Knowing God's Heart
If you want to know God’s heart, you will have to know Him the only way that He can be known with certainty— through Jesus Christ. That is what Jesus says in the Gospel of John. It is, of course, through the Word that Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit are revealed. So we read the Word, we study the Word, and we contemplate God on the basis of the thing we trust, namely the Scripture.
And in the reading, studying, and contemplating, what do we come to know? We come to know God’s heart. And what is God’s heart? What is God’s desire? His desire is that all would be saved. That truth is clear from the beginning of Scripture to the ending of Scripture. God pursues Adam with the promise. It is clear in the Gospels. It is the energy behind the mission of Paul and Barnabas and Luke and Timothy and others that we know and others that we will know in eternity.
There is a different kind of revelation of the heart of God in Isaiah chapter 6. Read Isaiah 6:1-8 and think about the following questions.
What does Isaiah see in his vision? Isaiah sees the unveiled holiness of God. He is in God’s presence totally and completely.
How does Isaiah respond to this situation? His involuntary response is despair. He calls out in prayer and in confession. (This is not unlike Thomas seeing Jesus the week after the Resurrection and bowing down and saying of Jesus, “My Lord, and My God.”) But notice that all of this is precipitated without one demand from God. God does not lay out the law. He does not declare a mandate from Isaiah. God simply is revealed in reality before Isaiah, and Isaiah is upended.
Thankfully, that is not the end of it. God shows Isaiah what mercy is all about. He extends to Isaiah His unmerited grace and favor. There is no “this for that” arrangement, but rather, only the declaration that your sins are forgiven. And God’s heart is seen once again.
But then there is a question. And in that question God reveals again His heart. The question is, “Who will go for us?” God would have others know of the same grace and mercy that He had just extended to Isaiah.
The response of Isaiah is delightful. It is as though he looks around, having heard the question, and says, “Let me go!” I will go. Notice this: there is no command from God “to go” here. There is only the desire of the one who has been saved to go and to bring the Gospel to the world, all to pursue the heart of God.
Don’t be mistaken. We have been commanded (if you really need a command) to go to the ends of the world with the Gospel. But I would suggest that there is a better way than to submit to a command. Simply embrace God’s heart.
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