The Finer Print
In our litigious society today, so many disputes seem to come down to the fine print. So much is a gotcha of legalese buried in a nondescript paragraph of legalese in waivers most readers both not to read. When jammed into an disagreement, it’s off to comb the depths of the details for that overlooked incidental group of words that will turn the whole issue for one side or another. Liability hangs on what we can hide in the midst of disclosure, and every adversary must now be Sherlock Holmes to sort it out for their own sake.
How sad.
How ungodly.
In fact, this isn’t how God dealt with us. He told Moses at the burning bush, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Exod. 3:6) Shortly thereafter engaging Moses to draw the people out, He followed with, “I will be with you.” (Exod. 3:12)
No catch, no disclaimer, no hidden agenda. The deliverance in the exodus bears this out.
This message of God speaking directly to his people expanded at Mount Sinai with the decalogue. “I am the Lord you God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exod. 20:2-3)
The other nine commandments of the law followed. No other oath was necessary to order His people, no other detail of the law was needed to prescribe the framework that would expose our sin. No fine print, no buried language, no tricks.
As we had already been tricked by the serpent in the garden, this was the height of clarity in expectation.
But it would take the promised Savior to reiterate and accommodate.
More than a millennium Jesus would be giving the sermon on the mount, and address truthfulness & transparency. “And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” (Matt. 5:36-37)
Fitting as how, as God incarnate, just after he expelled the money changers in unique righteous indignation he had the authority to say to the Jews questioning him about signs in John 2…
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remember that he had said this, and they believed Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:19-22)
I’m writing this on a Saturday between Good Friday, which was yesterday, and Resurrection Sunday which comes tomorrow.
What a time to remember that it’s the lead we take from the serpent to inject ourselves into the Holy experience and make it our own. Then we think we can author laws, statutes and standards here on earth that subordinate the Law and Gospel of the Bible.
The two men on the road to Emmaus were surely this confused as the promised messiah for the Jews seemed to fizzle out until they were encountered by man in their walk who plainly told them that what Jesus had said had now occurred.
Neither God the Father nor Jesus misspoke or buried the fine print. It’s always been right in front of us out in the open. Nothing hidden.
It’s our free will choosing sin and failure that let’s us think it’s the fine print that matters. The small font buried in the nondescript paragraph that changes the came. In fact the game was out front, in bold, in the flesh, in awe, wonder, and majesty — it takes eyes to see and ears to hear, but it doesn’t take a law degree, it just took grace by faith then, and grace by faith now.
Hallelujah!