Dear TC-HOP Family,
“The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth…” (Ex. 34:6). When Moses asks the Lord to show him His glory, the Lord responds by revealing His emotions to Moses, assuring Moses of His character and who He is. We’ve looked at the Lord being merciful and gracious, and I now want to look at His longsuffering and goodness.
In Rom. 2:4, Paul states, “Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” How patient the Lord is with us and He does not lose enthusiasm for us when we fail. His love for us is greater than the pain we cause Him when we resist Him. He suffers long with our sinful responses. As with Peter, who denied the Lord three times, Jesus comes to him after the resurrection and confirms His love and forgiveness for Peter, so He does the same with us. Knowing and understanding this gives us confidence that our repentance is never rejected. Peter may have had this in mind when he wrote in II Peter 3:9, “…He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
The next emotion the Lord tells Moses is that He is abounding in goodness. The Lord overflows with good plans for us. The song that is recorded most often in Scripture is, “The Lord is good, and His mercy endures forever.” Some may resist God’s mercy and goodness because it is so free that no one can ever deserve it. God’s mercy is freely offered to us because Jesus fully satisfied the claims of God’s justice by His death. Propitiation speaks of God’s justice being appeased or satisfied by the offering of the blood of Jesus so that sinners can be freely accepted by God. Rom. 3:24-26 states, “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood…that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
God shows His mercy without violating His justice. He forgives sin because He paid for it. Jesus’ propitiatory sacrifice on the cross does not cause God to love us. It removes the penalty that our sin deserves so we can experience His love in a way that is consistent with His justice.
Just as God declared His name and goodness to Moses, Jesus promised to declare God’s name or personality to us. Jesus said in John 17:26, “I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them.” Not only did Jesus declare the name of the Lord to us through His character as He walked the earth, but He will continue to impart His love in us as we gain more understanding of what God is like. Paul’s prayer of revelation is like Moses’ prayer to see God’s glory. “The Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, and the eyes of your understanding being enlightened…(Eph.1:17-18) O that we would continue to cry out to the Lord as Moses did for the Lord to reveal His glory to us.
Come join us this week as we pray together at the TC-HOP.
Blessings,
Gary