“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; ’tis dearness only that gives everything its value.”
~Thomas Paine.
The principle known to life is the larger something is, the bigger the impact it makes as it falls. There is the very same thing operant in all matters of life. It’s a wonderful physical illustration of what happens non-physically also, i.e. spiritually.
Think of Jesus’ anointing at the hand of the sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50.
God’s grace was immediately upon her in big meaty swaths as she loved Jesus without hesitation; they who’ve sinned much and then love much—and extravagantly so—in return, are forgiven commensurately. Rhetorically, then, how is it so that some of the mightiest servants of God have come from the most troubled of backgrounds?
Big problems require big solutions—and God’s bigger than them all.
This Mighty Resurrection Power
There is nothing more truthful. (I’ve often wanted to write that exact sentence, but it would be false in many of the contexts I’ve been tempted to write it in; though not here.)
The bigger and more certain the challenge that’s against us, the more inspired we are when we surmount it, by God’s power, provision and grace.
This mighty resurrection power that is known in and through the cross of Jesus Christ—a principle of God to save—is alive in each believer. They’re raised. They find themselves in every bit of a bind as the non-believing person does, and yet with the mind of Christ bolted on they at once conquer the terrible forces that threaten.
Then Enters the Doubting...
Within my own mind I sense the doubting that’s never strange to us. Can this truly be; that God would save in the greatest of challenges, problems and depths?
It depends on the standard we’re holding to. If we’re expecting God to save us from our circumstances and the consequences of our actions it will not happen. God will not ‘save’ us this way. But he can save us from the victory those circumstances are having over us. We win it back in the instant, via the Presence of the Almighty, and he indwells us with the power to plan our best way out of it.
So, here, doubts are met and quashed.
A Glorious Truth of God’s Inimitable Grace
No person—no matter what they’ve done—is beyond the redeeming arm of the Lord, our God.
All embarrassments are null and void. So too are condemnations, accusations, shame, guilt, ridicule, harassment; the accosted spirit. None of our junk clings to us. It is dealt with at the lightest of God’s touches.
And we need it—all of us.
The truth is we all feel less than ourselves or who we can become without this grace of God shooting and compensating. It pulsates vibrantly and continually through us.
The bigger our sin the harder we fall into the arms of grace and the more we tend to love God back in return. For those who’ve sinned less this may seem unjust, but that is God. The truth is the power and weight of our individual sin—to the very last person—is exactly the same to God anyway. None are less or more guilty in terms of sin.
There are no heights above God’s grace—there are no depths God won’t stoop to in being there for the lost of creation and to redeem them.
God is turning the tables. It’s the very heart of the Almighty in faithfulness at our very own turn; the turning away back to the Father.
© 2010 S. J. Wickham.
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