Westview Church

I know that I tend to make everything about me. What I have done and what I have to do. I am the "Me Monster." If you haven't watched Brian Regan on You Tube, do yourself a favour and spend 5 minutes of your day laughing at the Me Monster. Recently, as I have been reading Scripture, I have come to see that there have been two specific verses that I had always read as a Me Monster. Thankfully, God broke through and showed me the beauty of Himself in these verses and the Me Monster ended up looking undeniably ugly compared to the beauty of our Savoir. Here are the two verses, "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." (Proverbs 15:1). The other one is "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Now, before I go any further, I understand that these verses do have application to our lives and that in a sense they are a bit about us, but the brilliance of these verses is who they really are about.

I'll start with Proverbs 15:1, "a soft answer turns away wrath." Yes, this is good practical advice. If someone is raging at you, chances are if you are nice in response they will calm down a bit. Here is the crazy thing though, Jesus says all of Scripture points to Him (Luke 24:27). So how does this Scripture point to our Savoir? He fulfils it completely; He is the soft answer who turns away wrath. He turned away God’s entire wrath from you and from me. He turned away the wrath I deserve for being a Me Monster. He is my soft answer. He is my propitiation, my wrath bearer. He not only turned away God's wrath for me, He bore God's wrath for me. I John 4:10 says, "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." He bore God's wrath! That means there is no wrath left for me. Amazing Grace!!! I read that, I hear he is my wrath bearer and I can give a soft answer when someone is angry at me. All the wrath that I deserve has been taken by Jesus and so your wrath towards me looses its power. I don't have to defend or justify or fight against the wrath of another. I can give a soft answer. The worst has been said on the cross and the wrath has been born so I no longer need to defend myself.  Back in 1 John 1, this is played out, the very next verse: After we read that Jesus is our propitiation we read about how that truth should play out in our lives, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." He so loved us and we can love others. He bore our wrath; we can patiently deal with others. 

The next verse that I read, seemingly for the first time, was John 3:16. I know we can recite that verse and I am sure that you have probably read it without the “Me Monster” lens that I was looking through. But I had always read that verse with the emphasis on the "believing in Him," on what I needed to do. I had missed out on the stunning beginning of that verse. God loved first, before I believed. God gave first, before I believed. His loving and giving precedes my believing. His loving and giving was not dependent on my believing. His loving and giving is first and foremost over all. When I start to doubt His love and I have to tell myself to believe, I won't be motivated by, "believe because you are supposed to." I will be moved to believe when I remember His preceding love, His preceding giving. Before I met any conditions He loved and gave. Nothing builds my faith like knowing it is not all up to me. I know I am weak and my faith is weak, but His love is so strong I can be weak. I can rest in his love, His generosity. 

My encouragement to you is to put away the “Me Monster” when you read the Scriptures. See Him; see the brilliance of His love, see the obligations of Scripture all fulfilled in Jesus’ life. See the blessings of obedience as yours because of His sinless life. Pray that the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to His majesty and His splendour, which eclipses all else.