sunday

If you're not trsuting in the life, death and ressurection of Jesus to deal with what happens when you die, all you're doing is trusting your best guess. Your best guess won't be as good as Jesus. It also won't be real. God has graciously and wonderfully made Himself clear in many many ways. Here are three of my favourites, as mentioned by Don Carson.

Nature.

Psalm 19:1 says the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above his handiwork. I love hot sunny days because in those days it's so clear to see the glory of God. It's so clear to see that there is something else, something deeper behind everything we see around us. Look at the sun, look at the colour of the sky, feel the heaton your face. Thats all to point you towards God. Thats to make your soul cry out 'glory' with joy and fear. It's to make us stand in awe at the Creator. And it's not just sunny days! Look at the clouds, all the chemical reactions needed to keep them going...all sustain by the word of the Lord. And it doesn't even tire Him out! Nature is all around us, God could not have made Himself clearer in it. So stop repressing this knowledge (Romans 1:21) , and come to Him. Delight in the Lord and praise Him for making Himself so clearly known.

The Law.

Why must people be ceremonially cleased all the way through Leviticus? Why is there a whole chapter about cleansing people with Leprousy? Why did God give Israel the law in the first place? Because 'I am the Lord'. we are to be holy, because He is holy. Israel was to make sacrifices to God on a regular basis. Why? He is the Lord. Inter familial sexual relations are banned. Why? Because He is the Lord. This side of the cross, and the law has been fulfilled in Jesus, we no longer need to observe it. The law shows us what God is like. It shows us how gracious, Holy, just and perfect God is. Is shows us God is relational. The law tells us as much as we could know about God's charecter pre incarnation. Now that might not have been one of the key reasons for the giving of the law, but it was a pretty effective side effect. How did Israel know how to behave? Look to the law. How do we know God is a consistent and eternal God? Because of the law.

Jesus

To see Jesus is to see the Father (John 14:9). If we had lived 2000 miles away 2000 years ago, we could have looked into the face of God Himself, eaten with Him and touched Him. Now we live by faith, and not by sight, and the Holy Spirit teaches us about Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate revelation of who God is. How do we know God is compassionate? Look at Jesus. How do we know He is loving? Look at Jesus. How do we know that God is just and hates sin? Look at Jesus. All our worship must be directed to Jesus and through Jesus. Through our one Mediator. Through the one who is not an option alongside Buddha or Mohammed, as some people i spoke to this week would have you believe, but through the Risen owner of the universe, who suffered, bled and died that we could worship Him. God is ultimately revealed through Jesus Christ, who lives and rules today.

so has God made Himself clear? Yes, abundantly and graciously. All we need to do is open our eyes, and have our eyes opened.