Our Particular God

God sure is particular.

Perhaps you’ve never heard anyone be called particular before; some of the words and phrases I use are outdated. This is likely due to me spending quite a bit of time around elderly folks when I was a kid. My paternal grandfather was born in 1907 and my grandmother a few years later. Some of their phraseology occasionally finds its way into my everyday speech and I have to explain to the person I’m talking to what it is I’m talking about.

When I say someone is particular, what I mean is he or she likes things a certain way and is not easily satisfied. Particular people have exacting standards and failure to meet those stands leads to major problems.

This is what I mean by the statement, “God sure is particular.”

I was reading in Exodus 26 this morning about the instructions God gave Moses for the construction of the Tabernacle. God wanted Moses to use a specific kind of wood and specific colors of yarn. He wanted a certain number of clasps and the poles to be a certain length. There were an exact number of bases required and an exact number of supports expected.

But this is not the only passage showing this quality. All throughout the Bible we find God being exacting in His expectations for what people were to do and be. Again and again we find God being particular. And since God is unchanging, what He was He still is.

And He sure is particular.

Which is bad news because while God expects us to be and do particular things, we stink at being and doing those things. Being sinners means we miss the mark, we do not live up to the expectations of a holy, perfect God. He is particular and we are not. Because of this un-particular-ness, we are not able to live up to the standard which means we are unable to please our particular God.

Which is why we still need the Good News.

The Good News is that while we are not particularly good at pleasing our particular God, Jesus was and is perfect at it. He perfectly pleased the Father with His perfect life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection. He is perfectly pleasing the Father by being the mediator we all need. He will perfectly please the Father by one day receiving His own unto Himself that where He is we may be also.

The bad news is we have displeased God by our sin. The Good News is Jesus perfectly pleased God by His sacrifice. If we repent of our sin and place our faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, in Him we please our particular God.

God the Father requires perfection for us to be near Him. God the Son provides the perfection necessary, God the Holy Spirit applies that perfection to our hearts and lives.

If you know know Jesus as your Savior, rejoice in all of this.

If you don’t know Jesus as your Savior, turn to Him now and believe.

And be glad that our particular God made a particular way for us to draw near to Him through our perfection Savior.