Restless Wonderer

So far in this series we have seen God writing in creation, in providence, in revelation and in judgement.   God’s standard of justice is written in our hearts, it was written on tablets of stone and it is written in the books that record our actions, just as God’s verdict was written on the wall in Belshazzar’s feast.   If this was the whole story of the Bible, there would be no good news and no hope.   Yet to understand the message of the gospel we must understand the justice of God and His righteous wrath because of human sin.   God will not and cannot ignore our sin – it is not only a violation of the laws of morality; it is a personal offence against God.   When we measure ourselves against the standard of perfection described in the Ten Commandments, we inevitably find ourselves, like Belshazzar, seriously lacking.   What hope is there, then, for us? As we come to the next occasion of God’s writing in the Scriptures, a word of caution is in order. ...

In yesterday's post I drew out a first principle for dealing with our ambition: s eek God's glory, not your own .  Abraham was our example as we contrasted him with the builders of the tower of Babel.  The New Testament also warns about the relationship of selfish ambition to jealousy and its perils within the Church.  Paul challenges us with the following words: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,    not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others" (Philippians 2:3-4).  These words come just before a passage I referred to in the first post in this series, where the apostle proceeds to describe, in the most beautiful language, Christ's sacrificial humbling of Himself and taking on the form of a servant.  Christ is our example in his abandonment of self for the sake of others.  Although Paul doesn't give us any juicy details, i...