Though He Slay Me…
I recently had a conversation with someone who explained that one of her concerns about the way some churches emphasize the death of Christ is that if God would do that to Jesus, who’s to say God wouldn’t do that to us as well?
My first response was to emphasize that in putting Jesus to death, God was allowing himself to be put to death (according to the orthodox understanding of who Jesus is). Jesus’ death is self-sacrifice, and it is self-sacrifice by God, who gives himself to us so completely that he allows us to kill him so that he might redeem us. This act is not cruelty, but immense, overpowering love–a love so strong that it conquers even our rejection of it.
As Ellul has said, we kill God whenever we refuse to accept him in the way he chooses to reveal himself to us. In this case, God chose to reveal himself as Love in the flesh. When we reject that Love (and we do, even though we claim that we all agree with love), we reject God and God truly becomes dead for us. Yet Love is stronger than our rejection, and cannot be completely conquered.
Because God offers himself, we need not fear that God will demand the same of us. For the teaching is that God did what we were (and are) unable to do ourselves. Jesus accomplished all that needed to be done, and we are safe from the wrath of God.
Thinking about it later, though, I recalled that frightening passage in Job 13: Though God slay me, yet will I trust Him. And I recalled that this life of ours isn’t really our life. It never has been, and it never will be. It is on loan to us for so brief a time. The reality is that we live and move and having our very being in God. It is his life that has been given to us. And it is his to recall to himself at the proper time.
What a difficult thing it is to trust God–to truly, fully and faithfully trust that God has our best interests at heart. To believe that all that happens to us works for good because God loves us. To be willing to walk through the water and through the fire if God calls, knowing that God’s we remain in God’s hands and will not be hurt. Even death itself cannot separate us from God’s love. Our death is precious in God’s sight, and to die in the service of our Lord is truly one of the most blessed deaths.
Should God slay us, will we still trust him?
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