Psalm 37:28 It's not about YOU!

Psalm 37:28  “For the LORD loves justice And does not forsake His godly ones; They are preserved forever, But the descendants of the wicked will be cut off”. (NASB)

I’m reading a book called, “Today’s Gospel” by Walter J. Chantry first published in 1970 and while I’m not yet done a theme is emerging.  The first assertion is that evangelism today tends to focus too soon on God’s love without first explaining God Himself and His holiness.  The other assertion is that the gospel being presented today makes man rather than God the center of the equation.  In short the title could have been a Dr. Phil quote, “It’s not about YOU”!  Oops!  Let’s take a look at these two ideas.

First, God does call us into relationship with Him but we need to back up the truck and see why that is even necessary.  God is holy and His creation was too along with everything in it.  Even Adam and Eve were holy and enjoyed a direct relationship with God in the garden.  All was good as God Himself proclaimed.  Then along came the snake, Satan who tempted Eve and when she and Adam followed through on that temptation the first of man’s sins took place and broke fellowship with God.  God proclaimed judgment and creation was cursed.

Well, even that seems to be a man centered explanation.  The real point is that God is holy and anything in His presence must be holy too.  Everything else; everything less than holy is subject to His wrath.  That, my friends, is the position in which we find ourselves in this world; sinners, unholy, alienated from God and ready for the fiery furnace.  The prophet Isaiah had an encounter with holy God and recorded it this way, “Then I said, ‘Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.’  Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.  He touched my mouth with it and said, ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.’" Isaiah 6:5-7  Only that cleansing fire made his remaining in God’s presence possible.  God is holy!

The proper perspective we need to have is a thorough understanding and appreciation of God’s holiness.  That is, we need as thorough an understanding as our feeble minds are capable of having.  It is Chantry’s assertion that the foundation of who God is must be adequately laid during the presentation of the gospel.  In other words, how will a new believer appreciate the gift of salvation without an understanding of God’s holiness?  God’s holiness then becomes the standard by which sinful man is judged.

What does this mean for us?  We are called to make disciples first at home and then all over the world.  That’s the great commission, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20  So evangelism, the making of disciples, is the right thing to do but we need to start and end with God.  Disciples need to know first that God is God and we are puny sinful creatures deserving death because we fall so short of God’s holy standard.  

Only from that foundation can a proper perspective of the power and richness of God’s mercy and grace through the work of Christ come into view.  It’s not about YOU!  It’s about Jesus!  AMEN!