The Good Shepherd
12/20 Reading Portions: 2 Chronicles 24; Revelation 11; Zechariah 7; John 10
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
12/20 Reading Portions: 2 Chronicles 24; Revelation 11; Zechariah 7; John 10
John 10:11
“I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”
GOSPEL
In yesterday’s devotional, we considered the answer to the question,
“If Almighty God created everything, including the first man, and that man sinned, is God the creator of sin?”
In pondering the biblical truths in answer to our question, we recognized that the tri-une God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, possessed a perfectly glorious and harmonious fellowship before the created universe ever was, before any creature, including angels, ever were. This then begs the next question,
“If God was before anything, what was before God, and how did God come to be?”
Among the many truths the Bible declares about Him, God is infinite (Psa 147:5), eternal (Psa 90:2; John 3:16), Self-existent (Ex 3:14; John 5:26), Self-sufficient (Job 35:7; Acts 17:24-25), and unchanging in His holy nature and character (Mal 3:6). While these truths are a mystery to our finite, mortal, and corruptible minds, they should not be troublesome, burdensome, or in any way unsettling. We need not look further than God’s provision through the Lord Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd, and the work our Good Shepherd came to do— lay down His life for His sheep. As considered yesterday, that the greatest glory God receives is also the greatest benefit to mankind— the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ— so when we ponder, consider, and meditate upon the glorious truth that Jesus Messiah, the second person of the Trinity, took upon Himself human flesh to live the righteous and holy life that you and I cannot possibly live, and then lay down His life to redeem our wretched souls, it should humble us to the dust in overwhelming gratitude. In Christ, chaos and darkness are subdued and order and freedom ensue. Jesus did this with no benefit, no profit to Himself when He humbled Himself to be the suffering Servant so that the creatures made in His image and after His likeness could have eternal life, though we have sinned infinitely against His infinitely holy nature and character (Isa 53; Luke 17:10; Phil 2:5-9). While the question of God’s origin may not be “answered” to satisfy some intellectual need in us, when the cross of Christ and its resultant eternal life granted by grace through faith to those who deserve eternal damnation is viewed properly by the breath of the Holy Spirit, we are humbled and recognize that demanding an answer to such a question is not the act of a submissive soul saved by grace, but the insolent and arrogant jiggery-pokery of a defiant sinner.