Job 16:21-22 (HCSB)
I wish that someone might arbitrate
between a man and God
just as a man pleads for his friend.
For only a few years will pass
before I go the way of no return.
Job expresses exactly what I had longed for just prior to hearing the Gospel. I already knew that God existed. That was obvious just by looking around. I also knew my thought own life. I had changed my mind about myself, acknowledging that I had a hostile mind and heart towards others and God. This truth about my thought life (and actions, how I lived) spoke volumes about my condition. “The way of no return” was continually creeping up on me and I had no one to arbitrate for me… I was scared.
But then, I was finally exposed to the Gospel, the “good news” regarding Jesus Christ. In being told that good news, I was first warned about what I already somehow knew… that I (my very being), was short of perfection. “Holy” was not something which could describe me. My question was this…
If God is perfect (holy)… then why doesn’t He just be perfect for me?
My plea, like Job’s, was now exposed. I was then told that this is exactly what God had already done 2,000 years ago through His Son… Jesus Christ. That Jesus actually died on the cross for those who recognized their unholiness, and who also believed that He rose three days later (demonstrating that He had conquered death), trusting that He had accomplished what they needed, thereby giving Christ their full allegiance. What I was being told was… Jesus Christ is the needed arbitrator.
God Doesn’t Delegate
But, this still was not enough in my mind. I needed to know what made Jesus qualified to do this great thing. I had brought up the fact that many people throughout history had also claimed to be the savior, so I asked…
What makes this Jesus so special? Why does God appoint someone else to do it? I mean, why doesn’t God just do it Himself?
That’s when I gained (for me at least) the most important piece of the puzzle…
I found out that Jesus is God.
I had no idea that Jesus is God. I had heard that He was the “Son of God,” but that did not resonate with me. Finding out that Jesus is God meant that God did not delegate the job for someone else to do. It meant that He actually was perfect for others. It meant that He did it Himself, what no one else could ever do. That was a God that I could trust and bow down to…
Finding this out changed everything for me!
For Those Who Might Not Know Him…
Do you also need someone who “might arbitrate between a man and God, just as a man pleads for his friend”? Do you, like Job, also sense that “only a few years will pass before I go the way of no return”?
Then, be honest with yourself. Turn from being hostile minded and turn to Christ (repent). You know who you really are deep down inside. Fall at His feet for forgiveness, trusting in Him to take upon Himself the consequences that you deserve, changing your odious inner self so that you can be seen as holy in God’s sight, giving Jesus your full allegiance. For only He is qualified for such a task…
Colossians 1:15-23 (HCSB)
He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation.
For everything was created by Him,
in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities —
all things have been created through Him and for Him.
He is before all things,
and by Him all things hold together.
He is also the head of the body, the church;
He is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that He might come to have
first place in everything.
For God was pleased to have
all His fullness dwell in Him,
and through Him to reconcile
everything to Himself
by making peace
through the blood of His cross, —
whether things on earth or things in heaven.
Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him — if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.
Godspeed, to the brethren!
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