If only

If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay a hand on us both, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more.

Job 9:33-34

If only. I love those two words. They reveal a distant hope. Distant yes, but where there is hope, distance does not matter. Job was suffering. His family was dead. His health was failing and his friends continued to tell him that he needed to do something about the sin in his life that had caused the punishment he was enduring. In his anguish, Job strained for a solution to the terror of sin, the fear of punishment. In his pain, Job cried out for a mediator. His words are a perfect description of our need. If only there was someone who could do the impossible and stretch His arms wide enough to touch a holy God and an unholy man at the same time. It is a solution that only God could provide. It is a solution that only God would provide. God did stretch his arms out on a cross in the ultimate act of arbitration. What is powerful enough to eradicate fear? God’s love is. His gift of love removes the terror that keeps us from facing a holy God in fear. The words of John Bunyan tell the story.

“Here is love, that God sent His Son, His Son who never offended, His Son who was always His delight. Herein is love, that He sent Him to save sinners; to save them by bearing their sins, by bearing their curse, by dying their death, and by carrying their sorrows. Here is love, in that while we were yet enemies, Christ died for us; yes here is love, in that while we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly.”

John Bunyan