God With Us - By Glenn r. Kreider
I was
talking with one of my uncles some months ago and he was lamenting the lack of
good Christian books out there, pointing out that the only good 'Christian'
books are the ones that lead you to read the Bible itself instead of more books
about the Bible. God with Us: Exploring
God's Personal Interactions with His People Throughout the Bible by
Glenn R. Kreider is one such book. I don't believe that I had heard of this book before, or at least if I had it didn't catch my
attention at the time. A friend gave it
to me and I ended up being very pleased with it.
In the
book, Kreider focuses upon the humility of God.
He goes through the different periods of Biblical history pointing out
many instances of God's graciousness towards mankind. I'll list some
particular snippets that I found fascinating:
First,
in his section on Abraham Kreider points out that God could have
responded in anger for Abraham's asking how he would know that he will gain
possession of the land (instead of just accepting that it would happen), but He
didn't, "God's response is
compassionate, gracious and kind. He cuts a covenant with
Abram.…..The covenant does not make the promises of God more secure,
but it does give Abram something he knows and understands." God didn't
have to make a covenant at all, but He graciously did so. And despite
Abraham's flaws, God condescends to be known as the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob (who also were very flawed).
Later on, in His call to Moses God condescends
to answer Moses' objections to being chosen to lead his people out of Egypt,
and has already provided a helper for Moses in the person of Aaron - This made
me realize too that God could have made Aaron the leader of His people. But even though Moses objected so much, God
graciously still used Moses.
And
then of course, the amazing condescension of God to send His Son to
earth as a human being….and as an infant, not an adult. Kreider says that for a
while he had a hard time with the account given by Luke of when Jesus
was 12 years old and deliberately stays behind in Jerusalem when His parents
leave for home - in particular, Mary's apparently frustrated response towards
Him, "My Son, Why have you treated us like
this?..." How could she dare do that seeing that she had been
told beforehand that Jesus was "the Son of God"? And then he
explains that his conclusion, " "Anyone
who was in the presence of God in the flesh would recognize his deity, I
thought. I Now believe that this story reveals to us that
Jesus' deity was well concealed. Apparently, the difference between Jesus
and her other children was not as obvious to Mary as I had thought. Jesus
never sinned, never rebelled against her; he never behaved in a depraved
way." He goes on to explain that, in a way, Jesus was,
as it were, 'immature'(not meaning to indicate that Christ's action in staying
behind was immature). In other words, He
still grew in wisdom, as that chapter points out, though in the process of
growing in wisdom/'maturing' He never
sinned. And so Mary apparently had trouble perceiving His divinity because of
this, despite having seen His perfect goodness. I thought that was an
interesting point.
I also
loved the concept that God has condescended to have His Son be in
human form forever, "he humbles himself by
adding to his complete deity complete humanity, not temporarily but
permanently." And not only this, but that Christ will
be with His people forever on the new earth, "The hope of redeemed humanity is not heaven but
earth. Heaven is a temporary home until the day of resurrection, when
heaven will come down to earth and the God of heaven will make the
earth his home (Rev. 21:3). When the work of redemption is completed, the
triune God will condescend to dwell eternally on this planet."
All in
all I thought that it was quite thought provoking. There were some things
(as in any book other than the Bible) that bothered me a bit: such as Kreider's
stating that, ""Although sin and
rebellion will continue, God promises never to respond as harshly as
he did in the flood." - I guess that he doesn't think that the
future judgments to come upon the earth are not that bad? That confused me
- especially as he says that he is premillennial. And then he says
that "Since the Scriptures testify
about Jesus, any reading that fails to hear Jesus, any interpretation that
fails to elevate Jesus, and any bible study that fails to focus on Jesus is
incorrect and worthy of judgment." But what if certain passages
elevate God the Father? What if they focus upon Him and not upon
Christ…or what if they focus upon the Trinity as a whole? * Sigh*…..
But I
still liked the book. Kreider does a good job of pointing out this
other attribute of God, humility, that we ought to emulate, and that we
will emulate because we have God- The Holy Spirit living inside
of us. It makes you want to take another look at the
Bible with, not necessarily a new perspective, but with a
heightened desire to notice God's condescension and humility towards
humanity that is revealed therein.
Some of the websites where this book may be purchased are Christianbook.com and Amazon.com
My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars *****
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