The Mission Is Never Complete

Peace with God is a gift. You don’t make it; you receive it. Then you learn how to feed it and care for it so that it grows and consumes your life. If it doesn’t have you, you don’t have it.

Yesterday’s Bible lesson teaches us to act as if temporal peace with God is possible for the entire human race, Elect or not. That’s what the Cross and the New Covenant is all about. It remains something that belongs in this world. There’s no need for a covenant in Eternity.

The ability, the inclination and desire, to have peace with Him under His Covenant is what He must give you. Otherwise, there will be no interest. People get hung up on the wording that “God desires” all humans to have peace with Him, as if this “desire” implies He intends to make it happen, or that He has left the door open for every human.

Saying God “desires” something is a mere anthropomorphism. It is not an absolute truth, but a characterization. We cannot paste logical and concrete traits onto God in Heaven. Any words we use will be an approximation, at best. God transcends any comments we can make about Him. That Paul was an apostle does not change that. Indeed, what I’m trying to explain here is his Hebrew outlook on things.

There is no such thing as propositional truth. That’s an oxymoron. There is a Person who allows some of us to approach Him for reasons we cannot comprehend. Nothing about it could possibly make sense to our logic and reason. It cannot be told — ineffable. All we can do is approximate in human terms something close enough that we can organize and implement what God requires of us.

It’s not a matter of facts or clear ideas. It’s a persistent nagging that pulls you toward something that certainly does not compute logically. You can’t ignore it.

What He demands from us must come from Him in the first place: loyalty, commitment, heart-led submission and adoration. If He doesn’t put that inside of us, there is no way we can exercise faith. The starting place is what the Penitent Tax Collector said during worship that day in the Temple: “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Only God can grant that kind of humility. So, the only question that matters is whether you can find it in you.

If you sense that calling in your soul, then by all means, seek His face. Declare your submission to Him as Lord and ask for guidance in obeying His will. He will provide. Keep asking, because as long as you live, the mission is never complete.