City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler

The Word

“Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth.”

Job 40:3-4

Reflection

We live in a twisted age. But that is not unusual. Every age is twisted in its own twisted way. We are a generation starved for significance. Attribute it to the prevalence of divorce or the pervasiveness of social media, but it is real. And because we don’t feel significant, when we turn to God, we seek it from Him. We try to find our significance in the atonement, inferring, “How important must I be that God would die for me? God must think I am great.” 

But we have it backwards. The message of the incarnation is rooted in our relative insignificance not our importance.  God is as high above man as man is above a cockroach. If you laid down your life to save the life of a cockroach, it would say much more about you than the cockroach. 

After everything was taken away from Job, and his friends offered their advice, God finally spoke, and He didn’t tell Job and his friends how important they were. Instead He put them in their place by explaining how high He was above them and how utterly unable they were to perform those tasks that were simple for God. Job’s response was delivered from a place of stark reality, a place of truth and proper standing relative to God: “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth.” Job 40:3-4. 

Job understood. We should be so fortunate to understand. Relative to God we are insignificant, and because we are insignificant, the incarnation and the cross say little about us but much about God. That God would become man and lay down his life for us boasts of His magnanimity. It is an unthinkable act of charity, outrageously generous and inconceivably benevolent. Understanding the atonement may make us feel good about ourselves, but it should certainly make us feel very good about God. To try to wring self-worth from the cross is to pervert it by suggesting we are worthy of it; it is to look inward rather than upward. It is to turn the cross into a cosmic participation award.

Who am I? I am insignificant, but God is awesome. He is so awesome He became man and died for someone as insignificant as me. That makes me love Him, not just for what He did for me but for who He is that He would do such a thing for one so insignificant as me. It is my insignificance that demonstrates His love, not His love that demonstrates my significance.

Application

Think about how insignificant you are relative to God. Then think about how magnanimous and loving He is that He would die for you. And then worship Him.

Prayer

Lord, I lay my hand on my mouth. What can I say to You. Amen.