{"id":3448,"date":"2021-06-05T16:37:49","date_gmt":"2021-06-05T16:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=3448"},"modified":"2023-01-14T22:31:34","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T22:31:34","slug":"the-humble-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/06\/05\/the-humble-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The Humble God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Third Sunday after Trinity<\/strong>| <strong>June 8, 2008<\/strong>| <strong>Rev. Rolf Preus<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/TrinityThree2008.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. &nbsp; And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, \u201cThis Man receives sinners and eats with them.\u201d Luke 15, 1-2<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God became a man.&nbsp; We call this the incarnation.&nbsp; The incarnation of God is a stumbling block to faith.&nbsp; Well, not exactly.&nbsp; It\u2019s a stumbling block to false, idolatrous, and rationalistic faith.&nbsp; It is at the very heart of the true Christian faith.&nbsp; God became a man.&nbsp; This is a wonderful truth.&nbsp; What human reason finds offensive is for us Christians a tremendous comfort.&nbsp; It provides a solid foundation for our faith and lives.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We could not know God as God if he had not become a man.&nbsp; He is so high and powerful and we are so lowly and weak.&nbsp; How can the creature ascend up to his Creator?&nbsp; Every attempt to do so results in idolatry as we invent gods that can fit into our way of thinking and acting.&nbsp; We try to make God to be like us because we don\u2019t know any better.&nbsp; When God chose to become one of us he humbled himself.&nbsp; Strictly speaking, God cannot be humbled.&nbsp; He is who he is and he is exalted above the world and all that is in it.&nbsp; He lives in that unapproachable light.&nbsp; God as God cannot be humbled.&nbsp; But when God became a man he chose to hide his glory and power under the covering of deep humility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was not a fake humility.&nbsp; It was a divine humility.&nbsp; But make no mistake.&nbsp; The man Jesus who humbles himself is the true God.&nbsp; The humble man who reaches out to sinners to meet them where they are is the holy God who hates all evil and punishes sinners.&nbsp; There is no real conflict here; only an apparent one.&nbsp; Jesus does not lose his true deity by hiding his glory.&nbsp; In fact it is precisely by hiding his glory and power and living humbly among us that Jesus shows us what God is really like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>St. Peter encourages us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.&nbsp; Which God is that?&nbsp; Look at Jesus and see.&nbsp; Look at God become man.&nbsp; See how the sinners draw near to him to hear what he says.&nbsp; He tells a story about a man who threw a great supper and invited the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind.&nbsp; He is that man.&nbsp; He reveals God in a way that we can know him.&nbsp; St. Paul writes, \u201cIn him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.\u201d (Colossians 1, 10)&nbsp; So we look to Jesus and we find our God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But be ready for the offense.&nbsp; Not to our faith, no, but to our flesh!&nbsp; The flesh exalts himself above what is his due.&nbsp; The flesh loves undeserved glory even as he glories in judging others.&nbsp; People have always used religion to elevate themselves at the expense of others.&nbsp; They search out sinners worse than themselves, sinners who deserve nothing but contempt.&nbsp; These religious folks revel in their own conceit, as they stand in judgment of sinners more sinful than they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a certain popular myth that has amazing resilience when you consider how demonstrably false it is.&nbsp; It is that Bible believing Christians stand in judgment of sinners while those who take a more liberal view of biblical authority are less judgmental.&nbsp; This is not true.&nbsp; Everyone is judgmental.&nbsp; This is human nature.&nbsp; This is the nature of sin.&nbsp; All sin and every sin is a violation of the First Commandment in which the LORD God says, \u201cThou shalt have no other gods before me.\u201d&nbsp; God is Judge.&nbsp; By assuming the task of judging others we presume to take God\u2019s job away from him.&nbsp; And this is what everyone does \u2013 Christian and unbeliever alike.&nbsp; The difference between them is that the Christian knows his sin and confesses it and is forgiven by God for Christ\u2019s sake.&nbsp; The unbeliever remains under the same judgment he applies to others because he has no friend in God.&nbsp; Only in Christ is God our friend.&nbsp; To seek God apart from Christ is to seek him who is a consuming fire who lives in unapproachable light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Jesus tells us parables about the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son he is talking to everyone.&nbsp; The scribes and the Pharisees represent those who stand in judgment over others and resent the grace of God.&nbsp; The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son represent the sinner who has nothing but failure to offer to God.&nbsp; He does nothing to be found.&nbsp; What can a coin do?&nbsp; God is the one who does the finding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God seeks us and finds us.&nbsp; We don\u2019t find our own way to God.&nbsp; God finds his way to us.&nbsp; This is grace.&nbsp; Grace is not human achievement.&nbsp; It is divine humility.&nbsp; Grace is despised because religious people don\u2019t understand it.&nbsp; They hate what they don\u2019t understand.&nbsp; They think that grace is excusing sin.&nbsp; It is not.&nbsp; Grace does not excuse sin.&nbsp; It conquers it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The shepherd finds his sheep and takes it home.&nbsp; He rejoices in finding what was lost.&nbsp; The woman finds her coin and rejoices.&nbsp; Lost is lost.&nbsp; Found is found.&nbsp; Grace finds us.&nbsp; It doesn\u2019t approve of our being lost.&nbsp; It brings us from a state of being lost to a state of being found.&nbsp; It brings us out of death into life.&nbsp; It brings us into fellowship with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When God\u2019s grace finds us and brings us into fellowship with God we are in a state of grace.&nbsp; We are living a life that is covered by grace.&nbsp; This means that we live each day of our lives sheltered by the cross of Jesus where our sins were washed away.&nbsp; We don\u2019t live under judgment.&nbsp; God\u2019s judgment has been set aside.&nbsp; Jesus made it clear.&nbsp; He said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.&nbsp; He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3, 17-18)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Grace does not excuse sin.&nbsp; It rescues from sin.&nbsp; Jesus bore all sin.&nbsp; He suffered for it.&nbsp; He paid for it.&nbsp; He removed it by bearing the punishment that God\u2019s law leveled against it.&nbsp; It is not the teaching of salvation by grace alone that excuses sin.&nbsp; It is the denial of salvation by grace alone that insults the vicarious suffering of Jesus as if he died in vain.&nbsp; To require sinners to make themselves worthy of God\u2019s forgiveness is to deny that Christ alone is our salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I served as a pastor in Racine, Wisconsin I used to visit with a Muslim store owner who lived a few blocks away.&nbsp; He was from Palestine.&nbsp; He didn\u2019t regard himself as a good Muslim but he defended the Muslim religion and criticized Christian teaching.&nbsp; He believed that Jesus was a holy man who had never committed a sin.&nbsp; I don\u2019t think he would have claimed that of Muhammad.&nbsp; He had a great respect for Jesus.&nbsp; But he would become quite animated in his disagreement whenever I told him that Jesus was more than a holy prophet, that he was the Son of God who suffered and died for our sins.&nbsp; He was adamant that we all had to pay for our own sins.&nbsp; It was not right; it was not fair that one man should suffer for another\u2019s sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His view of grace had nothing to do with the cross.&nbsp; He said that God\u2019s grace was when he gave you more credit for the good you did than he gave you blame for the bad you did.&nbsp; But the very idea that God would become a man to suffer for all of humanity was offensive to him as a Muslim and to him as a man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He thought that real men don\u2019t need saviors.&nbsp; Real men save themselves.&nbsp; Real men know that Christianity is for women and children and others who need a crutch to get through life.&nbsp; That\u2019s what my friend thought.&nbsp; This Palestinian Muslim was more like the average American male than he likely realized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the real God is for men.&nbsp; He humbled himself for men, women, and children.&nbsp; He became a man so that all men \u2013 male and female, young and old \u2013 could know him.&nbsp; In his humility we can see a God who will not judge us.&nbsp; Only when you see God humbled can you really see God.&nbsp; For the God who judges us is the God we avoid.&nbsp; We cannot bear to see him.&nbsp; We cannot tolerate him.&nbsp; We run away from him.&nbsp; Or, we twist and turn him into an idol of our own making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The scribes and Pharisees complained about God.&nbsp; He receives sinners and eats with them.&nbsp; He expresses fellowship with them.&nbsp; Surely he knows what kind of people they are.&nbsp; Yes, he surely does.&nbsp; How could he not?&nbsp; He suffered for them.&nbsp; He died for them.&nbsp; He bore their sins.&nbsp; He suffered their guilt.&nbsp; Oh, he knows them, alright.&nbsp; He knows them as only their Redeemer could know them.&nbsp; And he loves them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He rescues them from their sins and doesn\u2019t leave them to their own devices.&nbsp; The devil, like a roaring lion that prowls around looking for someone to kill and to eat, seeks out Christians to destroy their faith.&nbsp; That\u2019s his business and he\u2019s good at it.&nbsp; He parades himself as an angel of light.&nbsp; He disguises his lies as pious teaching.&nbsp; \u201cSurely the holy God would not so debase himself as to associate with sinners before they have made themselves acceptable to him.&nbsp; Let them change and become righteous people and then God will accept them.\u201d&nbsp; That is the devil\u2019s lie.&nbsp; It is designed to keep sinners from coming to repentance because a sinner who knows his sin knows he cannot make himself righteous.&nbsp; But the angels in heaven rejoice when a sinner comes to see his sins, confesses them, and believes that for Christ\u2019s sake God forgives him all his offenses.&nbsp; This is God\u2019s doing and the devil rails against it.&nbsp; But this truth stands.&nbsp; On it we rely.&nbsp; This Man does receive sinners and eat with them.&nbsp; He is the humble God come to us sinners in our need.&nbsp; Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Third Sunday after Trinity| June 8, 2008| Rev. Rolf Preus Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. &nbsp; And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, \u201cThis Man receives sinners and eats with them.\u201d Luke 15, 1-2 God became a man.&nbsp; We call this the incarnation.&nbsp;&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/06\/05\/the-humble-god\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,4,63],"tags":[529,238,206],"class_list":["post-3448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermons-by-rolf-preus","category-trinity-3","tag-luke-15","tag-rolf-preus","tag-trinity-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3450,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3448\/revisions\/3450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}