Wednesday, March 12, 2008

God Adjusting To Us

Unfortunately, some marriages suffer from a minimalist view of marriage. By this I mean, that some individuals fail to embrace the reality that marriage is a life altering experience, a re-orientation of every aspect of their life.

Imagine receiving a proposal that sounded like this: "I want you to know this proposal changes nothing about my allegiances and my behavior and my daily life. However, I do want you to know that if you accept my proposal, we shall, in theory, be considered married. There will be no other changes in me on your behalf."

Now of course no one in their right mind would accept such a proposal. For a marriage to be healthy there must be a mutual loss of independence, a willingness to adjust for the other person, serving them though it means sacrifice for you.

For a love relationship to be healthy, there must be a mutual adjusting. But what about a relationship with God? Of course I must adjust to Him - He is the Creator and I am the creature - but how could He ever adjust to me? Holy Week is a good time to consider this question.

I'm indebted to Timothy Keller for the following thought. In the incarnation of Christ: His coming into this sinful, fallen world as a man; and through His atoning death upon the cross, God has said in Christ, "I will adjust to you...I will serve you though it means sacrifice for Me."

It's interesting that the Scriptures utilize the metaphor of marriage when speaking of a saving relationship with Jesus Christ: " Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." (Romans 7:4)

The gospel of Jesus Christ is a call, an invitation to be joined to Jesus Christ, to re-orient every aspect of your life toward Him. He is not inviting you to be a good moral person, but instead to believe that He died for your sins and through faith in Him God will forgive you and accept you.

Pastor Van Morris


 

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