New Morning Mercies #337

If you are not fully formed into the image of Jesus, your Redeemer is neither satisfied nor finished, and neither should you be.

We don’t talk about it much. It doesn’t find its way into our theological outlines. It’s not the typical way we think about our Redeemer. Yet it is an observation that not only gives you hope, but defines for you what your Lord is doing right here, right now. Here it is—you serve a dissatisfied Redeemer. You ought to be very thankful that your Lord isn’t easily satisfied. He does not do his work poorly or incompletely. He does not walk away from what he has begun until it is perfectly finished. He does not grow bored, tired, discouraged, or distracted. He does not have a short attention span. He does not suffer from redemptive attention deficit disorder. He never grows impatient. He isn’t irritated by how long his work is taking. He never wishes that he hadn’t begun in the first place. He never tries to rush what takes time. He never uses his power to turn what must be a process into an event. He never wonders if it’s worth it and contemplates calling it all off.

Your Redeemer is zealous for one goal—the final renewal of all things. Ultimate salvation from all that sin is and all that sin has broken is his unrelenting pursuit. He will continue to unleash his power to accomplish redemption and he will not be satisfied until the last enemy is under his feet and the final kingdom has come. Yes, there is great and eternal hope for you in the dissatisfaction of your Redeemer.

Our problem is that we are all too easily satisfied. We’re satisfied with a little bit of theological knowledge, a degree of biblical literacy, occasional moments of ministry, and a measure of personal spiritual growth. We’re sadly satisfied with being a little bit better when God’s goal is that we be completely remolded into his image. In fact, it is even worse than that. Not only are we too easily satisfied, willing to stop before the Redeemer’s work is fully accomplished in us, we are all very easily distracted. We get distracted by the temporary glories of the created world, and we actually begin to think that we can find our satisfaction there. So we quit pressing on because our Redeemer is pressing on. While he, in glorious dissatisfaction, still works to redeem us from us, we are out chasing other lovers. We begin to believe that they can do for us what he alone can do. We begin to invest our time, energy, and hope in things that can never deliver.

Hope is not found in the places where our hearts look for satisfaction, but in the dissatisfaction of our Redeemer. He will complete his work even in those moments when we don’t care that he does.

For further study and encouragement: 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24