Musical Musing, You Are God Alone, Jesus Paid It All

I have been angry at the response from Pat Robertson to the Haitian earthquake, but until now, I’ve not had what I felt was a biblical response myself, outside of the same response we all had, that common sense led us all to take: Act Justly, love mercy, walk humbly… and give freely, selflessly to those in desperate need.

This morning, in church, in worship, I started singing, and found myself loving the songs we sang, but not yet finding the deeper place of sacrifice. And then, at some point, As we sang “You are God Alone”, I began applying the truths in that song to the situation in Haiti. There are likely people who will look at this idea, that I believe that God is good and loving and all powerful, and still this terrible earthquake happened, and say that God cannot be all of the things I claim for Him to be. But I was getting excited; I knew I was coming close to a great truth here.

We may make many things in our lives god, giving them a place of prominence in our lives. Look at your life, and whatever it is that you structure your entire life around, that’s your god. Is your life built around making enough money to make ends meet? Money may be your god. Is it about getting your kids into the best school, to all their activities, getting all the right credits for them, then your kids or their future may be your god. Golf could be your god. Football. It could be going to church and doing, without actually being engaged in your faith. You can make anything god.

But there’s still only one God, and nothing anyone can say can change that fact. God created time and existence, God made the heavens, the earth, all of humanity and all of the beauty you see in the world around you. And then, in the ultimate act of love, God gave humanity the option to love Him back, or to refuse Him. In that option, He created the possibility for sin, and with it came death, disease, and destruction. But without it, without the option to refuse God, we would be slaves, automatons, prisoners held without a will to protest our prison. That option to refuse God meant there would have always been an Adam or Eve. If it hadn’t been the first man and woman, it could have been Cain, who killed his brother, Abel, or anyone after him.

OK, so there is one God, who provided the ability to sin, and sin, which brought the possibility of suffering. How is this good? If God had stopped with giving us the ability to break relationship with Him, stopped at the Fall, then it would indeed be a very bad, desolate, heart-shattering situation. Hopeless. But it does not stop there. From God’s perspective, outside of time, when He created us, He knew we would refuse Him. But He also knew that there would be those who longed for Him, who ached for Him, who loved Him. He knew that the break in the relationship was large enough that we couldn’t repair it, either. So God Himself provided a means for us to come back to Him. That’s very good.

What makes Him better is that God is, by nature, unchangeable. So once He decided to make a way back to Him, He wasn’t going to change His mind, recant His declaration, or take away that path from us. He’s unshakable, too; no matter how hard this earth may quake, God does not. No matter how hard things shake around you, God will not. God loves you so much that He didn’t want you to be a slave, and enough to make a way for you to love Him back, to be in relationship with Him.

But how? How does this happen? What if you are deeply lost in sin, or have made a pact with the devil, as Robertson supposes? Are you too far gone for God to reach you? Are the bad things in your life punishment for your choices? NO!

You are never beyond the great and marvelous grace of God, no matter what decisions or mistakes you’ve made. No debt you carry is too great, no pact too burdensome or contract to binding to be broken. And while it is true that God has allowed times of trial and testing to draw His people to Him, He has also said that you cannot draw direct correlation between suffering and sin; not all suffering is caused by sin.

But I’ve already said that God knew that the break in the relationship was something you couldn’t repair. And we’ve talked about debts and contracts and sins… and I haven’t told you where I found the rest of the truth I found this morning.

As we continued to sing, I felt rooted to the spot, though I wanted to rush out and write, but I knew I didn’t quite have the full picture yet. I didn’t have the whole message. And then, Beloved, we started the last song. “I hear the Savior say your strength indeed is small; Child of weakness, watch and pray; find in me your all in all. Jesus paid it all; all to Him I owe. My sin had left a crimson stain; He washed it white as snow.”

I sobbed. I shook I was crying so hard, and I raised my hands in victory. I’d found the other half of this message. You see, Beloved: God is unchangeable, He’s unshakable, and He alone is God, loving us despite all our failings and mistakes, providing us with a means of restoring relationship with Him. And the way He made was in Himself. Jesus Himself paid it all. The full debt of your sin was paid by Jesus. The cost of breaking the contract you made? Jesus paid it. Walk away from the things that hold you bound; Jesus paid to set you free.

And that image of sin leaving a crimson stain that Jesus washed white as snow? Beloved, look at the images coming out of Haiti right now. Can you think of a place that needs a clean up more than they do right now? Can you see a more dramatic image than the people sitting in puddles of blood suddenly being washed clean, their wounds cleaned out, their broken bodies made whole?

We rarely see the sorts of New Testament miracles today that Jesus worked. But we can be the hands and feet of Jesus, speaking liberty and love to the Haitians, instead of bondage and damnation. We may not be able to instantly wash their souls, but we can help them clear their streets, mop their floors, bury their dead, and wash their bodies and clothes until they are clean. We can love them, Beloved, and see them through the eyes of Christ, the God who created them, and then who paid everything He is, everything He has, to wash them white as snow and win them back from any and every mistake they have ever made or will ever make. Just like He did for you and me.