Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1:17) This lack of variation or shadow due to change in God is not lifeless, static or stoic. Rather, God is so full of life and of joy that He does neither need to change nor can He change. God is such an ocean of goodness and truth and beauty that while we may exhaust ourselves in drawing from His resources, we will not even begin to exhaust Him. Therefore, He is the only One who can be infinitely giving. Therefore, as the verse says, every good gift and perfect gift is from above. This means two things for us.
First, that God is the source of all that is good. Out of His abundant treasure, He upholds our being. He gives us all things to enjoy. And when, because of our creatureliness and our sinfulness we experience need, emptiness, tiredness, loneliness, discontent, worry, sorrow and temptation, He fills us, and strengthens us, and gives us fellowship, contentment, peace, joy and victory. He is the double author of our life and of our salvation. It is because of His grace and kindness that we are gathered here today in worship.
Second, that God is the only source of all that is good. Our great sin consists in forgetting this and seeking after goodness from other sources. The heavens are shocked and appalled in cosmic dissonance when they see our sin: That we have forsaken God, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for ourselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. We languish and thirst because we do not come to the one place that can restore our souls. One of the things that our God graciously gives us is the conviction of sin. The grace of our thirst and contrition is what prepares us to receive the grace of forgiveness. And the grace of forgiveness opens the floodgates to everything else in this earthly pilgrimage under the Lordship of Christ. Leave no sin unconfessed in your life!
Samuel Davidson – February 11, 2024
