17 Mar THE HEART OF THE APOCALYPTIC GOSPEL
The eschatology of the apocalyptic gospel tells us that there is a two-age framework to history with The Day of the Lord coming to divide those ages. But the heart of the apocalyptic gospel tells us God’s reason for doing what He has said He is going to do. He has told us that He wants a people who will be intimately His. He wants to be our God and He wants to live among us. (1) But He has a moral dilemma. Holiness devours everything in its presence that is unholy. How can He, whose Holiness is a consuming fire (2), call a sinful people into intimate relationship with Himself, without either destroying them or betraying His Holiness? When Israel came to the foot of Sinai, there was lightning, thunder, and thick cloud. Smoke enveloped the mountain and there was fire. The whole mountain quaked violently. A horn blasted so loud and long that it caused the people to tremble. God in His Holiness descended upon the mountain. I have always hated this chapter, wondering why God needed to include such scary details . . . until He showed me that these details held the heart of the gospel. You see, God descending upon Sinai to establish covenant with Israel is understood to be the marriage of God with His people. He is the bridegroom proposing to His bride. (3) But before she can answer, He must make Himself vulnerable, revealing the terrible danger of His holiness to her. Whoever touches the mountain will die. (4) Only those with special protection, covering their sin, dare to come into His Holy Presence. (5)
The resolution of God’s moral dilemma is to take away our sin, ending the danger of our unholiness in the presence of His holiness. He will do this by His own sacrifice, making His holiness safe for us by the atonement of His blood. At Sinai, He is pointing to what He is going to do, as Moses took the blood of sacrifice and sprinkled it on the people. This is the heart of the gospel, how God has made His Holiness safe for us.
He was telling us what He was going to do, when He commanded the Passover lamb to be sacrificed and its blood placed over the door to keep those safe who were within. Hundreds of years later, He orchestrated Jesus’ crucifixion to take place, on the day when the Passover lambs were being slain. He was telling us what He was going to do, as He laid out the sacrificial system, detailing to Moses how the blood of the slain victim would atone for the people’s sin. He was telling us what He was going to do as an old man climbed Mount Moriah, drawing on the last of his strength to obey the excruciating inexplicable command to sacrifice his beloved son. Abraham did not know that God’s heart was beating in his chest, as He / he made the answer to God’s moral dilemma visible.
Calvary was the most excruciating thing God would ever endure. Any father would rather give himself, than watch his son die. It was beyond comprehension. If there was any other way, He would have chosen it. But that sacrifice was as magnificent as it was terrible. It staggered those who watched from heavenly spheres, who could not understand. It was not a ransom to Satan (as Augustine proposed); it was our Holy God’s answer to His moral dilemma. It was love giving itself for His beloved.
He has been telling us what He was, and is yet, going to do in a thousand pictures from the beginning of time..
He brings His sacrifice to each one of us, offering to cover our sin, so that in the day when the veil is lifted, we will not be consumed by the fire of His Holiness. He comes to each one of us to ask us, will we take Him to ourselves, allowing Him to love and protect us? And will we, in return love Him, obeying His voice and walking in His way? He doesn’t want to lose a single one of us. But even as He approaches us. to offer Himself, He knows the outcome. Will you take Him? Will you give yourself to Him?
*********************************************
(1) 1 Genesis 17:7; Exodus 29:45;Jeremiah 11:4; Jeremiah 24:7; Jeremiah 31:33; Jeremiah 32:38; Ezekiel 11:20; Ezekiel 14:11; Ezekiel 34:24; Ezekiel 37:23,27; Zechariah 8:8; Hebrews 8:10; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Titus 2:14; Revelation 21:3
(2) Hebrews 12:29; Deuteronomy 4:24; Deuteronomy 5:24-26; 1 Kings 18:38; Leviticus 9:24; 2 Chronicles 7:1; Job 15:34; 2 Kings 1:10, 14
(3) Exodus 19:1-6
(4) Exodus 19:10-23
(5) And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. And the glory of the LORD stayed on mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called to Moses out of the middle of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. (Exodus 24:15-17)