Finding Our Way Out of Brokenness: A Journey Through Gospel Images

“Deep calls to deep

in the roar of Your waterfalls;

all Your breakers and waves

have rolled over me” (Ps 42:7).

I am broken, weeping in the awe and wonder of the story I’m about to tell, smashed down to feel how weak I am when tumbling in the waves of God’s greatness. I am broken, waiting for the day when Jesus puts the pieces back together at the victory of the Wedding feast.

Introduction

Far away, in a place unknown to man or angel or beast, the great eternal God, I AM, hovers over the “waters” or womb of all created things, in a place uninhabitable by anyone but the Spirit of God. He dwells in a place where only one man has ever gone before because He is God, and where no human word is adequate. But the Word–the God man–became flesh. A bridge was formed between the unknowable and the rest of divinely created life. The bridge was Jesus Christ, I AM who had taken on a human body and revealed the glory of God through a perfected human spirit of pure love. Jesus, the perfect representative of the Son of Man, echoed the deepest words of hope that could be sent down from heaven. Deep calls to deep. His life echoed the perfect joy of pure love, the healing grace of love’s restoration from the death of evil’s chaos, and the perfect depiction of a Warrior who overcomes all odds when the powers of darkness come against Him. His death echoed the perfect plan to utterly destroy the serpent’s terror. The serpent was nailed to a tree, with all that it stands for–deception, darkness, terror, and just damnation for sin. The serpent died; the glorified man rose. This imagery was depicted in a desert, when a nation of Hebrews screamed out in horror as vipers attacked and killed them, only finding life when they looked upon a brazen serpent that had been lifted up on a pole. Only those who embrace Jesus as the bridge–His sacrifice, His perfect demonstration of love, and His glorious defeat of death and darkness can be named with Him as children of light. The rest stand outside the shelter of safety from I AM’s blazing fire–a fire that consumes, unquenched, the rotting wood of hearts who have broken off from the root of love’s vine.

One day, one of those children of light wanted to know more than man should ever know, what was beyond heaven and earth that God had given man on which to live and find life. She wanted to know God in His own house. She wanted more of His glory. But little did she understand that such a place is outside the shelter of blazing fire. Little did she realize how dry the wood of her heart was outside the shelter of the Almighty, how easily kindled it was, and how impossible it was to put out the flame without the life-quenching water of Jesus’ love covenant at the cross. And in this state of ignorance, she was given permission to venture out–into hell.

Stricken

Once outside of the protection and joy of God’s promise of safety, there was no future joy for Eve. She stood naked before the God to whom she must give account. She could not hide her brazen rejection of His kindness toward her or her adulterous affair with His enemy–the depiction of all that is darkness and hell. She tried to justify herself:

“I really love you, God; I just wanted to know you better. I felt like you were tricking me in order to see if I would really pursue you, even to the point of death. I was willing to die to know more of you. You see my heart, that I had good motives.”

“Maybe so, but you went outside the covering of my covenant with you. I promised you protection if you obeyed my command not to seek a knowledge that was never meant for my children. You see, I didn’t want you to have to know the agony of evil. I didn’t want you to feel the cold of darkness. I didn’t want you to feel the heartache of guilt. I wanted you to have the joy of innocence.”

“Oh Lord, what if I go back to what you gave me before, pretend this never happened?”

“That’s impossible; you can’t undo your flirtation with evil, your disobedience, and your adultery. And you can’t pretend to continue living in innocence when you are no longer innocent. You might try to act holy, but I know your heart; it is now marred with the darkness of the knowledge of evil.”

“Oh my God, is there any hope for me? I am terrified of you. I see the looming wrath of your just judgment of me. You have ceased to be a fire of warmth and have become a fire of consuming terror to me. You have ceased to be my friend and have become my enemy. Your immense greatness has made me feel utterly helpless in my wickedness. Woe to me!”

Psalm 139:5-12

You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

7Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

8If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

11If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

12even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

Psalm 6:1-7

O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,

nor discipline me in your wrath.

2Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;

heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.

3My soul also is greatly troubled.

But you, O LORD—how long?

4Turn, O LORD, deliver my life;

save me for the sake of your steadfast love.

5For in death there is no remembrance of you;

in Sheol who will give you praise?

6I am weary with my moaning;

every night I flood my bed with tears;

I drench my couch with my weeping.

7My eye wastes away because of grief…

Eve was the first of many in the history of Scripture to demonstrate a trend of betrayal. Judas Iscariot of Jesus’ inner circle betrayed Him to the death of the cross for money. The harlot nation Israel betrayed Jesus in the wilderness with grumbling and an ultimate lack of trust to enter the Promised Land for fear of pain. All of these have betrayed the love of God with a kiss (pretending to love Him, maybe even thinking they were loving Him, but ultimately overcome by selfish ambition above self-sacrifice for Him). These deserve nothing but torment. And that is ALL of us born in Adam. Yes, ALL of us (“In Adam all die” - 1 Cor 15:22). “As it is written:

‘There is no one righteous,

not even one.

11There is no one who understands,

no one who seeks God.

12All have turned away,

they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good,

not even one’” (Rom 3:10-12).

The problem lies in our blindness to see the depth of our evil hearts. Jeremiah promises that for the true remnant children of God, who trust in His salvation by faith, there will be restoration. This is a glimmer of hope.

Isaiah 17:9-14

Their largest cities [megachurches] will be like a deserted forest,

like the land the Hivites and Amorites abandoned

when the Israelites [church] came here so long ago.

It will be utterly desolate.

10Why? Because you have turned from the God who can save you.

You have forgotten the Rock who can hide you.

So you may plant the finest grapevines

and import the most expensive seedlings.

11They may sprout on the day you set them out;

yes, they may blossom on the very morning you plant them,

but you will never pick any grapes from them.

Your only harvest will be a load of grief and unrelieved pain.

12Listen! The armies of many nations

roar like the roaring of the sea.

Hear the thunder of the mighty forces

as they rush forward like thundering waves [against the people of God].

13But though they thunder like breakers on a beach,

God will silence them, and they will run away.

They will flee like chaff scattered by the wind,

like a tumbleweed whirling before a storm.

14In the evening Israel [the church] waits in terror,

but by dawn its enemies are dead.

This is the just reward of those who plunder us,

a fitting end for those who destroy us.

Jeremiah 31:15-22:

This is what the LORD says:

“A cry is heard in Ramah—

deep anguish and bitter weeping.

Rachel weeps for her children,

refusing to be comforted—

for her children are gone.” [Rachel stands for the mother of Israel who represents the church of Jesus Christ; her children are her converts–all turned away against the true gospel of Christ because the Spirit has given her just discipline.]

16But now this is what the LORD says:

“Do not weep any longer,

for I will reward you,” says the LORD.

“Your children will come back to you

from the distant land of the enemy. [The devil]

17There is hope for your future,” says the LORD.

“Your children will come again to their own land.

18I have heard Israel [the church] saying,

‘You disciplined me severely,

like a calf that needs training for the yoke.

Turn me again to you and restore me,

for you alone are the LORD my God.

19I turned away from God,

but then I was sorry.

I kicked myself for my stupidity!

I was thoroughly ashamed of all I did in my younger days.’

20“Is not Israel still my son,

my darling child?” says the LORD.

“I often have to punish him,

but I still love him.

That’s why I long for him

and surely will have mercy on him.

21Set up road signs;

put up guideposts.

Mark well the path

by which you came.

Come back again, my virgin Israel;

return to your towns here. [Come back to the foundations of the gospel.]

22How long will you wander,

my wayward daughter?

For the LORD will cause something new to happen—

Israel will embrace her God.

Eve was stunned. “How is there hope??” she cried. “I have betrayed the very heart of God’s love to me. I have foolishly and arrogantly turned my back on the grace of Eden. I have pursued the one source of food that was poison to my soul. In my arrogance, I thought myself higher than that, greater than that, needing more than what God said I should have.”

“Your hope is me.”

Eve sat in silence. Could it be that the very temptation that proved her downfall was the very gateway to God’s victory? Could it be that this very pit of darkness and gloom and pain and suffering could be the source of God’s greatest masterpiece of glorious grace–to reveal how immeasurably great His forgiveness can extend to the worst sinners?

She deserved hell. God was extending to her a covering of mercy! Not because of anything she had done but because He chose to. Period. All she had to do was accept the clothes. “And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them” (Gen 3:21).

Now all the suffering she bore as a natural consequence for her sin was God’s glorious means to humble her, to expose the depths of evil in her now-blackened heart, to teach her repentance and hatred of the antithesis of God’s love, and a greater reaching in faith and worship for the covering of her salvation–the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him” (1 Cor 15:22-23).

“Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see…And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him” (Heb 11:1, 6).

“If Abraham was indeed justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. 3For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’

4Now the wages of the worker are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation. 5However, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness” (Rom 4:2-5).

“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.

16For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. 18Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:14-18).

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.

4But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!...For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life (Eph 2:1-5, 8-10).

When you were on that cross

I can’t believe you died for me

Oh Lord you gave me eyes to see

When I was lost

You showed me which way to go

Oh Lord you even saved my soul

When you were on that cross.

-Flame

*All Scripture is in the BSB (Berean Study Bible) translation unless otherwise noted.