Thursday, June 05, 2008 10:38:00 AM
Christianity is the only religion which depicts God reaching down to human kind. All other religions depict humankind trying to reach God. When the practicing Hindu crawls for miles on his stomach to reach the polluted Ganges River, he does so in an attempt to be cleansed from his sins.
Within every human being is a God-Shaped vacuum. Human kind is forever trying to fill this vacuum through self-effort. The tragedy is evident. When the Hindu dips himself into the Ganges, there is still an inner emptiness. When the Haitian rituals are completed, the voodoo practitioner still experiences hopelessness, fear, and despair.
All attempts by human kind to reach God or bring oneself into proper relationship with God are futile. Those who try to approach God through legalism, or works, are guilty of the same error as the Hindu. Scripture is clear that no one reaches God by his own effort: “Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:9).
One of the most beautiful portrayals of the sovereign God reaching down to mankind is found in Luke’s narrative of the Prodigal Son. The Prodigal had wasted his inheritance on sinful living when he realized the foolishness of his actions. As he began the journey home, his only hope was that his father would be merciful. The son could not be reconciled by his own efforts alone. “And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).
Every human being is like the Prodigal, alienated from the father, wallowing in the pigpen of sin, empty and filled with despair. It is God’s desire through Jesus Christ for us to experience reconciliation and understand that God is the great caregiver!
In His Grasp
Pastor Roger Lunsford