The Uncomfortable Middle

I’m sure that most of the folks reading this article have been in situations where they find themselves in the middle of relationships. Perhaps you have been a manager or an assistant manager. You know the friction that may occur between bosses, co-workers, and customers. You may have been involved with members of your family in a dispute. You may have experienced the tension between the teacher, the student, and the parents in a teacher-parent meeting. Obviously, there are too many examples to list here.

As I thought about the disquiet that broiled up between a care facility, family members, and a relative in assisted care, I wondered if God was ever in the middle, and if He was, how He managed it. The quick answer is that He has been in the middle. The first and most obvious example is Jesus. He was in the middle between us and God’s wrath.

Except He wasn’t in the middle at all.

As is well known among Christians, the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit comprise the Trinity. God is one being with three personalities. How do these three have a good relationship with each other?

Perfectly. There is perfect unity, agreement, and fellowship between them. How do I know that? Because God is perfect. If He were not perfect, He would not be God.

Jesus, God in the flesh, made it clear He was one with the Father. If you and someone are perfectly one, no middle exists.

“I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).¹

And Christians are one with Almighty God, as well.

“I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:23).

However, a large problem remains.

As long as Christians live on earth, we will carry about with us “the body of this death,” as Paul put it (Romans 7:24). We are a new person, through salvation in Jesus, with an old person existing along with us. So, we will always live in the uncomfortable middle. The Lord is on one side where peace and safety are, the new us is in the middle, and our sinful nature is on the other side, where it is tempted to do all manner of rebellious, lawless deeds, urged on by the powers of darkness.

However, there are two primary ways we can walk away from that uncomfortable middle and toward the Lord.

The first is to love and obey Him.

Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

If we don’t love and obey Him, we are moving away from Him toward our sinful side, which always brings death. If we love and obey Him, we come closer to unity with God. Thus, we step out of that uncomfortable middle.

The second way is to trust and have faith in Him.

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

If we don’t trust Him, we will look for something else to trust. We will depend upon our own wisdom and intelligence. We may believe that money alone is the answer to our problems. We may think that our government or certain politicians will solve our issues.

If we look elsewhere, soon we are dealing with a kind of idolatry, with which people have been involved since the beginning of time. God hates this sin and has punished His people for it. This does not move us from the uncomfortable middle toward peace and safety at all. It moves us directly into our old nature and accompanying darkness and sin, where there is no peace.

However, if we turn to Him, we should know that God will be at work within us.

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20–21).

Amen. He will accomplish His will in us.

Thank You, Father. I praise You, Lord God Almighty, the One who loves us and sets us free.

¹All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (2016). Crossway Bibles.

 Gif courtesy Bing images.