Why does God give such a different life path to one person compared to the other? Why does one person enjoy prosperity and the other not? What must you think of your disablement when you see so many healthy people around you? Why does the one become a mother, while the other would also love to be one? Why does God give faith to the one and not to the other?

Penetrating Questions⤒🔗

A colourful mix of questions. We come up against them in different forms. Sometimes they touch us deeply; we struggle with them, hardly able to find our way out.

Rachel once said to Jacob: “Give me children, or I'll die!” To which Jacob's indignant reaction was: “Am I in the place of God?” (Gen.30). We know of Job that he wanted to start a sort of court case against God (Job 23). Penetrating questions can rise up to heaven. The Lord actually even gives us the words for this. There are psalms in which despair is frankly sung about (such as Ps. 77). Surely we can then go to him with our questions?

Depths←⤒🔗

There are no cut-and-dried answers. Yet there is something to be said about where to find them. If we try, as far as in our power, to explore God's rule, we ultimately look into an unfathomable depth. A depth of wealth, that is to say. From out of that depth, God's rulings come to us (Rom. 11). Impenetrable to us, but as a result, really surprisingly, extraordinary.

Unimagined←⤒🔗

An example. Imagine that you, as humans, are together shortly after the fall into sin. Together you become aware of what you have done, your guilt, and that you can no longer return to God. You yourself have cut the umbilical cord, the connection with God, your only lifeline. How could you? But you have. All sorts of decay can now come in, tainting everything and everyone; you are trapped and will never be able to get out.

Imagine that God would then ask us whether anyone has a solution. Does anyone see any way out, a chance to make up for it? Can we cleanse ourselves, repair the connection? Unfortunately… Well then, who would ever come up with the idea, could even imagine: “God, You still have a Son..., if you could send him to earth, let him become man, bear our guilt with all its consequences...’ We would not even be capable of thinking of anything like it. And even if we could come up with it, we would not dare suggest it. This would be so extremely out of the ordinary, that you would not let it leave your lips. But what no human mind has conceived or human mouth dare utter, that is what God has done. In his incomprehensible love.

Extraordinary←⤒🔗

But now back to us. What will our reaction be? In the course of time it does start to become…ordinary. Yes, truly. We no longer shout and jump for joy, the enthusiasm fades, the church becomes dreary and people are bored when listening to the sermon. We no longer talk about it, we know it and confess it, and with that it is put away in a niche. “The Atonement” as subject of a book. Is it this bad with us? Perhaps not. But we do have an ongoing inclination towards this. Even though we are wounding God's heart by it. Nothing is as terrible as starting to find the sacrifice of his Son ordinary.

We see that God has taken measures to prevent that. He gives us his beloved Son, but in such a way that it will always remain extraordinary. God emphasizes that he did not have to do it. He was completely free in this, and we must be conscious of this.

Free←⤒🔗

God says it time and time again. But not only does he say it, he also acts accordingly. He gives his Son, but not to everyone. He does not name the people he has passed by, everyone can still always come to faith, even in their final hour. But meanwhile, we see that God really does pass people by. With the intention, not that we will judge them, but that we should realize: God is free. He could have passed me by too. That he searches me out is a miracle! This is grace; he is truly not obligated in any way, not to anybody. In this way, the surprise is continually fed, from an unfathomable depth; the good will of our God. Believing, receiving Jesus, it remains extremely extraordinary.

Everything Becomes Extraordinary←⤒🔗

Everything comes to us out of that depth of grace. There is extraordinary wealth in that depth of God: what we did not deserve, what we could not expect, comes to us, nevertheless. Life, food, drink, work, health, opportunities, marriage, children, freedom, just name it. God gives in abundance. And he gives in such a way that it always remains extraordinary. We will always feel that he is free in this. God gives what he does not have to give. And for this reason he sometimes also does not give.

He gives a lot. Food and drink, for example, but not to everyone, there is also hunger and thirst. Health, but there is also sickness and disablement. Marriage, but there are also people who remain single involuntarily. Children, but there are also people who remain childless. With this it has not been said that we must endure all this passively. Blessed (for example) the merciful, who bring food and drink where it is needed! But still: the message of free grace fills the world, dominates your life. Everyone receives, but nobody gets everything. You always have something that somebody else did not get. And the other way around. Because since the fall into sin nobody has a right to anything,

Understanding and Proclaiming Grace←⤒🔗

The intention becomes clear. Mutual comparison is understandable, but can also make you unhappy. Whereas it is God's intention that we should come close to the source. Free grace; everything originates from that!  Not only when it concerns atonement, but also in the daily things, in all facets of life. Everything receives the label: “I did not have to give this, and to maintain that awareness, I do not give it to everyone.”

If you understand that message, a deep joy enters your heart, every time you receive. And if you are missing something, you see that God has placed a message in this. Then there is more than the missing, however sad it may be. You become like a sermon, written by God himself, which does not easily bore people to sleep. A message which the world needs so badly.

You Cannot Get Around It←⤒🔗

And so we arrive at the final conclusion. We can find the extraordinary and free aspects of God’s actions difficult. It can even seem unfair to us, as if our prayers are not being heard. Yet our whole life comes forth from that extraordinary and free ruling of God. Just imagine if he had not wanted to act in this way…! Then Jesus would not have come to this earth. Where would that have left us? Free grace: you walk up against it, to realize that you live because of it.