve!”). His love for His name is seen in His love for sinners. And it all points right back to the worth of His name, to His value, to His glory. That’s why we were created. We, the elect (2 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 2:10; Romans 9:11, 16, 19-24; John 6:37-40), are vessels of mercy, helpless recipients of a Divine Planner to bring about maximum glory to Himself.
And my main point in this thread is the very first point of all, and that’s that we are real sinners, and it does us good to meditate on that to the point of really feeling it. Because if we aren’t really, as sinners, pleading for grace, then grace isn’t all that special. It ceases to be amazing if I’m not really feeling and believing that I’m really that bad.
How unstable is my heart! Sometimes I take the tempter’s part And slight the tokens of Thy grace And seem to want no hiding place!
But when Thy spirit shines within Makes me feel the plague of sin And how I long to see Thy face ‘Tis then I want a hiding place!
Lord Jesus, shine and then I can Feel sweetness in salvation’s plan And as a sinner plead for grace Christ, the sinner’s hiding place!
Longing, wanting, desiring grace comes from feeling the weight of sin, and this isn’t a one-time deal. I am more convinced this should be a daily experience striven for, prayed for, pleaded for. And when we receive that grace and all that God promises to be for us in Jesus Christ, what can sin possibly offer that’s better than that? This is why Paul says that the world is crucified to him and him to the world… by the cross (Galatians 6:14)! And I think this faith comes first by confession to God and then by confession to others of how sinful we have been even the previous day. So, again, I’m still a sinner, brothers and sisters. A real sinner. How good it is to be brought low because of our sin, because then we can find the beauty in the Gospel and cling to it alone.
I love you guys. Man, I really do.
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