“Great is our Lord, and mighty in power;
His UNDERSTANDING is INFINITE” (Psalm 147:5)
Jesus Christ was fully human. He was fully God and divine. Because of His humanity, in familiarity we draw near without fear. Because of His absolute divinity we worship with loving reverence.
God is 100% perfect. In fact, He is the ultimate “Perfectionist.” Yet, He chose to give man free will – and in so doing, He steps back and refuses to micromanage – regardless of how messy we make things.
Now that’s Absolutely Amazing in itself!
It truly is amazing, especially when we consider how a perfectionist always feels obligated to redo everything everyone else does! But NOT God! In fact, In His ultimate wisdom, He delights in turning everything we have messed up all around into new opportunities for us to glorify Him! A sovereign God with the entire cosmos in His hands, has set His heart upon us – He understands just how to turn things around for each one of us individually as we trust fully in Him (Job 7:17-18; Psalm 8:3-4; Rom 8:28; Eph 1:9-11).
YET… His understanding goes a trillion lightyears beyond than that! He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be born and grow up right in the midst of our human messiness! He fully identified with every human temptation, yet He remained perfect and sinless. Oh, how well and how intimately God understands us (Phil 2:7; Heb 2:17-18; Heb 4:14-16).
Now that’s an Absolutely Amazing Love!
YET… His understanding goes exponentially and infinitely much further than that! In infinite foreknowledge (Mat 21:33-41; 1 Peter 1:18-21), God allowed His Son to be crucified in shame upon the Cross (Phil 2:8). At that precise moment of His Son’s crucifixion, God the Father laid upon God the Son, Jesus, ALL and EVERY LAST DROP of mankind’s messiness, filth, sin, rebellion, and even the curse of sickness! And then the Father turned His face away as Jesus screamed out, quoting Psalm 22:1: “My God, My God! Why have You forsaken Me!”
Not only was Jesus in “ALL POINTS in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15), BUT the Father asked Jesus to drink the “cup” (Luke 22:41-43) of every kind of human filthiness and sin, and then to take the punishment for every last drop of it!
And Jesus did that willingly for us: “Not My will, but Yours be done!”
As Isaiah, over 700 years previously, prophecies of that moment on the Cross:
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed…
6 …and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all…
10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
Isaiah 53:4-6,10
God is the ultimate perfectionist, but He is also the ultimate Lover of our souls.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son…”
“Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down His life for His friends” (John 3:16; 15:13).
Without doubt, God understands us – infinitely!
We can draw near without fear and lovingly worship Him in holy awe and wonder!
Yes! His understanding and love for us are INFINITE!
