Unfathomable Grace

My name is Adam. I am a friend of God. I am one perfectly created in the image of God, and he likes me a lot. As a matter of fact, God loves me. Truthfully, I like him too, for he is always on my mind. I think about him all day long, and in everything I do I want to worship and glorify Him. It matters not whether I am naming the animals, tending the garden, eating from various trees, or having sex with my wife, I do it all for the glory of God. Oh, God is different than I am. He is transcendent. He is other. He is holy. He is so far beyond and above me, and yet He walks and talks with me in his garden. I am His, and He is mine. We are best friends. We are tight. We are intimate.

My name is Adam. I am an enemy of God. Despite His love for me, I have disbelieved him, disobeyed him, betrayed him, and have become tight with the devil. The effects of my sin have disfigured me. When you look at me, you can still see some of the image and likeness of my Creator, but progressively I am beginning to resemble my new master – Satan. God calls out to me through nature. He calls out to me through his Word. However, I am not interested in hearing his truth and responding rightly. Therefore I consistently hide from him and seek my satisfaction elsewhere. Truth be known, I can’t get no satisfaction, though I try, and I try, and I try and I try. In addition, there is still something in my chest longing for friendship with a divine friend, but we are not tight. We are not friends. I have made him my enemy.

My name is Adam. I am a friend of God. Oh, this is not anything of my own doing, this is the gift of God. I entertained Lucifer. I listened to his words, trusted his counsel, abandoned my Creator, and joined the dark side. With him and his demons, I warred against the holy, holy, holy God. Then I did everything I could to hide from his presence in the garden. Yet with undeserved, unrelenting tenderness, God called out to me. He drew near to me and found me. He promised to send a special Son to pay for my sins. He taught me how to sacrifice animals as I looked in faith towards the Designated Human Sacrifice. And he restored communion with me. Oh, I was damaged. I was still in the process of physically dying. My world was cursed and somewhat set against me. The perfect image and likeness of God I once had would not be restored in this life. But again, he restored my soul and our relationship. We are friends again. We are somewhat tight. We are somewhat intimate. I can’t go into his garden. I can’t go up on his mountain. I can’t go into his Holy of Holies, but we are on good terms. Our friendship has been renewed.

My name is Adam. I am one with Jesus. In addition, I am one with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God came and added to himself a human soul and human flesh. As a human, Jesus obeyed the Law he wrote. He also obeyed all the infidels he created. He was perfect in all he thought, said, and did, and he gave me his perfection. Now, when the Heavenly Judge looks my way, he sees that I am holy, holy, holy. I am righteous, not due to anything I have ever done or ever will do, but only due to the performance of Jesus. And he sees no blemishes on my account. My discipline record is blank. Jesus not only supplied his righteousness, he paid my sin debt. All of it has been removed from my back and placed upon his. Now, I am in a better stead than in Genesis. I have a status with God that is intimate and tight. I have a status with God that is infallible; it cannot be lost. There is nowhere where he goes that I do not belong. When God is on his mountain, he bids me climb and dine. When God is in the Holy of Holies, he encourages me to march in boldly, almost like I own the place. And my walking with him in a renewed garden is right around the corner. He is preparing such an existence for me, one that will dwarf that enjoyed by me in the garden. I am his friend. I am his brother. I am his child. I am his beloved bride. I am his, and he is mine. We are best of friends. We are tight. We are intimate. We are one. We are family. We are close, and there is nothing any man or demon can ever do about it.

My name is Adam. I am one with you. God envisions one church, one kingdom, one army, one flock, and one family. All of you who are his friends, you have his Holy Spirit dwelling within you too. You and I have a common love and a common Lover. There is a sacred bond between us; some have even said we enjoy a mystic set communion. This is something we should care about, for this is something passionate to our Lord. Despite our nationalities, ethnicities, gender, political views, economic classes, ecclesiastical denominations, and differences in doctrine and worship, he prays that we will act like fellow brothers of the same Lover. Hear our Savior as he talks with his Father:

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:20-26)

Christian unity was the passion of Jesus before his Passion. This is one of the ends he had before the beginning. Therefore …

My name is Adam. I am ready to repent and rejoice. Regarding God, I am not going to listen the diabolical devil, my sinful mind, or my non-Gospel-understanding friends. Jesus does not want me trembling in his presence. Under the name of “reverence or holiness” he does not want me tiptoeing into church. He is my friend, brother, and lover. We are tight, and he wants me to act like it. He wants me to worship like it. Therefore, with reverent and respectful delight, I bow, confess, get up, and dance in his arms. Once again, he is mine, and I am righteous, holy, and blameless. I’m perfectly acceptable to him because of his love for me. And because we are tight and very, very close, my worship will proclaim this truth to all who watch and hear.

And regarding my love for you, I will do a better job loving you like Jesus. I will esteem you better than myself. I will take up the basin and the towel and demand to wash your feet. I will do a better job using my tongue to speak only gracious words. And I will ask you to help me take care of the telephone pole in my own eye; perhaps we will get around to praying about the small splinter in yours. I will overlook many of your sins, and if I cannot do so, I will seek reconciliation as fast as possible. I will seek to teach you that which I have learned, and I will be willing to listen well to you. And in most of the areas we disagree, I will not be schismatic over doctrine or doxology. Friends, Christ loves you and me so much he died for us, and now I am recomitting to doing the same. My time is yours. My prayers are yours. My spiritual gifts are yours. I am yours; you are mine. And why is this the case? Because we are united with Christ and sealed with his spirit. We are one, tight, close, intimate family. Therefore, let us worship like this. Let us love one another like unified brothers of the same Lover.