Accept his love and rejoice in it—never doubt it

I just finished reading through Daniel in my devotions.  Daniel has long been one of my favorite Bible characters.  He ministered during uniquely difficult times.  Israel was in exile, disconnected from the Jerusalem, the temple and many of the means of grace he had previously provided to his people in order to maintain a relationship with him. 

During Daniel’s lifetime, the Jews were a people under God’s wrath.  In spite of this very difficult spiritual context, in Daniel we meet one of the most pious, godly people to grace the pages of the Old Testament.  Virtually all the other Jewish leaders failed to leave this life without blemishing their testimony.  Abraham had trouble telling the truth; Moses failed to show God as holy before the people.  Jeremiah was timid, Ezekiel seemed to have a penchant for straying, Joshua failed to train his succeeding generation of Jews in the things of God, Gideon was fearful, Samson was a narcissist and of course David had Bathsheba and the manifold mess connected with his relationship with her.  By contrast, you will look in vain for any black marks on Daniel’s resume.  He was doubtless a sinner, but he served God with as much consistency as anyone in the Old Testament and is presented as a man of complete integrity.  His feet of clay never managed to leave any grimy footprints.

Other than his extraordinary personal integrity, Daniel’s uniqueness is seen in at least one other aspect.  Three times he is told that he is a man who is “greatly loved” and in context this surely means that he is greatly loved by God.  I don’t believe any other servant in the Old or New Testament has this said about him/her—at least not repeatedly.  Every time I read through this book, these words jump off the page at me because it is a rare moment when God expresses his affection for his servants within a narrative section of the Old Testament.  As I have read through Daniel in the past and noted this strange and repeated statement from God to Daniel, my response has always been one of envy. “Of course God loves Daniel.  Why wouldn’t he love Daniel?  He’s courageous, faithful, brilliant and unflagging in his commitment to God.  If I were more like Daniel, God would tell me he loves me too.  Although it will probably never happen, wouldn’t that be wonderful?” 

The problem with thinking this way is of course that it’s violently at odds with the central truth of the Bible—the gospel.  It implies that God’s love for Daniel is rooted in his performance which we know cannot be true.  ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’—Daniel included.  As solid as Daniel’s life was for God, apart from his justifying faith in God, he would be just as alienated from God as the next guy.  In the end, Daniel’s life is not a credit to Daniel, but to the unique work of grace GOD did in him.  And as for God loving me as he loved Daniel, I must remember a few things before I surrender that hope.  That is--for anyone who is in Christ, the righteousness of Jesus has been copied and pasted onto us.  We are forgiven, cleansed of all our sin—past, present and future, made acceptable as perfectly righteous children of God and can walk in intimate fellowship with him through the indwelling Holy Spirit.  Daniel has nothing on New Testament saints of God in the area of God’s love for us.  “God shows his love in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”[Rom 5:8] God loves his adopted children with the same love he has for his one and only “natural” Son, Jesus Christ. [John 17:23]  As you read and admire Old Testament saints, allow their passion for God to inspire you, but we who are in Christ should never believe that we take a back seat to any of them as recipients of God’s love.  Though God explicitly told Daniel he loved him through angelic messengers, he has demonstrated his love to us much more dramatically—he hung his Son on a cross to take our curse and die for our sin so that we might become his beloved children. Accept his love and rejoice in it—never doubt it.