Are your favorite movies or TV series among these:Braveheart, Snowpiercer, Fight Club, The Last Samurai, The Patriot, Star Wars, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Buller’s Day Off, The Hunger Games, Fahrenheit 451, Les Miserables, or Rebel Without a Cause? Do you know what they all have in common? They are all about rebels. Why do we like movies about rebels? Could it be that there is a rebel inside each one of us? Oh, yes, in some way or another, even the most diligent rule-follower is a rebel. Some of us rebel against general or specific rules. Others rebel against nonsensical government requirements or legislation. And some of us were outright rebels against God, like so many unbelievers today, before Christ captured our hearts. Now, we are thankful that God has open arms for the rebel to come to Him, to be His child, through the gospel, for forgiveness and a new life in Christ. If our hearts are united to his, we will reach out to those in rebellion with gospel love, truth, kindness, and long-suffering patience through prayer, fellowship, and biblical instruction. Many Scripture passages describe God’s love and long-suffering devotion to those who are set against him. I have chosen a few to meditate on, starting with Paul’s quotation of Isaiah in the Book of Romans. “Isaiah is so bold as to say, ‘I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me’…I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation that was not called by my name. I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; a people who provoke me to my face continually.” (Romans 10:20; Isaiah 65:1-3a)
The Light of God
I especially appreciate Paul’s reference to Isaiah’s God-given prophecy about the Lord opening his arms to those not seeking him. I was certainly one of those when Christ brought my heart, soul, and mind into his light through the gospel. I frequently encourage my believing brothers and sisters to pray, witness, and trust in the Lord, who offers his light in Christ to everyone in one way or another to their loved ones. “The true light, which gives light to everyone…was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:9-13) “What was the greatest moment in the history of the world? The traditional answer would be either the discovery of fire or the invention of the wheel…The only answer that a Christian can give would be the coming into human history of the Lord God Almighty in the person of Jesus Christ. Beside that event all other events fade into insignificance by comparison. This moment alone is preeminent…The gospel of God’s grace through the Lord Jesus Christ arrived, and in the space of just two generations the country began to be transformed. Values changed, and this was true even though the light of Christ had begun to shine in only a small percentage of the vast population.” (1) God had open arms for the Jewish and Gentile rebels to come to Him, to be His children, through the gospel—the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. “There are [many] verses in the Old Testament [especially in the prophetic books] that speak of [God’s love for] the nation of Israel as God’s child or of the Jews as God’s children…Jeremiah says, ‘I thought how I would set you among my sons…I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me. Surely, as a faithless wife leaves her husband, so have you been faithless to me’ (Jer. 3:19–20 RSV). God used his prophets to reach out to the nation of Israel, and now uses us, his children, to reach out to individual rebels with gospel love.
God’s Rich Mercy in Christ
“God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:4-9) “The goodness of God in converting and saving sinners heretofore, encourages others…to hope in his grace and mercy…All is the free gift of God…It was his purpose, to which he prepared us, by blessing us with the knowledge of his will, and his Holy Spirit producing such a change in us, that we should glorify God by our good conversation, and perseverance in holiness.” (2) “Paul utters the greatest short phrase in the history of human speech: ‘But God!’ God’s mercy on his helpless enemies flows from his own loving heart, not from anything they have done to deserve it. Verse 7 of [Ephesians] ch. 2 answers the question of why God lavished such love upon his people: so that they will marvel for all of eternity over the incredible kindness and love of God. It will take all of eternity to fathom God’s love, and those who are saved will never plumb the depths of it.” (3)
“We should prize duty more highly than to be distracted by every trivial occasion. Indeed, a Christian values every service of God so much that though some may be in the eyes of the world and of natural reason a slight and empty business, beggarly elements, or foolishness, yet since God calls for it, the authority of the command so overawes his heart that he is willing to spend himself and to be spent in discharging it. It is an expression of Luther’s that ordinary works, done in faith and from faith, are more precious than heaven and earth.” (4) The Apostle Paul encouraged the Ephesians elders, saying, “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God…And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” (Acts 20:24, 32) Paul’s new life was spent in “The ministry of the Gospel…to testify the Gospel of the grace of God; to profess and preach it, to bear a constant and public testimony to it at death, as in life, and faithfully to declare it, and assert it to the last…the grace of the Spirit in regeneration and sanctification; in working faith in the hearts of men; in being a comforter to them, a witnesser of their adoption, the earnest of their inheritance, and the sealer of them unto the day of redemption…[the gospel that] attributes regeneration and conversion to the abundant mercy, the free favour of God…by the word of truth, they are born again of incorruptible seed by it; the Spirit of God, as a spirit of sanctification, is received through it, and faith comes by hearing it…and this being the nature and use of the Gospel, made it so precious and valuable to the apostle, and made him so intent upon testifying it, and fulfilling the ministry of it, and to prefer it to life and everything in this world; and it cannot but be highly valued and greatly desired by all those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” (5) How highly do we value God’s desire that all may receive the gospel invitation? Is our heart linked to God’s heart to want this more than anything?
Related Scripture: Deuteronomy 7:7-8; Job 34:34; Isaiah 2:2-3; 10:20; 11:10; 49:6-7; 52:6; 56:3-8; Jeremiah 33:16; Zechariah 10:6; John 5:24; Acts 13:48; Romans 3:21-27; 9:11;12, 25-26, 30; 15:12; 1 Corinthians 1:24;2:6; 2 Corinthians 10:17; Ephesians 2:9; Colossians 2:13-14; Titus 3:5; James 2:5; 1 Peter 1:3.
Notes:
1. Boice, James, Boice Expositional Commentary Series, John 1:9-13, Baker Books, Software version, 1998.
1. Henry, Matthew, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible, Ephesians 2:1-10, https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/mhn/ephesians-2.html
1. English Standard Version Study Bible Notes, Ephesians 2:4-8, (digital edition), Crossway, 2008.
1. Burroughs, Jeremiah, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, Christian Contentment Described, Kindle Version, 2010.
1. Gill, John, John Gill’s Exposition on the Whole Bible, Acts 20:24, 32, https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/geb/eph-2.html
May 2, 2024
Divine Wisdom for Daily Living by Joanne Colvin 