More on the theme of approval...
April 21, 2005
A new highlight in the approval series here: one that hovers over the ideas of commitment and authority as I look at Matthew 16:24-27.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. My Nelson Bible's side notes say, "Commitment requires choices because it is exclusive." I could sit and ponder that statement for quite a while. Rarely do I really consider whether I desire approval so much that I would take up a cross in order to get it.
Nor is it a thing much demonstrated in our society today, few of our choices are based on exclusivity. But Jesus speaks strongly of this commitment and goes on to remind that embracing this level of commitment to God's authority is first of all reasonable: For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?; and second of all, bears rewards: For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
These truths, however, about approval in the context of authority and commitment are only "true" to the person whose awareness of them is able to exist outside the boundary of this life and this world.
April 27
Psalm 18:19 He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me. Again,a question about love and approval: which comes first? Love comes first, love pouring down from the throne of God, right? Even in a Psalm that seems to foreshadow the agony Christ suffered on the Cross, deliverance still arrives as the manifestation of God's delight. The Psalmist goes on to associate that delight with being approved: Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. So it is still a bit of a mystery, this relationship between love and approval, nevertheless the victory is utterly credited to God. And, the Psalm after all does seem Messianic, which makes this level of righteousness and cleanness are things associated with the only one worthy to be our Redeemer.
Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great. (vs. 35) I didn't go on to reflect on the rest of Psalm 18 back in 2005, but I do now. I still struggle with the tension between might and meekness in this Psalm. For instance, even as I consider that strange association of our greatness springing from the gentleness of God, I notice the Psalmist going on to say: Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might destroy them that hate me. (vs. 40) which hardly sounds gentle at all. Does a gentle God approve us that we might do this destruction? And yet we profess that we do it by Him: [It is] God that avengeth me, and subdueth the people under me. (vs. 47). And what of these enigmatic words:
With
a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;
And
with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd.
Again, that flow chart toward approval. I could add from our own lesson in unconditional love: with the loving You show yourself loving...but what prompted us to love? Was it You? You foresaw the choice we would make? If we had chosen instead to become hardened athiests, would you have "shown Yourself to be" something else? These are the types of questions that could keep me awake at night if I let myself pick at them too long.
It doesn't feel like the end of it at all.
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