O Say But I'm Glad!

 

Faulty assumptions in Dispensationalism part 1

 

     Who among the ransomed has not read the promises of God’s undeserved love and protection with raptured hearts? How many Protestant Evangelicals  secretly appropriate promises dispensationalists say belong to national Israel? 
    When David, the sinning yet chosen King says “Cast me not away from thy presence;”(Psalm 51:11), our hearts know exactly what he is feeling. We identify completely. “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities” becomes our secret cry as well, while dispensationalists remind us that we are the church and not Israel. We come to Isaiah in our time of perplexity, when in the fire of blackest trial we read, “Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that you should go” (Isaiah 48:17) and our hearts soar. A Warrior has come to take up our cause as His own, to “save His people from their sins” as the angel told Mary, and our passion for our Lord is rekindled.    
    It becomes an unspoken understanding that the  good stuff, the promises, the faithfulness,  reigning with the Messiah over the earth, eternal life - these apply to the church, who has somehow superceded national Israel, while  bad stuff - judgment over sin, national dispersion, the discipline and chastisement of God all apply to the Jews, the Curses theirs. the Blessings ours.
    Intellectually we attempt Dispensational orthodoxy, but our hearts betray us! We cry with David, “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me!”, and our hearts swell when by faith we see that The Almighty “hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip” (Psalm 18:36), for those who know themselves well fear their own weakness. We want God to guarantee our salvation. Those who know themselves best desire a guarantor of their salvation greater than their weak and vacillating will.
     I am so thankful for this subconscious, universal slip, for it proves our salvation is so much more than proper Exegis, Hermeneutics or Eschatology, more than Greek, Aramaic or Hebrew light upon scripture.  How thankful I am that the true power of salvation lies not in the wisdom or strength of men, but in the faithfulness of God to His own purposes in Christ. “For of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and sanctification, and redemption”(1 Cor.1:30).
    Precisely because we lack “wisdom, sanctification and redemption” God loved us before the foundation of the world and made Christ to be all of these things, for, in and through us.  Aren’t we glad He chooses foolishness? And weakness? O friends, this is the glory of God! Not that He is high and holy,  but that he stooped so low.That is His glory - and ours as well! And why does He do this? So that “ no flesh should glory in his presence” (v.29) . O aren’t you glad? 

 

There is a song in my heart today something that I never had

Jesus has taken my sins away, O say but I'm glad!

O say but I'm glad, I'm glad, O say but I'm glad

Jesus has come and my cup overruns - O say but I'm glad!

 

James P. Sullivan, 1930