Gnosticsm & the Proclamation of Christianity with special reference to John's Gospel (Cont)
We Need a Rescuer
Psalm 69: 1,2 (AV); Psalm 22: 19 (AV); Psalm 118: 5 (NIV)
'When a man gets convicted of sin (which is the most direct way of knowing that there is a problem at the basis of life), he knows that he cannot carry the burden of it. This problem is too big for a man to solve. However much he tries, he comes to the end of what he can do for himself saying that unless God will be a refuge for him, there is no way out, death is the only thing. Job is seeing for the first time that God is the only refuge, the only way out for him. Yet he cannot get at Him through his creed, it is all confusion; the only thing is to fling himself on God.' [62]
If we were in Job's situation we would be drowning, as it were, in a deep bog (Psalm 69: 1,2.). Being sincere, being religious, doing good things, is no help. We cannot lift ourselves out by our own bootlaces. We need a Rescuer [63]. God does not leave us to flounder hopelessly. He has done something about it. He has sent someone to rescue us and His name is Jesus (the name means Saviour or Rescuer). Jesus said that He came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10) He did not come just to show us what God is like, (though He did this). Nor did He come just to teach and live a perfect life (which He did). He came to save us and this meant losing his own life to rescue us. [64]
Man also knows that God dare not just forgive him, if this makes no difference to his way of life. If He did, it would mean that man's sense of justice is bigger than God's. It is as though God had a problem - to remain just, yet to forgive people who were desperately guilty [65]. "The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Christ alone that enables the Divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. The love of God means Calvary and nothing less." [66]
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