From Despair to Delight in God
From Despair to Delight in God
Encountering the Living God is a fearful thing. He is a consuming fire of white-hot purity and zeal for righteousness—a God whose eternal existence has never known imperfection or error. Fear and terror seize those who encounter Him with crippling effects. Many conclude their death from one veiled look at Him. The book of Revelation describes the earth fleeing from the presence of Christ’s throne, the entire created order melting like wax before the flame of His glory.
It is foolish for anyone to cavalierly waltz into His presence as if these things don’t matter. Think of Nadab and Abihu’s strange fire, Korah’s earth-swallowing rebellion, or Uzzah’s irreverent steadying of the ark. One shouldn’t forget Ananias and Siphira or God’s deathly chastening in Corinth for inappropriately coming to His Table. The God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament. His character is immutable. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Nevertheless, the religious quest for a gracious God remains in God. It is this same God who is astoundingly compassionate, faithful from generation to generation, slow to anger toward the hard-hearted, long-suffering with the stiff-necked, merciful to the undeserving, gracious to the ungrateful, forgiving to the blasphemous, gentle to the naive, humble to the proud, sacrificial to the point of death, endowed with the power of life, and benevolent to invite all to come into fellowship with Himself through the good news of Jesus Christ.
When the reader of the Bible encounters God in His Word, it is not a neutral interaction. It will be one way or another: Wrath or grace, Law or Gospel, Letter or Spirit.
An example from church history is the Reformer Martin Luther. He rightfully feared God to the point of exhaustion and despair. He feared God’s wrath because he knew he had broken God’s Law according to the Letter.
Luther was not wrong in his despair. God’s Law reveals His righteous character. His character is never in conflict with His other characteristics. His love is never at odds with His wrath. His judgment always corresponds to His mercy. His grace upholds Divine punishment. Luther’s brokenness was an emphatic example of how one journies from despair to grace. It highlights the reality of God’s holy demands for mankind and His marvelous grace found in the face of Christ.
Luther’s exhaustion and despair were correct in that they reflected a proper understanding of aspects of God’s character. Had he not undergone such anguish in his despair, he would not have encountered such delight in the gospel. It was God’s Law that revealed the graciousness of God in the incarnate and crucified Christ. That is the purpose of God’s Law, to drive us to faith in Christ. Though Luther was not wrong in his despair, he would have been if his journey ended there.
Luther wanted to please God, but he repeatedly found he could not. His continual failure broke him. In the gospel, he learned that fulfilling God’s Law, justice, and holy demands are accomplished in Christ. He learned that being right with God did not depend on what he did but on what Jesus has done and will do. Prior to Christ, his efforts only led to death. But encountering Christ, he found life. This life is lived by faith in the finished work of the cross.
The Christian life is lived by resting on Christ’s accomplishments. Only then are Christians enabled to live to God.
Pastor Logan Nyquist
April 19, 2025
It is foolish for anyone to cavalierly waltz into His presence as if these things don’t matter. Think of Nadab and Abihu’s strange fire, Korah’s earth-swallowing rebellion, or Uzzah’s irreverent steadying of the ark. One shouldn’t forget Ananias and Siphira or God’s deathly chastening in Corinth for inappropriately coming to His Table. The God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament. His character is immutable. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Nevertheless, the religious quest for a gracious God remains in God. It is this same God who is astoundingly compassionate, faithful from generation to generation, slow to anger toward the hard-hearted, long-suffering with the stiff-necked, merciful to the undeserving, gracious to the ungrateful, forgiving to the blasphemous, gentle to the naive, humble to the proud, sacrificial to the point of death, endowed with the power of life, and benevolent to invite all to come into fellowship with Himself through the good news of Jesus Christ.
When the reader of the Bible encounters God in His Word, it is not a neutral interaction. It will be one way or another: Wrath or grace, Law or Gospel, Letter or Spirit.
An example from church history is the Reformer Martin Luther. He rightfully feared God to the point of exhaustion and despair. He feared God’s wrath because he knew he had broken God’s Law according to the Letter.
Luther was not wrong in his despair. God’s Law reveals His righteous character. His character is never in conflict with His other characteristics. His love is never at odds with His wrath. His judgment always corresponds to His mercy. His grace upholds Divine punishment. Luther’s brokenness was an emphatic example of how one journies from despair to grace. It highlights the reality of God’s holy demands for mankind and His marvelous grace found in the face of Christ.
Luther’s exhaustion and despair were correct in that they reflected a proper understanding of aspects of God’s character. Had he not undergone such anguish in his despair, he would not have encountered such delight in the gospel. It was God’s Law that revealed the graciousness of God in the incarnate and crucified Christ. That is the purpose of God’s Law, to drive us to faith in Christ. Though Luther was not wrong in his despair, he would have been if his journey ended there.
Luther wanted to please God, but he repeatedly found he could not. His continual failure broke him. In the gospel, he learned that fulfilling God’s Law, justice, and holy demands are accomplished in Christ. He learned that being right with God did not depend on what he did but on what Jesus has done and will do. Prior to Christ, his efforts only led to death. But encountering Christ, he found life. This life is lived by faith in the finished work of the cross.
The Christian life is lived by resting on Christ’s accomplishments. Only then are Christians enabled to live to God.
Pastor Logan Nyquist
April 19, 2025
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