Rainbow
Peter Sammons explores the world’s adoption of the rainbow as its current motif of hope.
For the Christian the rainbow means just one thing. That God has promised He will preserve this world even in, and despite of, its continuous and egregious rebellion against Him. In that sense (alone) our human future is secure: The Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.” (Genesis 8: 21-22).
A rainbow consists of seven distinct colours. How interesting! Biblically seven is always a number of perfection or of completion. It is as though God is saying, my promise is complete and perfect. I will not forget it, and you should place your full, complete and perfect trust in it.
Quite why the world’s temporal (temporary!) systems should have latched-on to this Christian symbol is not easy to fathom; so we shall waste no time trying to work it out! Rather more interesting, surely, is what God’s rainbow symbol spells out to all Mankind, whether or not it is prepared collectively to see “the writing on the wall” – or perhaps we should say, the writing in the sky!
Cross connection
The first and simple thing we can say is that there is a direct linkage between the rainbow and The Cross of Christ. Now this may well be a discomfort to those who adopt or adapt the rainbow for partisan purposes, like the world’s present incredible and incredulous fear of the so-called C-19 (see our July 2020 comment The Crown Here, and There:1 and our June comment The Fear Factor:2 What, then, is this linkage between rainbow and Cross?
God has told us in Genesis He will not Himself destroy this world on account of its rebellion, and nor will He allow Mankind to do so, either. God is patiently and progressively building a family through His Son and through His Son’s singular and definitive achievement on the Cross of crucifixion. The rainbow tells us there is no way out and no hiding in any future ‘deluge’ or in any planetary self destruction. We must and shall meet our creator God, and must give an account to Him. But there is a singular ‘way out’ of the implications found only in the Cross of sacrifice. Jesus has already laid down His life for all those who will become His disciples. And yes, we are called to pick up our cross and follow Him, day by day (Luke 9:23). Do we?
The rainbow and the Cross. This world remains in our Creator God’s hands and He is going to overrule and govern its eternal future – for good or for ill, at the individual level. That’s what the rainbow tells us. The Cross tells us that God has loved His world in the singular act of the giving of His Son, who pays the price of the “entry ticket” (if that does not sound too irreverent) for those who follow Him. The wedding feast of the Lamb is coming. Some will be admitted to the feast; others shall be excluded – permanently (Matthew 25: 1 – 13).
What should the rainbow spell out for this rebellious world?
R – rebellion
This world lives in rebellion against God’s absolute right to be worshipped as God and as Creator. God has sent a redeemer who will grant to us eternal refuge, if only we shall receive Him. We rejoice in that truth as we remember what Jesus has done for us. Jesus, as righteous and loving Saviour, calls us to repent of our past life and to live for Him, finding in Him our rest both in this world, and through eternity.
A – adoption
God desires to adopt each one of us to be a part of His eternal family. As we truly repent and turn to Jesus, so He acquits us of any charge that might damn us. What Jesus has achieved is the fully acceptable and one-time only sacrifice that covers all of our sins. Not just some of them, but all of them. Our God is an abundant provider. In Genesis chapter 1 we see He has provided all we need for successful and bountiful life – but sadly we spoiled it all. (Genesis chapter 3). Yet our Creator God has not finished with us, not by a long way …
I – inheritance
Our God is the great “I AM,” Who is, in some senses, unknowable and yet has made Himself known, supremely through Jesus His Son, Whom we call Lord. Jesus is the image of the Father and by seeing Him, so we can also see the Father, in all His beauty and bounty and holiness. And righteousness! Jesus is immortal and invites us to share in His eternal Kingdom – one day (soon?) to be clothed in immortal bodies. We have an eternal inheritance as we definitively choose to follow Jesus, with all that is entailed in that wonderful life-changing, and eternity securing, choice. We cannot “earn” ANY of our Salvation. That is why the Roman Catholic idea of purgatory must be rejected as tragically mistaken. You cannot join the Lamb’s wedding feast from some back door of afterlife debt-reduction or earn-your-way-in by doing penance or punishment in the next world. Jesus has already received all the punishment that shall ever be inflicted for the sins of Mankind. That’s what The Cross is all about.
Eternally we have an inheritance – not an earning. It is a gift out of the bounty of God Himself. Truly the only earning we can do in this world is to earn enough “money” (or sin) as a wage to entitle us to eternal death. The wages of sin really is death (Romans 6:23). A terrible thought, with its eternal implications. Yet Mankind is a law to himself (Romans 2:14). Mankind can have no excuse before a Righteous and Holy God; what we have earned – we have earned! But we also have no excuse because Jesus, the eternal image of God the Father, has paid “on the nail” all the debts we owe. It is our task to receive the gift He offers.
Israel is God’s chosen vehicle to achieve His purposes. Jesus is Israel’s messiah and we can all – each and every one – be adopted into that spiritual nation
N – nation
Indeed, yes! It is through a Nation that God achieved His holy purposes. A nation that is called out from amongst other nations. A nation that is special to God amongst all nations. Yet a nation that has always made provision for others (aliens and pagans both) to be adopted into that nation. God’s Name is forever associated with that nation. God’s reputation is forever associated with that nation. And yet it is a nation that God always intended should be a banner for all other nations –showing them the eternal way.
God calls us to look after our neighbours – indeed to “love” them (actually, to agape them) working tirelessly for their eternal interests. We can only work for them here – we cannot work for them there! So the responsibility on us as disciples of Jesus in the here and now, is considerable, indeed!
Now is the day of decision, for all Mankind.
B – bread
Once that decision is made – that decision for Messiah Jesus – we are called to be baptized with all that is involved in that momentous step. Jesus is the bread of life, on Whom we are to feed. Israel is a banner to the nations, just as the Cross is a banner to all people, everywhere. Jesus calls us to believe in what He has achieved on the Cross, to believe on Him. To make this belief (relatively) easy, He has been raised from death, as a guarantee that we too shall be raised from death and raised to a new immortal body. In being baptized we recognize we are buried with Him, just as we are raised with Him.
Jesus is the bread of life, born into the village of Bethlehem – the house of bread. God makes no mistakes on geography! He is benevolent beyond all measure – in the giving of His dearly beloved Son for each and every one of us. And so God blesses mankind – having guaranteed not to destroy us in this world, so He provides and escape route for us and a wonderful new home – just for you and for me! It is through Jesus’ blood that we are purchased – truly God’s riches at Christ’s expense!
Jesus waits patiently for His Bride, to be by His side into all eternity. Praise God! Ultimately a wedding party is guaranteed. (Can any other ‘religions’ promise that?!)
O – obedience
So what does it mean to be a Christian? In order to obtain that eternal life, we have to close with that offer that God has made, receiving the gift of life in Jesus. In closing with that offer so we must live in obedience to Him. Let’s not beat about the bush! Discipleship (from the same word root we get our English word discipline) requires wholehearted obedience. True, we shall fail from time to time, and shall need to seek His forgiveness afresh for specific known sins, but yet our life is to be marked out by our obedience. Generically, if there is no obvious obedience, or even a life of disobedience, we have to doubt the sincerity of any claimed relationship with Jesus as Lord. Jesus Himself said that not all who call Him “Lord, Lord” are part of His family.
Jesus has been offered for us. As we receive Him as Lord and as savior, so we can be counted as God’s offspring.
W – walk
Finally, we are called to walk with our Lord, day by day. The relationship is to be close and personal. It is a journey shared together, from the time we receive Him until the time He calls us home. Some will be called, distinctly, to be watchmen, calling out warnings to other Christians as the Spirit directs. Yet we are all to be watchful, living our lives in ways that are pleasing to Jesus. He guarantees that His followers shall drink from the water of the river of life. Perhaps most profound of all, we should note that “Christianity” was first called The Way (Acts 9:2) and that this single word “way” is a descriptor of any life lived for God – the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob – Who self identifies as I AM. The way is a recurring theme throughout both Old and New Testaments.
Praise God indeed for these truths. I had originally intended to include multiple references for each of the words highlighted, but this would make for a considerable body of Bible texts that most would probably not bother to review. However, any decent concordance will flag up these highlighted words as key themes in Scripture.
As we contemplate the rainbow, we should remember that God is in (absolute) control – and that He means business with this, His Creation. How sad it is that so many sentimentalize that wonderful symbol which will always be present in this world, as an outcome of natural optical processes. There is no getting away from the Rainbow! And there’s no getting away from God!