Awesome

A team of more than 150 scientists has mapped out how a tiny portion of a mouse’s brain tissue functions. The map showed 200,000 cells, 523 million synapses (the connections between neurons) and more than two miles of axons (the part of a neuron that passes on the electrical impulses). The vast number of interconnecting pathways that these impulses may route is mind-boggling! ‘It definitely inspires a sense of awe, just like looking at pictures of the galaxies’ said one of the project’s lead researchers.

It is natural to be in awe, but of what/whom are we in awe? Surely, the answer is our creator God rather than mere ‘chance’.

Job was an Old Testament character who needed to recognise his creator God. During a season of great suffering, quite understandably he bemoaned his lot and God’s treatment of him. Throughout his pain, perplexity, frustration and sense of injustice, he had not given up on God. Unhelped by his friends’ well-meant but empty counsel, he looked for his complaints to be answered by God.

Towards the end of his ordeal, God did answer Job but indirectly. In effect, he said to Job, ‘Instead of you questioning me, I will question you’. God got Job to look heavenwards to survey the stars and then earthwards to the animals and birds, from the greatest to the least. He had also to consider both the terrors and blessings that come from the weather. ‘Where were you Job when I set all of this up? Who was my counsellor? Can you do anything remotely like this? If not, why do you query me?’ I’m paraphrasing here. Job clasped his hand to his mouth and was silent. He was awestruck, he was humbled, seeing anew that God was God and he was not.

In the New Testament we read that creation is a self-revelation of God’s wisdom, power and glory, making our unbelief inexcusable. If this sounds unreasonable, then God has provided another way of revealing himself to us. He has taken on human form and entered into his creation as Jesus the Son of God. In him, we meet God up close and personal in a way that Job did not. In the gospel of Mark, we read of a needy man saying to Jesus, ‘Lord I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’. Amen.

The crucifixion of Jesus - horrific yet glorious

Why is it that Christians view the crucifixion of Jesus as both horrific and glorious?

Horrific, yes, but glorious also?

Nailing a criminal onto a cross is a barbaric form of execution. The Romans did it to

thousands of people. Two other men were crucified either side of Jesus but their

deaths could hardly be said to be of world changing significance as is the case with

the death of Jesus.

So, what is different about that man hanging upon the middle cross 2000 years ago?

In short, he acted as if he was God come to earth as man. It was his words, miracles

and purity of character that caused people to ask, ‘Just who is this man?’ - a prophet,

the awaited Messiah or even the Son of God? This was too much for the Jewish

religious leaders who, as guardians of the nation’s faith, couldn’t entertain such an

‘outsider’ challenging the status quo. They conspired to get rid of him. To do this they

needed to turn the masses against Jesus and to enrol the non-Jewish governing

authorities represented by governor Pontius Pilate. They succeeded and Jesus was

judicially murdered.

What was going on here is profound. With Jesus, both Jews and non-Jews came face-

to-face with the very character of God and decided such close proximity to him was

too uncomfortable.

At his sham trial, the people, by committing common sins (e.g. speaking half-truths,

hatred, faithlessness and irreverence), were key players in putting Jesus onto the

cross. We can say that he had to bear the sins of men and women through to death. To

judge and condemn God in Jesus Christ in this way is horrific.

There is another dimension to be told - a heavenly dimension. God, because of his

love for people, had preordained that this was how Jesus was to die. Stay with me

here. Contrary to what many people think, God is a just judge and today we are each

on the guilty sheet. From heaven’s perspective, Jesus was a pure, untainted sacrifice; a

scapegoat, offered so people like you and I needn’t remain condemned for our own

sins. Yes, Jesus died on behalf of others.

The message of Good Friday tells us to take to our hearts this amazing grace. This is

why Christians make such a big deal about the cross of Jesus and see it as glorious.

Jesus versus mere religion

Recently, I heard first-hand the story of how a man came to believe in God i.e. as revealed to us in the unique person of Jesus. This man had been born into a well-to-do religious family. By the time he became a teenager and then into his university years, he was fearful of the sovereign God that his religion presented to him. He became more depressed as he realised that his eliefs gave no assurance that he would enter heaven. He knew that his life was less than perfect and although God might forgive him, then again he might not. The bottom line was that the best he could do was to try and do good things to compensate for the bad, but he saw a problem with this approach. ‘What was the exchange rate? If I told a lie what good thing would wipe this out?’ He didn’t know and no one could tell him. He was in despair and hopeless, believing that he was damned.

Now I don't know enough about this guy's religion to know whether his understanding of it was a fair representation of its beliefs. Nevertheless, the fact remains that how he did understand things left him in a very unhappy place. To cut a long story short, he found himself talking to some Christians and they showed him this verse from the New Testament: ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us…’

For Christians, this is a well-known verse that shows how even when we mess up and let God down there is a way back. If we confess our sins and turn again to God, we can have assurance of full forgiveness. Interestingly, this friend said, ‘What hit me right between the eyes was that phrase “God is faithful and just”’. Until this moment, his understanding was that God, being absolutely sovereign, could choose one day to forgive and on another to withhold that forgiveness.

The declaration that God is faithful and just showed him that God was actually consistent with his own character, and so to be faithful and just one day and different the next was impossible.

The man was keen to learn more and soon became a Christian. He’d discovered how, because of Jesus, we can be assured of God’s consistency and faithfulness.