Another Year Around the Son
Read with us: 2 Chronicles 20-21, Galatians 1:1-10
“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.”
Galatians 1:3-7 NIV
Getting our doctrinal ducks 🦆 🦆 🦆 in a row is a good idea. Remember we all were once enemies of God. Are we any superior to the crowd who cried out, “Hosanna” within days will cry out “crucify him.” (Mark 11:9; 15:13NET) And Peter filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and rather frankly addresses a crowd who collaborated with wicked men to kill Christ. See Acts 2:23 Hate for Christ the righteous was vitriolic and yet Christ remained virtuous and perfect in love.
A good many people imagine that forgiving your enemies means making out that they are really not such bad fellows after all, when it is quite plain that they are. Go a step further. In my most clear-sighted moments not only do I not think myself a nice man, but I know that I am a very nasty one. I can look at some of the things I have done with horror and loathing. So apparently I’m allowed to love and hate some of the things my enemies do. Now that I come to think of it I remember Christian teachers telling me long ago that I must hate a bad man’s actions, but not hate the bad man: or, as they say, or as they would say, hate the sin, but not the sinner.
For a long time, I used to think this was silly, straw splitting distinction: how could you hate what a man did and not hate the man question but years later occurred to me that there is one man to whom I’ve been doing this all my life, namely myself. However, much I might dislike my own cowardice, or conceive to agreed, I went on loving myself. There had never been the slightest difficulty about it. In fact, the very reason why I hated things was that I loved the man. Just because I loved myself, I was sorry to find that I was not the sort of man who did those things. Consequently, Christianity does not want us to reduce by one atom the hatred we feel for cruelty and treachery. We ought to hate them. Not one word of what we have said about them needs to be unsaid. But it does want us to hate them in the same way in which we hate things in ourselves: being sorry that the man should’ve done such things, and hoping, if it is any way possible, that somehow, sometime, somewhere he can be cured and made human again. CS Lewis
Mark 10:1-9, 13-16, Christ (who has the Holy Spirit without measure) is very frank on divorce and even indignant with his disciples. But it’s Mark 10:17-22 which describes Christ’s conversation with the rich young ruler.
I will charge you with this: As Jesus looked at him, he felt love for him and said, “You lack one thing. Go, sell whatever you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
“Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, there is no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive in this age a hundred times as much – homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields, all with persecutions – and in the age to come, eternal life.”
Mark 10:21,29-30 NET
There was a humility in Peter, who had once walked on water, to untangle himself from his outer cloak, and swim to Jesus. There was a humility in Naaman to dip himself in the destained river. 
“Naaman never was humble in any degree, until he felt himself completely healed of his scaly leprosy; but truly he was humbled and humble then.” Samuel Rutherford
Check for yourself the biblical account where Naaman initially reacts with pride and anger to Elisha’s simple instruction to wash in the Jordan River (2 Kings 5:11-12), unwashed and unwilling sick and in need. Who can go so low? Who does Naaman remind us of? See Revelation 3:17-19 and then think of the rich young ruler.
“Because you say, “I am rich and have acquired great wealth, and need nothing,” but do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked, take my advice and buy gold from me refined by fire so you can become rich! Buy from me white clothing so you can be clothed and your shameful nakedness will not be exposed, and buy eye salve to put on your eyes so you can see!”
Revelation 3:17-18 NET
Only after Naaman’s humiliation by obeying Elijah, at the point of conversion he dips seven times, and is cleansed and healed then he professes belief. (2 Kings 5:15-17). Rutherford’s quote illustrates how experiencing God’s grace is a door we must stoop low to enter.
And the slowness is nothing that Christ hasn’t gone first then he giving up all the excellent season glory being the darling beloved of the father dies willingly the lowest death, a criminal’s death. How can we meet him and match his gaze with love in return? With man, this is impossible, but with god all things are possible! (Matthew 19:26)
