Psalm 86
By chance, this is going to be a continuation on one of the themes in yesterday’s blog. Yesterday, we discovered that God the Son didn’t pay off God the Father in order to secure our forgiveness. God forgives us freely, because that’s who He is.
Showing us “who He is” was one of the main reasons Jesus came to our world. He came so we could have a chance to see Him up close and personal; He came in a way that was inviting, not threatening.
Yet, toward the end of His ministry, the disciples begged Jesus to tell them about the Father. You see, they enjoyed the time they had spent with Jesus, but they were still a bit unsure about Him, you know, the “Big Guy Upstairs.” And Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show Him to you?” (Jn 14:9)
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But even after the plain words of Jesus, some 2000 years later, there is still a common misconception in Christianity that the Father is somehow different from the Son. There is this subtle idea that we need Jesus to plead with the Father on our behalf. There is a sense that the “God of the Old Testament” (whom we usually say is the Father) is different from the “God of the New Testament” (Jesus).
This psalm would teach us something different. Here’s what this psalm has to say about God. He is:
compassionate
gracious
slow to anger
abounding in love
abounding in faithfulness
Who does that sound like? Why, it sounds like Jesus, doesn’t it?! Of course it does! However, it also perfectly describes the Father. God is undivided. He is one, both in character and purpose. Jesus really was telling the truth when He said that if we had seen Him, we had seen the Father. There are no differences in the characters of the Father and Son. We don’t find anything in Jesus that we can’t find in the Father, and vice versa.
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In fact, on multiple occasions, Jesus declared that He was the one who was written about in the Old Testament. I’m sure we would certainly agree that Psalm 86 describes Jesus beautifully. But we must not stop there. If Psalm 86 describes Jesus, then so does Genesis 6 and Leviticus 10 and Joshua 7 and 1 Chronicles 13. And if Jesus would say to the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you” (Jn 8:11), then that’s absolutely what the Father would say to her, too.
It’s time for Christians to stop believing and preaching that there is more than one God. There is only one. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In character, in purpose, and in love, He is totally and completely undivided.