Do you ever imagine God’s “face” or His disposition toward you? (I call that incarnational imagination.) In one of your everyday moments, if you were to look over to the corner of the room and imagine God sitting there, what expression would be on His face? I ask that because some of us assume God is generally displeased with us. We understand that we have been accepted in Christ, but we imagine the Father’s “resting face” (at least when thinking of us) as a frown.
Maybe we imagine He’s frowning because we frown at ourselves. We recognize “the disorder and irregularity of our lives” and “the coldness ... of our hearts,” as one of our Corporate Confessions says. We know God’s measure is far higher than our performance, and we believe (though we would never admit this) that He is parsimonious with His mercy.
In Nehemiah 8, the people of Israel gathered before the Water Gate in their rebuilt city and heard the Law of Moses read to them. They wept as they realized their sin, but Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Levites told everyone, “... do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Nehemiah 8.10). God was joyful in showing mercy to His people. He had declared both the day and the people holy with a big smile on his face, and from that joy the people could take strength.
Now, because of Christ’s finished work, we can all the more take strength from our joyful Lord. We do not have God’s begrudgingly given mercy, as if He were thinking anyone but us would bring more glory to His name. No, we have His full-throated, enthusiastic mercy. Yes, we must take regular time for grieving our sin; but in our everyday moments, when we imagine the Lord’s hand or face, let’s also hear one of His benedictions:
- “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2.9-10).
Phil Wade, Clerk of Diaconate
