“God has made our master Christ, heir of all things, and we are sent to seek for a spouse for him. There is none so worthy as he; none more unworthy than they to whom this match is proposed; but the prince of darkness is preferred before the Prince of Peace!” (Human Nature in its Fourfold State by Thomas Boston).
The above quote, from a Scottish theologian who lived in the 16th and 17th centuries, highlights the juxtaposition between the love of God for humanity and humanity’s reaction to this undeserved love. The Bible is full of contrasts, such as this quote indicates. The first book, Genesis, begins with the chronological story of creation; you can read how the entire universe was in darkness in its primitive state, and then you read God making the first contrast by saying: “let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). If you continue reading the rest of the chapter, you come across contrasts, such as the evenings and the mornings, the land and the sea, the Earth and the heavens, the land, sea, and air animals and Adam, and God. As a matter of fact, these contrasts do not end with the last word of the first chapter of the first biblical book; on the contrary, the reminder of Scripture is dedicated, as it were, to contrasts. You read about Noah’s family and the other families; you see God differentiating the nation of Israel, His chosen people, apart from the other nations; you see differences between Himself and the idols, between the true prophets and the false ones. Even the New Testament is not devoid of these contrasts; we read Jesus Christ as the true Prophet and Messiah and the false ones, those who came before Him and those who would come after His departure. We read about the wheat (true believers) and the tares (false believers) (Matthew 13:24-30). In the apostles’ epistles, we come across contrasts, such as “…the present evil age…” (Galatians 1:3 NASB) and the age to come. We read about the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of satan. Even the apostle Paul went so far as to define dissimilarity within the Church, between those that are approved and those that aren’t (1 Corinthians 11:18-19). The last great contrast in biblical history is the revelation of the new heavens, new Earth and new Jerusalem being set side by side and against the old heavens, old Earth and old Jerusalem (Revelation 21 & 22).
It has been very helpful in my walk with my Lord to see Scripture in those contrasting terms. I have also seen God doing these opposites, these ‘befores and afters’ moments in my own personal life. It is beautiful to appreciate the marvelous and faithful workings of the loving and faithful God and to look at them through the lenses of contrast. Certainly, I have grown more grateful; certainly, my thanksgiving prayers have increased more and more since I started looking at my life and the Bible this way. All of this has led me to the conclusion that GOD, as the true Painter and Artist, loves employing contrasts to accomplish His divine purposes. Furthermore, there is one constant contrast in life, and that is also highlighted in the Bible: God’s fierce love for mankind and humanity’s incessant stupidity at rejecting this undeserved and unending love. God created man in His own image with unimaginable potential and opportunities and in a place like no other place in the entire physical universe. What God is to everything, Adam was supposed to be the same to the Earth. Yet the man and the woman chose the lie of the serpent instead of the truth of their Creator. Even so, our loving Maker was not content with the sinful and perishing state of His creatures, He then set in motion a plan to rescue humanity from eternal death (Genesis 3:15). To accomplish this plan of redemption, He chose the family of Abraham as the conduit. However, most of the members of this family rejected His love and intimate care. This is what is evident by reading the history of Israel: they rejected their God and Deliverer from Mount Sinai (Exodus 32) all the way to the crucifying of their own Messiah and King (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).
While this has been and still is true of Israel, it is also true of most of the non-Jewish world throughout the ages. The spiritual sentiment of “…we do not want this man to reign over us” in relation to the One sent by God to be Lord over all (Luke 19:14 NASB) has resonated in the hearts and minds of nonbelievers for the past 2,000 years. The Jewish people as well as the non-Jewish nations are guilty before the Judge of all the Earth of rejecting, I would go so far to say, of spurning and disdaining the faithfulness and goodness of the Faithful God. Unfortunately, that is not the only thing they are guilty of; mankind has not only treated God with scorn and disgust, mankind in running away from its Creator and Savior has found refuge in its deceiver and enemy, the devil. Men love the dark one- satan- and hate the Light-Jesus Messiah (John 3:19-21). Men know God, yet they do not honor Him as God or give Him thanks (Romans 1:21). ” They exchange the truth of God for a lie, and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 1:25 NASB). Moreover, humanity, as a special and distinct race of creatures, has judged itself to be unworthy of eternal life (Acts 13:46). This has not happened because God has lacked love for His creatures, but because His creatures prefer the devil instead of their only Savior; they reject the Christ of God, mock His gospel and kill the announcers, and ambassadors of His ‘good news’. They, not content with this, ferociously, furiously, passionately and stupidly pursue “..the great dragon… the serpent of old, who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world…” (Revelation 12:9 NASB). It is no wonder that God damns them by saying: “woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah” (Jude 1:11 NASB). Moreover, the Lord will consign them to the most horrible place ever created: “the black darkness” (Jude 1:13).
The story of humanity and God has been one full of contrasts. The more we see the sinfulness of mankind, the more we see the holiness of God. The more one notices the ungratefulness of human beings, God’s faithfulness is highlighted all the more. We are mortal, but He is immortal; we are ugly, but He is so beautiful; we seek after false gods and empty dreams, yet He pursues us relentlessly to the point of sending His only Son to die the death we deserve and to reconcile us to Himself through the cross of His death. Based on this great love from our Creator and Savior, and together with my brother Habakkuk , “I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice always on the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:18 NASB).
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