You worship a living God, not some idolatrous, man-made image. Your relationship with Me is meant to be vibrant and challenging, as I invade more and more areas of your life.....(Jesus Calling, Feb. 17).
God never ceases to amaze me with His nearness to my daily life, and with His ability to answer the question or conundrum of the day. Yesterday, I brushed off the comment following the previous day's blog, because I knew it really wasn't a question as much as an attack on the logic of Christian belief. The comment was this: "According to some Christians, Abraham wasn't saved because he did not know Jesus Christ."
Amazingly, however, God did not brush off the statement. Last night, as I was reading St. John Chrysostem's commentaries on the Gospel of John, the very page where I resumed reading was this:
"And the world knew Him not." By "the world" he here means the multitude, which is corrupt, and closely attached to earthly things, the common, turbulent, silly people. For the friends and favorites of God all knew Him, even before His coming in the flesh. Concerning the Patriarch, Christ Himself speaks by name, "that your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad" (8:56). And concerning David, confuting the Jews, He said, "How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying 'the Lord said unto my Lord, 'Sit Thou on My right hand' (Matt. 22:42; Mark 7:36; Luke 20:42). And in many places, disputing with them, He mentions Moses; and the Apostle mentions the rest of the prophets; for Peter declares, that all the prophets from Samuel knew Him, and proclaimed beforehand His coming afar off, when he says, "All the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days." (Acts. 3:24). But Jacob and his father, as well as his grandfather, He both appeared to and talked with, and promised that He would give them any and great blessings, which also He brought to pass.
For me to be reading St. John's commentaries at this point is amazing. Two days ago, I finished the book I had been previously reading and after paging though the vast library on my Kindle, I decided to resume where I had left off reading in the commentaries some several months ago. Last night, after reading the above passage, I put down my Kindle to worship the God Who is near to us in all our ways. And I thought about Moses and Elijah, who spoke easily and comfortably with Jesus at the time of the Transfiguration. And I thought about how time is a human constraint, but eternity is "now." In eternity, we do not wait for things to happen in time, but all is present "now."
Of course Abraham, Moses, David, and Elijah knew/know Jesus Christ. Of course they conversed with Him and recognized Him in the spirit, even before they entered eternity. And what does that say about all the questions we repeatedly ask about the "poor pagans" who have never heard of Jesus Christ? Will they not also know and recognize the One they love in the Spirit if their hearts seek God? Jesus told the woman at the well, "God is Spirit, and the true worshippers of God worship in spirit and in truth." And in that realm, there are no limitations of time and space, the ones that worry men, but do not worry God at all. He knows who are His, and He is able to save them in His own way.
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