Our God is mysterious and strange. He often does not make sense to us. The knowledge of His ways does not agree with our common sense.
Many mysteries of Scripture come to mind: The Trinity, the Incarnation, Baptism, the Supper, and so forth. Many in the Church throughout the centuries have grappled with these doctrines to understand them. Some have tried to use their human reason to make difficult teachings easier to comprehend. But in so doing, they stumbled into error and heresy.
This is why we have an abundance of Christian denominations, as each found their own way of denying or explaining away truths that they could not grasp.
God is not grasped. God is not comprehended. As we hear His Word, the best we can do is simply believe what is revealed without adding or subtracting and faithfully confess him.
So we have yet another mystery: the Holy Church. She feebly struggles. She contains false sons within her. She is sore oppressed, by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed. Yet she is the Lord's own Body. She is the holy Bride, yet disguised as a lost, frightened peasant girl. She is filled with the glory of her Husband, waiting for the Day that she is revealed.
As members of His Church, God's plan of salvation for us has been laid out before our eyes. Yet even when we see it, it is still beyond us. The Cross and Empty Tomb are as high as the heavens above, and just as far beyond our grasp.
The fault is not in God, as if He made His truths too difficult. The problem is in us. Our sin-filled minds are feeble. The darkness in our fallen flesh cannot grasp the Word. Our stubborn foolishness cannot imagine the truths of God. Therefore, all truth and goodness can only be from Him.
As St. Paul wrote, "From Him and through Him and to Him are all things." From the beginning of creation, everything that exists has come from the Maker's gracious hand. Every blessing, every trials, every joy, every truth come from the Father.
But then we ask that troubling but necessary question: If all things are from God and go to His credit, then what good works can we ever offer to Him that go to our credit? The answer is none at all. As Paul says, "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" In other words, you cannot earn anything by yourself since all things are from Him and through Him and to Him. He is the Author even of your good works.
How then can you earn heaven? What will you give in exchange for that ultimate reward? Nothing. As we cannot grasp at the mysteries of God, so we cannot grasp at heaven, neither to seize nor attain its blessings.
If we lived all our lives doing nothing but good works (if that were possible), then still we would have done nothing except what is owed to the glory of God. Since we sin often, how can we pay back the debt our sins have accumulated? Can we give extra works to God? Everything and every glory belong to Him already. There is nothing extra to give.
We cannot even understand the path of holiness upon which we should walk. The mind of the Lord in what He desires for our behavior continually escapes us. He reveals His commandments in crystal clarity, yet our blurry vision and foggy thoughts confuse us. We forget, we fumble, we mistake, we misunderstand.
So we might have been denied heaven, since we fall so short. We might have wandered crooked paths, far from the way to Paradise. We might have stumbled forever, apart from the presence of His glory.
But there is One Man who was able to give to God. Christ Jesus is God, so He was able to make the one sacrifice that repays the Father for our sins. To Him be glory forever!
We stumbled on crooked paths. But He is the Path. "I Am the Way," He declares. He is the Path of righteousness to the Father, and to Paradise.
We do not follow a path made of the good works that we do. No, we believe in Him who is the Way. Just by believing, we have it all.
"Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God." The wisdom of God is Christ Jesus, dying on the Cross. This crucified Man seems foolish. But in His tortured flesh, we are saved. In His Blood, we are washed clean. In His dying gasp, we were brought to life. God in His wisdom gave us His Son so that we now possess eternity with Him.
"How unsearchable are His judgments." Indeed, for in His judgment He declares us who are damnable sinners to be righteous and innocent. Can you see that innocence in yourself? No, because it is the innocence of Jesus counted for you. Can you detect the righteousness that saves you? No, for it is invisible, placed upon you at Baptism. We witness God's judgment at the Font. But no matter how closely you watch, you cannot glimpse the robe of righteousness laid gently on a sinner's shoulders. To God be the glory forever!
The judgments of God are hidden now. Yet they are eternally binding, even to the gates of heaven. Therefore, nothing can condemn you. You will not be judged at the end to weigh your goodness against your sinfulness, to see which was greater. No, there will be nothing but goodness, because you are already judged in Christ Jesus. Your sins are gone. You are filled with God's holiness. All is paid. All is ready.
Who can understand that? You look at your life, and you see many sins. Yet you are judged righteous.
No one can really understand. But we believe, and we hold fast upon this judgment of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
To Him be the glory forever! Amen.
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