March 3, 2024 • Jared Longshore • 2 Chronicles 20:1–24
These two passages display the complexity of the biblical witness on compassion. In the first, we are to clothe ourselves in compassion (literally: bowels of mercy), which leads us to bear with each other and forgive each other as love binds us all together. Elsewhere Paul “yearns for the Philippians with the affection of Christ” (Phil. 1:8). Affection and sympathy are bonding agents (Phil. 2:1), enabling us to be single-minded and in full accord. The Lord, who is compassionate and merciful, is our ultimate model for compassion, and he has given us the fathers and mothers as images of his compassion (Isa 49:15; 1 Kings 3; Psalm 103). In the second, we are forbidden to show pity or compassion on those who would entice us to idolatry. Similar commands are given with respect to first degree murder and lying in court (Deuteronomy 7:16, 19:13, and 19:21). In such cases, God is adamant that “your eye shall not pity them.” And again, in doing so, we are to follow God as our model, who executes his judgment without pity or compassion (Jer. 13:14; Lam. 2:17; Ezek. 5:11; 7:4, 9; 8:18). So how should we make sense of this?
The Holy Spirit has been active in the world since the creation of the world. He appears in the second verse of the Bible, for example, hovering over the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2). In every era, God is always God. The Son of God is always the visible image of the invisible Father, and the Spirit is always the one who empowers and equips. Nevertheless, we do see a difference between the Old Testament and the New in this regard. The Spirit has always been the one ministering forgiveness, and cleansing, and power. This has always been his work. But in the Old Testament, His operations were much more surgical and precise. In the New Testament era, His operations are much more torrential. Water is always water, and while it would rain in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, the dam has burst.
This evening we have gathered to commemorate the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was sent into the world in order to die. And He was sent in order to die so that by that death, He might strike these chains off our wrists. In order to understand this, we have to come to grips with the fact that the death of Jesus was a vicarious, substitutionary death. He became the propitiation for our sins, as the Scripture repeatedly declares. All of this means that all the consequences of our rebellion—including fear, guilt, and shame—were poured out over Him. These burdens were laid across His shoulders so that He might die with them there, carry them all to the depths of Hades with Him, and then to come back from the dead without them. That is the message. That is why the death of Christ is such good news.
