God Is Not A Man That He Should Lie

The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. "Look at you now!" they yelled at him. "You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!" The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders also mocked Jesus. "He saved others," they scoffed, "but he can't save himself! So he is the King of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him!" Matthew 27:39-42(NLT)

Sometimes a lie is louder than the truth...but it is still a lie.

There on the cross hung the bloodied Son of God. Hands nailed, He could not throw a punch. Feet fixed to the wood, He could not kick them away. Tongue stuck to the roof of His mouth, He could barely speak to their insults. Humbled, yes, but powerless? Only if you consider Him to be impotent, who by His thoughts alone birthed the heavens and created a nuclear furnace to fuel the sun.


This ravaged form contained the force that separated light from darkness, pushed mountains up from the sea bed, poured wrath as unremitting rain upon the entire surface of the Earth for forty days, humbled Egypt, brought down the walls of Jericho, cast out demons and raised the dead. Wise men would have a care for their safety in His presence even now. Love was binding Him fast to this fate not the iron nails made by the puny hands of men.

So the lie grew louder and more voices took it up...but it remained a lie. It remained a taunt intended to call God's power and goodness into question.

I have been lied to. There were times when I believed a lie. I am betting that you have as well. We don't have to.

When I read this passage, especially about the mockery and contempt of the priests, it reminded me of when the devil taunts us. "If God loved you, you wouldn't have cancer." "You call yourself a good mother? If you were a good mother your kids would be serving God." It is that same kind of lying, hope-sucking spirit.

I have had a dangerously disobedient child who told me he was going his own way and there was nothing I could do about it. It was a lie. I had a prayer life. If I would have had some failures in the area of mothering, that would not have been sufficient reason to listen to the taunts and stop praying. Grace is a good prayer-buddy.

That same son went into combat in a hell-hole of a country and the odds were not in his favor that he would return or return with all his limbs or his right mind. His being beyond God's protection was a lie. I had a prayer life and many, many prayer partners proclaiming truth, spitting it like bullets into the dark night of war. My son came home, married, made a son and dedicated him to the Lord.

I had a terrible illness and the devil tried to take my health, my life and my peace. It was a lie. I am writing this blog to say so. If I had not been healed, then I was leaving this life believing in God's unfailing goodness and sovereignty. I am still here.

There was a time when hell told me it was going to swallow my marriage whole. Lie! Lie! Lie! Christ is not just a third of the Godhead, He is one third of my marriage covenant. Still here. Still in love.

The lies the world, the devil and our false selves tell us will never be anything else unless we come into agreement with them.

"You will never amount to anything, you can't finish school, you will never be able to support your family, you will never live a normal life, your kids will never mind you, your family will not make it to Heaven, you will never be good enough for God to love you, you don't get a second chance, you are not pretty, you are stupid, you are weak, you are not loved, you can't preach, can't teach, can't write, can't sing, can't marry, can't be a good parent, you are a loser, a drunk, a liar, a cheat, you can't change, can't, can't, can't...

Those lies become mute in the face of the truth of God's word.

Philippians 4:13...I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

James 1:4...But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Mark 9:23...If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.

I John 5:14...This is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Phil 1:6...Be confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:37...In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Ezekiel 36:26-27...I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

Hebrews 13:20-21...Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.

Psalm 138:8...The LORD will bring to perfection that which concerns me: your mercy, O LORD, endures for ever: do not abandon the works of your own hands.

Psalm 23:6...Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever.

How about that last one? Goodness and unfailing love (mercy) pursuing us, following hard after us, hunting us down, searching us out for divine recognition and blessing, for good and not evil. That is the truth shouting down the lie if I ever heard the truth say a word.

Hold on to the truth. Hold on and don't let it go. Hold on like Jacob who refused to release the angel he wrestled with until he had received a blessing. No matter what we face, God's pure, honest and sincere word says His plan is to do us good and not harm, to give us a hope filled future.

The next time a lie tries to shout you down, humiliate you, make you feel ashamed, weak, hopeless, alone or unloved; no matter how loud it yells or in how many languages, no matter who else has joined the chorus; remember Christ is still commanding, "Peace! Be Still!"

May His precious Shalom surround you, fill you, defend you, elevate you.

The man on the Cross was for all their mocking, still the One, True, Holy God; who has come down and has risen up and has brought us with Him into the glorious possibility of all things!

-Kat

Numbers 23:19...God is not a man, that He should lie. Has He said, and will He not do it?


P.S. Buy the truth and sell it not. Proverbs 23:3

-John

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