God as Judge and Savior: A Meditation on Jeremiah 17-20

The Old Testament reading for this week focuses on a small section of Jeremiah 20, that is difficult to understand without the context that builds up to it.  Jeremiah is a prophet who has received a Word from God to speak to his nation, but it is not a message of peace or security.  Rather, he is sent to tell his own people, that because of their infidelity, God was bringing devastation and destruction upon them.  The Babylonians would come and destroy Jerusalem, killing many and enslaving the rest.  It was a Word Jeremiah had no pleasure in delivering, but it was the Word God gave him to speak.

And what was the response of his people to God’s most dire warning?  They imprisoned Jeremiah, insulted him, despised him, and looked for every opportunity to slay him.  The religious leaders and the political leaders joined their voices against Jeremiah, declaring him a false prophet.  They rested on the promises of God’s providence and mercy, while they embraced their sin without repentance.  In other words, the leaders of the nation and the church preached love and peace, while God was preaching to them destruction and death.

Sound familiar?  Our age has much the same problem.  Our church leaders and political leaders often want to use God’s promises and commands for love, peace, and tolerance, especially in the face of those who convict them of sin and evil.  From debauched and unnatural sexuality, to corporate greed and manipulation; from sex trafficking and pornography to drug abuse; from murder of the old to the murder of the young;  from political corruption and intrigue to the raping of the planet; those who confront evil in high places are often subject to scorn and ridicule, just like Jeremiah.  When those who are enslaved to their sins try to use God’s grace and mercy to protect their sinfulness, their crimes against God and neighbor reach the heights of hypocrisy.  Pitting God’s love of women against His prohibition to murder children, or God’s love of homosexuals against His condemnation of sodomy, or God’s gift of private property against His abhorrence of abusing the poor, is to mock God with unholy delight.  God is not one to be mocked, and His Word will be fulfilled, be it His Law or His Gospel.

It is here that we see what Jeremiah saw:  God is both Judge and Savior.  For those who cling to Him and His Word by faith, there is the Gospel of grace which saves all who put their trust in Him.  But to those who cling to their sins, refusing to repent, their repudiation of God and His Word brings forth the inexorable consequences of His Law:  for the wages of sin is death.  There is no saving faith that refuses to repent of evil.  There is no saving faith that refuses to hear God’s Word.  The faith that saves, is the faith that hears, repents, and lives by the grace poured out through Jesus Christ.  Only this faith receives grace.  All else is wicked unbelief, and receives the wages due, because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  All are condemned under the Law, and rightly so.  But all are called to live by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, becoming slaves to righteousness rather than evil.

And so, dear sinner, what shall you do with the Word of the Lord as it comes to you?  Will you hear its shocking condemnation of your sin, particularly those of which you are most fond? Will you turn from your wickedness toward the light of Christ, surrendering yourself to Him, that your sentence of death might be washed away in the Blood of Jesus poured out for you?  Or will you push His Word of Law and Gospel away, lock it up, plug your ears, and tell yourself stories of self justification, cheap grace, and false salvation?  Will you hear the Word of the Lord and keep it, or will you reject the Word of the Lord and despise it?

There can be no greater question, and the consequences of each path could not be greater.  For the Word that declares your sin shall stand forever, and not even death can hide you from it.  If you refuse the Word of the Lord, it will find you none the less, filling your ears with the call to faith and repentance in this life, or burning your soul forever with its righteous sentence in the life to come.  But if you will hear the Word of the Lord Today, turning from your sin by the power of His Holy Spirit to a life of faith and repentance, then the light of Jesus’ love and mercy for you shall keep you in this life, and gather you into His blessed fellowship forever.  For God shall be the Judge of all, but to you who will repent and believe, He will be your Savior from the hell you have earned.  Because Jesus has taken your wrath and condemnation in your place, His Holy and Everlasting Gospel is forgiveness, life, mercy, and peace to all who will believe.

And so the Word of the Lord comes to you.  God is your righteous Judge.  Shall He be your Savior, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone?  It is His desire that all would be saved, for He did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might live through Him.  Hear Him.  Believe, and live.  Amen.