New Morning Mercies #344

God harnessed the forces of nature and controlled the events of history to redeem you. Will he abandon you now in your moment of need?

The Bible isn’t a series of stories. It isn’t a catalog of interesting characters. It isn’t a manual of theology. It isn’t a book of interesting wisdom principles. One story, with one hero, forms the cord that holds the whole Bible together. The Bible is essentially the story of redemption. This grand redemptive story, with God’s essential explanatory notes, is the main content of the Word of God.

The Bible displays for us the extent to which God has gone in order to provide salvation for us. He really controlled every event in human history, and he really harnessed the forces of nature so that at a certain time his Son would come and live, suffer, die, and rise again to provide salvation for us. It is a stunning story that should provide the interpretive grid for everything you face in your life in this broken world.

If God went to such lengths as to control the events of the world and to sacrifice his one and only Son, would it make any sense at all for him to abandon you between the “already” of your justification and the “not yet” of your final glorification? Would it make any sense for him to turn his back on you now? Would it make any sense for him to ignore you in your hour of need? Would you expend a great amount of personal effort and sacrifice to secure something of value and then not work to keep, maintain, and protect it?

The fact that you are precious in God’s sight is clear because he purchased you at a great price. No higher price could be paid than the death of the Messiah. But that’s exactly the price that God paid to redeem you and me. Since he paid such a price, we can rest assured he will expend his divine power and grace to protect, mature, provide for, and keep us until we are with him in a place where the dangers of sin and death are no more. Paul says it this way: “If he freely gave us Jesus, doesn’t it make sense that he will also give us everything that we need?” (see Rom. 8:31–33).

So don’t let any evil enemy whisper lies into your ear. Don’t let him tell you that you are alone, that you’re left to your own resources, or that God doesn’t hear or care. Don’t let yourself doubt God’s presence and his goodness. Don’t let yourself wonder if you’ll make it through. God unleashed his power to make you his own, and he will continue to unleash his power to keep and protect you until you are with him forever in that place where you will need his protection no more because the final enemy will be under his feet.

For further study and encouragement: 2 Kings 6:8–17