Now, as one lives
within the kingdom of heaven that was inaugurated at Jesus’ Resurrection and is
ruled by Him so as to serve as lights to all peoples for the glory of the
Creator God, the Gospel of Jesus is preached. It is the very preaching
and proclamation of that Gospel, which has power in itself according to the
Apostle Paul in Romans (1:16), that gives a Father to the Fatherless, bringing
men and women into the covenant through belief in Jesus as the Christ (Messiah).
At the same time, as the Gospel takes root and inspires a trusting allegiance
to its claims, the Creator God’s people are inspired to meet the physical needs
of literal orphans. It is the power of the Gospel that brings His
image-bearers close to the heart of their God, for preaching and for serving,
carrying them into a devotion to what it is that God desires for His people if
they truly seek to serve Him.
The Psalmist goes on
to write, as He presents God’s plea to His people, saying “Vindicate the
oppressed and suffering! Rescue the poor and needy! Deliver them
from the power of the wicked!” (82:3b-4) With the inclusion of “the
wicked” in this verse, one can make a return to the favoritism towards the
wicked of the second verse and realize that, more than anything, man needs to
be delivered from his idolatry. That idolatry, among a range of
possibilities, is the idolatry of self, as man worships a harsh and cruel
taskmaster that keeps him in subservience to a stream of desires that was
brought into being when man, in Adam, renounced his purposes and his dominion
and his bearing of the divine image, choosing to trust and serve the creation
rather than His Creator.
According to the Scriptural
narrative on which the Psalmist and presumably Jesus as a member of the covenant
people operated and based their interaction in and for the world, because of
the fall, all that are under the curse that had been wrought by Adam can be
said to be oppressed by the stalking specter of death, while suffering under
the corruption and violence that is in this world. It is only in becoming
people of the covenant, now through belief in Jesus as the One through Whom God
has sufficiently dealt with these things, that the oppressed and suffering can
be vindicated.
This vindication, as
indicated by the New Testament, only comes through sharing in Christ’s
conquering of death---by being crucified with Him and being raised up with Him
(an unthinkable thing)---and sharing in His Resurrection (His vindication) and
eternal life through faith that shines through as belief in Him. Through
a belief in the Gospel of Jesus as Christ and Lord of all, and through that
alone, is a man delivered from the power of the wicked, by being given a
faithful King to Whom he can render submission.
Along with that, a man is also given a God to serve that exists and that
took human flesh upon Himself in order to suffer, that sympathizes with man as
His brother. That does not change.
There is a Gospel,
and an empowerment to belief in the Gospel, somehow by the Gospel message
itself, so that the covenant God’s people can carry out His purposes in this
world, to be what He would have them to be, and to do what He would have them
do. It is only through that Gospel and its power to grip and to change
and to conform a person into the divine image that had been previously
forfeited, that a believer can truly make just decisions, defend the poor,
support the orphan, vindicate the oppressed and suffering, rescue the poor and
needy, and deliver them from the power of the wicked. If oneis found engaged
in this battle, motivated by their allegiance to the Gospel proclamation, then that
same one can trust that he or she is quite close to the heart of the God
revealed in Christ, and serving according to His will.
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