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Dr. Greene - Articles
What Does The Word Say?
The Word of God called everything that exists into being. Further, it continues to exist only because of that same word. The Bible is the written form of the Word. It may be helpful at this point to ask, what is the central message of the Bible?
Several answers are possible. The central theme of the Scriptures certainly is the Person of Christ, the incarnate Word of God. Another answer might be the greatness of God, which includes a number of other ideas such as love, or salvation or grace. The last half of Isaiah is one of the most fruitful sections of the Bible for its emphasis on that greatness. For example, Isaiah 40:25-26 reads, "To whom then will you liken me that I should be his equal? Says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name: because of the greatness of His might and the strength of his power not one of them is missing."
God's greatness has many sides. Three of them will be enough for us to look at briefly in this essay: His wisdom, His power and His grace.
God's wisdom, as seen in the reality in which we find ourselves, is awesome, whether we look at it from the standpoint of the large or the small. In the immensity of the universe as it has been increasingly unfolded by modern astronomy seems too much for our minds to encompass. This mystery is only deepened by the big-bang theory with its conception of all of reality combined in the tiniest of spaces and then exploding into an endlessly expanding universe. At the other end of the spectrum, the mysteries of the cell, only opened up to human understanding since the latter half of this century, involve a complexity that boggles the mind. What both these standpoints say about the wisdom of the God who created and maintains both the small and the great can only lead us to a deepened awe for such creative greatness. Modern science has not succeeded in discovering the ultimate reality of nature. Owens says, illustrating this, "Today physicists continue to invent new names for the myriad "particles" they discover—clever and intriguing names such as 'quark' and 'strange'—but they hesitate to call them 'things'. They are more accurately described as necessary parts of a thought process." All of which is to say that the wisdom of a God who could create a world like the one we inhabit is deeply awesome.
God's power is another side of His greatness. To bring the universe into being in the first place calls for a degree of power that is impossible for us to measure, even in imagination. But to keep it going moment by moment, as He does by His Word, requires a kind of power that we have no way of imagining. The Earth shattering power of a hurricane, tornado or volcanic eruption, with all the damage they can do humans and their way of life in the world, pale before the overwhelming power involved in just maintaining the world in being moment by moment, age after age.
But the third side of His greatness, that is His grace, overshadows both the first two. Frederik Buechner describes it this way: "The grace of God means something like: here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid, I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you. There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too." (Listening to your Life, for October 30)
A startling instance of grace appears in Matthew 11:28-30. "Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my load is light." What can He be saying? Here is God incarnate, not looking down from a throne on high to criticize and direct us, but calling us to enter into teamwork with Him, like two oxen yoked together. He is offering to come with us into the most ordinary details of our daily lives and enable us to do them in the best possible way. And even more marvelous, He is offering to teach us humility. Can God be humble? In Jesus Christ He shows that He is, and He is in order to enable us to become humble! What grace, what undeserved kindness is this?
But there is more to grace than this. Think for a moment for a darkened mid-day, almost two thousand years ago and of a hillside outside of Jerusalem on which three men are hung on crosses. Nailed to the central cross and undergoing the final pains of crucifixion is the God-man, Jesus. Yet He is not alone. We must not think of the Father and of the Spirit watching from distant Heaven. The Father is there. This is what He sent the Son into the world to do for the redemption of sinful humans and the restoration of a creation marred by human rebellion. The Spirit is there, too, for Hebrews 9:14 speaks of "the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God…" So the entire Trinity is there. Suffering in a way we are incapable of penetrating, and all on our behalf.
It is enough to break our hearts, and that is what it is intended to do. Let us ask God for a heart like Job's, who, after God had talked to him after what we call four chapters, cried out, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees thee; therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5-6)
This is a little glimpse of the greatness of God revealed to us in the written word.
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