Vindication

 

Ezekiel 36:23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name … and the nations will know that I am the Lord when I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

I looked up the word “vindicate” in the dictionary because it is not a word we use very often. I am glad I did so because it gave me much more food for thought as I meditated on this verse.   

To vindicate means to clear, as from an accusation. 

God is frequently accused of being an unloving or harsh dictator. 

What is the first thing most people say when something bad happens? "Why did God allow that to happen?" "If God is so loving, then how could He allow such terrible things to happen?" "There can't truly be a hell if God is so good and so loving as you say He is."

God's goal is to clear His name from such accusations by saving people from sin and wickedness.   

He explains this goal in Ezekiel 36:26-27.

✅"I will give you a new heart." 

✅"A new spirit I will put within you."

✅"And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

        God's goal is to transform me, to turn me into a person who reflects His true character to the people around me. Jesus called it being "born again."

✅"And I will put my Spirit within you."

✅"[I will] cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." 

          God's goal is to give me the tools I need to live a transformed life by giving me His Spirit to guide my earthly journey. Jesus promised that to His followers just before He left earth (Acts 1).

By His powerful actions of salvation, His miraculous ways of rescuing people from spiritual and physical danger, God is defending Himself. He is vindicating His holiness.

When I see God at work in my own life or in the lives of those around me, I am seeing God vindicate His great name.  

And when I reach heaven, whether at death or at Jesus’ Second Coming, God will have vindicated His holiness completely, without question, for eternity.  

He has done, is doing, and will continue to do everything He can to vindicate His holiness, to convince people to worship Him and Him alone.