by Kevin Burton
My mom hates the expression “wrap my mind around” usually expressed in the negative as “I can’t wrap my mind around” this or that.
I’m going to invoke it here though, because I can’t wrap my mind around God’s amazing grace.
Before I go there, I need to back up a step: The natural man wants to opt out of the whole thing, the whole heaven or hell question.
If you have no background in the Bible, you might, probably will, ask in your natural mind, how exactly as I involved in this?
You read of God, Satan, good and evil judgment and two possible destinations for man. Hell has punishment in a lake of fire and no possibility of escape once you enter.
Heaven has no pain, no deprivations, perfect everything and best of all, the love of your Creator shared with others who have been redeemed.
I’m guessing a lot of people get hung up here at this point.
I’m thinking with my human intellect, wow I don’t deserve either of those extremes. I’m just a schmuck born in the 20th century, raised on All in The Family and Captain and Tennile, doing the best I can to get by.
To the natural mind, it’s a reasonable thought. Thanks be to God for His mercy and that He has spelled out His plan for us in the Bible. Each one of us is part of the great human family, made in the image of God, and there is no opting out of the cosmic struggle.
Still, even now as a saved person, part of me thinks the best result for me, my just desserts, would be to be neither tortured nor truly blessed, like maybe I could be shoved face first into a heavenly laundry basket and steered into the corner of a closet, to be forgotten.
But God has much better things in mind for those covered by the blood of Jesus. Here is how Alistair Begg, speaker on the Truth For Life Radio Ministry, explains it:
“Behold the superlative generosity of the Lord Jesus, for He has given us His all,” Begg writes. “Although a tithe of His possessions would have made a universe of angels, rich beyond all thought, yet He was not content until He had given us all that He had.
“It would have been surprising grace if He had allowed us to eat the crumbs of His abundance beneath the table of His mercy; but He will do nothing by half measures. He makes us sit with Him and share the feast.”
“If He had given us some small donation from His royal treasure, we would have had cause to love Him eternally; but in fact, He wants His bride to be as rich as Himself, and He will not have a glory or a grace in which she will not share. He has not been content with less than making us joint-heirs with Himself, so that we might have equal possessions.”
“He has emptied all His riches into the members of the church and has shared everything with His redeemed. There is not one room in His house the key of which He will keep from His people. He gives them complete freedom to take all that He has to enjoy as their own; He loves to see them enjoy His treasure and take as much as they can possibly carry.”
“The limitless fullness of His all-sufficiency is as free to the believer as the air he breathes. Christ has put the cup of His love and grace to the believer’s lip and invites him to drink of it forever; if he could empty it, he is welcome to do so, but as he cannot exhaust it, he is invited to drink abundantly, for it is all his own. What truer proof of fellowship can heaven or earth provide?”
The fullness of Jesus, through the grace of God. That’s a lot to wrap my head around.
But a greater understanding is coming, as the Apostle Paul said, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Cor. 13:12 KJV).
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