Consistent Grief

…. A Spiritual
Perspective….

Oftentimes in life, I like to ponder God’s perspective. Scripture indicates that His ways are not our ways… His thoughts are far from ours. So, regarding grief, how might God think?

As I ponder this question I think about Who God is… His
qualities…how He reveals Himself in Scripture. God is a triune God… God the Father, God
the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
Scripture blatantly states the grief of the Holy Spirit.
To reject Jesus’ work on the cross is to grieve the Holy Spirit … and to
grieve the Holy Spirit is to invite eternal separation from God… eternal
grieving. Scripture details God
and His interactions with people throughout Scripture.
However, I see His grief changing from Old Testament to new as He moves
from interacting with humans under the law to interacting with humans under
grace and through Jesus’ passion.
In the Old Testament, again and again, we see God’s sadness as His people
murmer against Him…do not trust Him… and engage in the sins that seem to most
greatly grieve Him… the worship of other gods …gods he knows cannot love His people.
God’s love seems central to
His grief and that His people do not love Him…that despite His great love for
them… again and again they turn to other Gods … cheating on Him …betraying
Him. Yes we see His anger and His
jealousy played out in His actions…but beneath this anger and jealousy is a
great sadness rooted in God’s knowledge that He can love us as no other and that
our path is leading to our own destruction. Humanly it is like again and again … He
grabs us and shakes us and implores us to attend to Him ..believe in Him…obey
Him for our happiness … and when we don’t … I am convinced that profound grief
is His greatest emotion. Then we
move to the New Testament … the story of Jesus. Truly all that existed before still
exists… however, we see the law/grace shift …and Jesus greatest grief can be
seen in His words and actions in His lifetime… His anger …His rebuke was
evidenced primarily against the religious elitists … the pious of the day… He
called them whited sepulchers… seemingly beautiful on the outside…dead on the
inside. Why did His pain …His anger… so revolve around these people who had
elevated themselves so successfully in religious circles?
Again… it was about His rejection …the rejection of His work on the
cross… the rejection of the idea that grace is sufficient thereby nullifying
Jesus greatest passion… nullifying His one work that cost Him for a moment in
time something none of us HAVE to ever live without….the presence of the
Father…as Holy God had to turn His back on the sin He bore for us and in that
moment when Jesus was most in need … He had no God comfort.
I cannot even imagine the pain endured on the cross… as incredible as the
physical pain must have been… it had to pale in comparison to the spiritual pain
Jesus felt in that moment… that moment He was spiritually ripped apart and so
alone. Thanks to Jesus paying that
price for us… we never have to know that pain. So, when we as humans make being with
God about anything other than the grace Jesus provided through His work on the
cross… how greatly this must grieve Him…. and again and again we see His
actions and words …or sometimes simply the impact of His silence in the New
Testament writings as those who think they have the answers in their works
condemn those whose works are so very
human.

So what can we receive from this… what is God telling us?

Speak Your Mind

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