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“He Stands at the Door and Knocks”
Categories: Bulletin Articles, M. W. Bassford
If Kermit The Frog were a Bible student, he might wonder why there are so many songs about Revelation 3:20. Hymnists from every era have written about the stranger at the door, etc. As with rainbows, the answer is self-evident. The Scriptures are full of magnificent word portraits of God, but this is perhaps the most appealing of them all.
The God of the Bible is utterly beyond our understanding. His power is so vast that He created the reality we inhabit. His awareness is such that not a sparrow, not a grain of pollen, not a molecule, falls to the ground apart from Him. In His wisdom, He knows all that was, all that is, all that will be, and all that might be. He is not like us, and because He is so alien, we no more can sit in judgment on Him than a worm can sit in judgment on us.
This God sounds like a perfect candidate for the divine Watchmaker of the deists. Surely such a One would preside unmoved over His dominions, as unconcerned about us as we are about the insects in our front lawn, following His incomprehensible purposes to their incomprehensible conclusion!
The God of the Bible is not like that. The God of the Bible stands at the door and knocks.
Indeed, though we can’t understand it, we have a name for His purpose. It is love. The sparrow does not fall to the ground apart from His awareness, but it also does not fall apart from His love. How much more, then, does He love us, fashioned in His image and likeness, the crowning glory of His creation! Truly, we are more valuable than many sparrows.
The story of the universe is the story of the patient working-out of the love of God. Satan, sin, and death oppress and destroy us, but He is greater than they are. His love shines most clearly in His Son. John 1:18 says that Jesus has explained Him; literally, exegeted Him as we would exegete a passage of Scripture.
The explanation is astounding. He sent His eternal Son to earth, not to reign over an earthly kingdom, but to serve, suffer, and die at the hands of His handiwork. It was the greatest evil possible, but in the unfathomable wisdom of God, it became the greatest good. In Christ, rebellious, doomed sinners can find life.
Such is the love of God for us. Such is His deep yearning. Well does Jesus say of Himself that He stands and knocks at the door of every human heart. With all the power at His command, He does not coerce or force. He seeks admittance. It is the King who implores the unworthy servant.
He is so very near to us, and He refuses none who invite Him in. If we do, the Bridegroom will bring the wedding feast to us, and we will continue to dine at His table forever. God has explained all this to us, and we still can’t grasp it. All we can do is rejoice that it is true.
