"Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly...he shall dwell on high..." Isaiah 33:14-16
From the burning bush of Moses, to the pillar of fire in the wilderness, to the burning presence on Mt. Sinai, redeemed Israel knew one thing for certain: "Our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:29) Fast forward around a thousand years: Israel is once again threatened by a terrible foe (i.e., Assyria). What is worse, Israel's sin has incurred the wrath of her Lord, and His burning presence is coming to wreck havoc on the land. "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?" they rightly ask. Then comes their answer, "The righteous."
The presence of God is all consuming perfection. No imperfections will last even a second in His blaze. Sin (the absolute absence of perfection) will be instantaneously obliterated, not necessarily because of what God does as much as who God is. God is holiness and perfection; anything less than that will not survive His presence. Outer darkness is the only place Sin can survive. In short, only perfection can stand before perfection; only God can stand before God.
If such a statement does not create despair in you, than you must not be awake. Mankind may act charitable sometimes (to ease their guilt, and only if they get something in return, of course), and may act moral on occasion (in order to keep out of trouble and not ruin future enterprises); but all in all, human history cries vehemently in rebuttal to any claim of human perfection or perfectness. There are some fools who claim humanity can reach perfection with time as our intelligence grows. Look at the last century: our grown intelligence only helped us kill ourselves in more brutal and effective ways than ever before; and that fact lingers to this day. Nothing, absolutely nothing, we have ever or will ever do can create the inner disposition of perfection needed to stand before Perfection Himself.
If only God can stand before God, then our only hope is if somehow, someway God can be within us. Not placed within us (like a transplanted organ), and not in us merely as power so that we become a god; but that the Spirit of God somehow intimately mingles and mixes with us, somehow His Spirit unites and communes with ours. In short, our only hope is incarnation, and Christ is the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29).
"Spirit of the Living God,
Mingle with my dust,
Dance within my frame,
And make us One..."
-Jon Vowell
From the burning bush of Moses, to the pillar of fire in the wilderness, to the burning presence on Mt. Sinai, redeemed Israel knew one thing for certain: "Our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:29) Fast forward around a thousand years: Israel is once again threatened by a terrible foe (i.e., Assyria). What is worse, Israel's sin has incurred the wrath of her Lord, and His burning presence is coming to wreck havoc on the land. "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?" they rightly ask. Then comes their answer, "The righteous."
The presence of God is all consuming perfection. No imperfections will last even a second in His blaze. Sin (the absolute absence of perfection) will be instantaneously obliterated, not necessarily because of what God does as much as who God is. God is holiness and perfection; anything less than that will not survive His presence. Outer darkness is the only place Sin can survive. In short, only perfection can stand before perfection; only God can stand before God.
If such a statement does not create despair in you, than you must not be awake. Mankind may act charitable sometimes (to ease their guilt, and only if they get something in return, of course), and may act moral on occasion (in order to keep out of trouble and not ruin future enterprises); but all in all, human history cries vehemently in rebuttal to any claim of human perfection or perfectness. There are some fools who claim humanity can reach perfection with time as our intelligence grows. Look at the last century: our grown intelligence only helped us kill ourselves in more brutal and effective ways than ever before; and that fact lingers to this day. Nothing, absolutely nothing, we have ever or will ever do can create the inner disposition of perfection needed to stand before Perfection Himself.
If only God can stand before God, then our only hope is if somehow, someway God can be within us. Not placed within us (like a transplanted organ), and not in us merely as power so that we become a god; but that the Spirit of God somehow intimately mingles and mixes with us, somehow His Spirit unites and communes with ours. In short, our only hope is incarnation, and Christ is the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29).
"Spirit of the Living God,
Mingle with my dust,
Dance within my frame,
And make us One..."
-Jon Vowell
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