April 17
DebDay 34: Grace of the Master
It's clear I have time on my hands. Among other things, I've started reading "Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar."
Julius Caesar had come out top dog after a provisional 3-person rule over what was becoming the Roman Empire. The other rulers had been killed (brutal politics!) and Julius had now crossed the Rubicon River and returned to Rome. He'd been gone beating up France.
Caesar still had to win over the Senate; no easy task. Everyone suspected everyone. Cloak and dagger intrigue was everywhere. Caesar, being both ruthless and smart, did the only thing that would work.
He conciliated the Senate with flamboyant expressions of forgiveness. He pardoned and even promoted opponents. He even restored the toppled statues of previous Roman rulers.
Why am I telling you this? Hang with me a bit longer.
"His expressions of clemency came with a whiff of what made his peers resent and detest him. Merciful he may have been - but mercy was properly the virtue of a master" (Author quoted.)
Let me attempt to land this plane.
No one on the receiving end of Caesar's mercies were confused. They knew that to accept his mercy was to accept his mastery over them. To do otherwise was fatal. In their legal way of saying things (in Latin, I assume) Caesar was the "Dominator." And everybody knew it.
But Julius Caesar wasn't immune to fatality himself. His domination was not comprehensive. One day on the Senate floor he was stabbed by just about everyone at the same time. Cloak and dagger. End of mastery.
Our God offers His mercy to us. His mercy is made possible through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the perfect and perfectly-acceptable sacrifice for our sins. He took on our sin. And in the most unimaginable exchange ever, He gave us his righteousness.
God extends His mercy to us, because Jesus died a most unmerciful death, the death that paid for our sin.
But don't miss this: when we acknowledge and accept God's mercy, we also acknowledge and accept His mastery.
2 Chronicles 20:6 says, "O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you."
Everyone on the planet, past, present and future is mastered by this Ruler. Perhaps many will resent and detest our God. (The classic line of atheists might be, "There is no god...and I hate him.")
But for us, receiving and living in God's mercy results in hopefully two things: 1) we are thankful, and 2) we are trusting. We can welcome His rule over us.
Trusting that our Ruler God is merciful to us for His glory. And our joy!
-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau
