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Jan. 1997
Sometimes it is it is obvious to the eye of natural man when
somebody has been hurt. If I run over somebody with my car there
is no question about who the party is who has been "hurt."
When somebody has been shot or physically injured it is easy to
see the physical effect. Other effects of our actions may not
be obvious or known to us at all. Internal injuries, emotional
injuries, psychological "scars," the results of deliberate
or unintentional "abuse" in the present or in the past
are often subtle and invisible to human beings--that is, human
beings other than the individuals who were "hurt."
But the effects of our behavior are not invisible to God. Nor
are they without an effect on God. The effects of sinful thoughts
and deeds are no less hurtful to God than running over a child
is hurtful to that child and to the parents that loved him.
God is always involved. It is his world. It is his
creation. Imagine your own lake with pure water that subsequently
was polluted by some actions of other men who considered other
values in life to be more important. Would you not be sad and
angry that such a thing had been done? What was once pure has
become polluted.
Human beings are not the only person distressed by "pollution."
The God of the universe is not indifferent to the "pollution,"
the violation of his land.
We read the words that God told Moses to tell
to the people that God had rescued from Egypt before they reached
the "promised land": "The LORD said to
Moses, 'Speak to the Israelites and say to them: "I am the
LORD your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you
used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan,
where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must
obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD
your God..... 'No-one is to approach any close relative to have
sexual relations. I am the LORD. Do not...Do not....Do not....Do
not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for
you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. Do not
lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. Do
not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with
it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual
relations with it; that is a perversion. Do not defile yourselves
in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am
going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was
defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out
its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The
native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of
these detestable things, for all these things were done by the
people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled.
And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited
out the nations that were before you.' "(Leviticus
18:1-7,21-28)
What words and phrases our God uses to
describe sinful behavior! --"detestable"-- becoming
"defiled"--profaning my name--being "vomited out"...
Hundreds of years later other prophets were still saying to the people: "But now, O our God, what can we say after this? For we have disregarded the commands you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: `The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other." (Ezra 9:10-11) And again, "The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant." (Isaiah 24:5) And again, "I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable." (Jeremiah 2:7)
No, God is not at all indifferent to the pollution and the
defilement of his land with sin. And not one of us on earth who
is bothered by pollution is pure! Not one of us even knows what
pure is! But God is--pure that is. God is not a mixture of light
and darkness. In him there is no darkness at all.
"This is the message we have
heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there
is no darkness at all." (1 John
1:5) With him sin is a violation of his holiness, it runs
contrary to his very nature. Light and darkness do not coexist. (2
Cor 6:14) He cannot even look
upon or tolerate pollution and filth--that which violates his
very nature--"Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrong". (Habakkuk
1:13) To him sin is more of an unspeakable intrusion of
filth into his creation than any sinful creatures could ever conceive
of. Disregarding God's values, God's standards as revealed in
his word amounts to spitting in his face.
Do you like people to spit in your face? Do you like
to be mocked, called "meaningless" --ignored, treated
as if you didn't exist? If you held high office in the most powerful
government on earth and you were treated this way both you and
your position would be belittled--looked upon as unworthy of consideration.
Such treatment doesn't make the Creator of the universe "feel
good" either. "I, the LORD your God, am a jealous
God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the
third and fourth generation of those who hate me," (Exodus 20:5) The command is clear: "Do
not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous,
is a jealous God."
(Exodus 34:14) "For the LORD
your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." (Deuteronomy 4:24) (Believers
in New Testament times are reminded that this truth about the
nature of our God is still the same-- Hebrews
12:29.) God also says: "For my own sake, for
my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will
not yield my glory to another." (Isaiah
48:11) "But for the sake of my name I did
what would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations
they [the Jewish exiles after the destruction of Jerusalem] lived
among and in whose sight I had revealed myself to the Israelites
by bringing them out of Egypt." (Ezekiel
20:9)
God hates "all who do wrong." (Psalm 5:5) Therefore in God's world sin has
always been "balanced" by the severest of punishments
for sin--death. He says, "the wages of sin is death" (eternal
separation from God and any of his blessings) (Romans
6:23) Elsewhere
in the New Testament God tells us, "After desire
has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown,
gives birth to death." (James 1:15)
But the price of sin goes far beyond physical death (the cessation
of physical life). The offensiveness of sin is measured by the
severity of the long-term consequences which the holy God has
determined should follow the commission of sin.
God uses different "blood curdling" images to set
forth the awful nature of these consequences: "Depart
from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for
the devil and his angels." --being thrown into "hell
where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched."--"And
the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever."--"he,
too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, ...He will be tormented
with burning sulphur"--"Who of us can
dwell with everlasting burning?"-- being "punished
with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of
the Lord"-- those "for whom blackest
darkness has been reserved for ever." (See
Isa.33:14, 66:24; Mat. 25:41; Mark 9:47,48; Jude 1:13; Rev. 14:10,11;
Mat. 22:13; 25:41; Isa. 2:21)
What it takes in God's eyes to "balance" out sin--regardless
of how small it seems to us... God says, "without
the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."
(Hebrews 9:22)
But it is the Cross that reveals the "severity" of
the consequences of sin more clearly than anything else. The Father
had to send his Son to die for my sins--if I
was to be cleansed. If there was no need for Christ to die in
order to pay for my sins (for the "pollution" I had
created) then God the Father was either stupid or put a small
value on the life of his Son, Jesus Christ. The Son of God had
to be sent and had to die on the cross --if I was not
to suffer the consequences of my sins. The Bible is very explicit
when it says that God the Father "laid on him
[his Son] the iniquity of us all"
(Isaiah 53:6); and
again, "What the law was powerless to do...God did
by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin
offering" (Romans 8:3); and
again, "God made him [Christ] who
had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Do not think that because I did not run over Christ with my car or shoot him that I was not responsible for his death. It was because of me (and others like me) that he had to die on the cross. To use the very words of the Bible, "Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" (Luke 24:26)
Who am I hurting when I sin? Other human beings
are hurt sometimes but God is always hurt. Yes, God was "hurt"
by what I did. My sin caused him great pain--the sacrifice of
his Son.
God is touched by sin. He is affected by sin.
To him sin is not just an annoyance, a hitch, a fly in the ointment,
a disappointment, a cause for sadness. (If it were the earthly
consequences would not be physical death; If the presence of sin
was a minor matter then God's choosing to remedy the situation
through the death of the his Son would never have occurred. But
sin is not a minor matter: it requires to be "balanced
out"; to be taken care of ; to be dealt with.
God has made it plain that the presence of sin is not something he is indifferent to. It is not as if God were an unknown quantity like a stranger whose character, thoughts and values I know nothing about. Nor is God an abstract ideal or principle. His word is full of statements of what he feels strongly about; statements about what "gets through" to him, statements about what offends him, statements about what "goes against his grain" or "rubs him the wrong way":
God says, "I hate pride and arrogance,
evil behavior and perverse speech." (Proverbs
8:13).
The Bible says, "the arrogant cannot stand in your
presence; you hate all who do wrong. "(Psalms
5:5) The Bible says, "The
LORD detests men of perverse heart but he delights in those whose
ways are blameless." (Proverbs
11:20) And again, "The LORD
detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright
pleases him."
(Proverbs 15:8)
And again, "Acquitting the guilty and condemning the
innocent--the LORD detests them both." (Proverbs 17:15) And again,
"The LORD detests differing weights, and dishonest
scales do not please him." (Proverbs 20:23) "For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate
robbery and iniquity." (Isaiah
61:8)
Sin has effects the same way an exploding a
bomb has an effect. Releasing germs into the air has an effect.
The presence of sin likewise has an effect--on God . It stirs
God up, it provokes him,--it makes him angry. In the Old Testament
we read how Moses spoke to the very people that God had rescued
from their bondage in Egypt. After they had wandered in the desert
for 40 years he said to them: "Remember this and
never forget how you provoked the LORD your God to anger in the
desert. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you
have been rebellious against the LORD." (Deuteronomy 9:7) "I
fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights,"
Moses said. "I ate no bread and drank no water, because of
all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD's
sight and so provoking him to anger." (Deuteronomy
9:18) And again,
in the words of Moses: "I know that after my death
you are sure to become utterly corrupt and to turn from the way
I have commanded you. In days to come, disaster will fall upon
you because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD and provoke
him to anger by what your hands have made." (Deuteronomy 31:29) The same
refrain (or rebuke) is repeated over and over again in the history
of Israel. "They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers,
who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshipped
various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD
to anger." (Judges
2:12)
God--the Holy One--is not indifferent to these
provocations and does not overlook them. The Lord says, "I
will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and hand them over
to their enemies. They will be looted and plundered by all their
foes, because they have done evil in my eyes and have provoked
me to anger from the day their forefathers came out of Egypt until
this day." (2 Kings 21:14-15) It is the Bible that puts the question: "Who
handed Jacob [another name for the nation of Israel]
over to become loot, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not
the LORD, against whom we have sinned? For they would not follow
his ways; they did not obey his law." (Isaiah 42:24)
The New Testament also speaks about the "behavior"
of unbelievers and what God did about it: "They exchanged
the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created
things rather than the Creator--who is for ever praised.....Because
of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts..... Furthermore,
since they did not think it worth while to retain the knowledge
of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought
not to be done. [The result was] They have become
filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.
They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They
are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful;
they invent ways of doing evil..."(Romans
1:25-26,28-30)
God is affected by the presence of sin in his
world. After the apostle Paul had enumerated many sinful activities
such as sexual immorality, greed, obscenity, course joking he
pointed out that it is on account of these things that the wrath
of God is coming. "Let no-one deceive you with empty
words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who
are disobedient." (Ephesians
5:6) The
same truth is set forth in Paul's letter to the church at Colossae (Col. 3:6)
God did not consider sin a small matter in
Old Testament times and God does not feel any differently about
it now. The death of Jesus Christ did not change God's feelings
about sin. In the New Testament we are informed of the current
situation: "If we deliberately keep on sinning after
we have received the knowledge of the truth [that is,
the gospel message], no sacrifice for sins is left, but
only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that
will consume the enemies of God." (Hebrews
10:26-27)
The New Testament describes the destiny that
God has in store for individuals whose record shows they have
engaged in kinds of behavior that provoke him--behavior such as
being a coward, being an unbeliever, being vile, being a murderer,
being sexually immoral, being an idolater, being a liar. What
is that destiny? It is the "fiery lake of burning sulphur"
or the "Second Death." (Revelation
21:8)
God is not indifferent to the presence of sin
in his creation, in the behavior of unbelievers. But if anything,
he is more horrified by seeing it in the thoughts and
hearts of believers--individuals who should know better and should
care about what their savior takes seriously. How terrible is
the price of sin! Jesus declared, "If anyone causes
one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be
better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck
and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." (Mat.18:6) And
again, Jesus said, "If your right eye causes you
to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to
lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown
into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off
and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your
body than for your whole body to go into hell." (Matthew 5:29-30)
Whether the sinful behavior
is that of unbelievers or believers it still pollutes God's world
and violates God's holy nature. It must be dealt with.
While none of us may be guilty of outwardly
engaging in every kind of behavior that "provokes God to
anger," we can be sure that we have engaged in some sinful
behavior that pollutes his world, violates his nature and distresses
him. God is all light and all holy--but I am not. "If
God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are
not pure in his eyes, how much less man, who is vile and corrupt,
who drinks up evil like water!" (Job
15:15-16; See also
Romans 3:23)
We can be sure our record of behavior is not
spotless because of the infinite range of behaviors that violate
his nature. The kinds of behavior that lead to the second death
have already been mentioned--being cowardly, not believing, being
vile, being a murderer, being sexually immoral,..., being an idolater,
being a liar. The apostle Paul spoke of the kinds of people that
will not enter the "promised land": "Do
you not know," he said, "that the wicked will not inherit
the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral
nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual
offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers
nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." (1
Corinthians 6:9-10)"I warn
you as I did before,"
the apostle says, "that
those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."
(Galatians 5:21; see also Ephesians 5:5)
The kind of behavior that God hates goes far
deeper than just overt acts such as "sexual immorality,
impurity and debauchery; ...drunkenness, orgies. It
includes all sorts internal or "mental" sins--unholy
attitudes and motives such as "hatred, discord, jealousy,
fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy..
(Galatians 5:19-20). "evil
desires and greed" (Colossians
3:5) "evil thoughts....greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy,
slander, arrogance [pride] and folly."
(Mark
7:21-22) In
1 John 3:15 we are told that hating a brother is on the same plane
as physical murder: "Anyone who hates his brother
is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life
in him." In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus makes
the same point about the evilness of the thought whether followed
by an overt act or not. He said, "But I tell you
that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed
adultery with her in his heart. "(Matthew 5:28) In
the Old Testament portion of God's word idolatry--setting up a
substitute for God is condemned as a great sin. In the New Testament
we are told that those internal "attitudes" called "evil
desires and greed" constitute idolatry. (Colossians 3:5).
It is not just that internal or "mental"
sins are included among the behaviors that God hates but it is
what is "inside of us" that is the source (in human
beings) from which evil springs. Jesus said what the fact is:
"The things that come out of the mouth come from
the heart, and these make a man 'unclean'. For out of the heart
come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft,
false testimony, slander." (Matthew 15:17-19; see
also James 1:14-15) What violates God's nature and pollutes his world
is everywhere!
Do we ever engage in sin? You bet! In
many instances sin is so subtle as to be "invisible."
Oftentimes an ungodly attitude or belief is so much a part of
us that we can't even see it--like the sin of pride which shuts
out the truth like sunglasses shut out the rays of the sun. Pride
comes in many forms--as the Pharisee in Jesus' parable manifested
it when he said, "God I thank you that I am not like
all other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers..."
(Luke 18:11)
If I harbor the thought that I am not
guilty of those "awful" sins which other people
commit I am not only swimming in pride but I am piling another
sin on top of it--the sin of deliberately ignoring another statement
of God: "Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles
at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."
(James 2:10) A lawbreaker is a lawbreaker. If I deliberately break
God's law I am guilty of "spitting in God's face" and
bringing "pollution" into his world. God's
standard of holiness is nothing less than perfection or a grade
of 100. The Bible tells me so.
"If God should mark iniquities
who could stand?" (Psalm
130:3) "Surely
I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived
me." (Psalms 51:5) "Can
the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither
can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil. "(Jeremiah
13:23) How
I need God's mercy--the coils of sin are so tight around me, so
inescapable! In the New Testament the apostle Paul described the
power and the pervasiveness of sin this way: "I see
another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against
the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin
at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will
rescue me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:23-24)
But it is not part of God's character
to be aloof, to be remote. The God of the Bible derives
no pleasure from seeing the wicked "fry." (Ezekiel 18:23)
It is not part of his character to stand aside and watch his people
flounder around in their sin like fish in a deep well. No, it
was God's purpose from the beginning not to leave all of us in
the "prison" which the apostle described so vividly. "The Scripture declares that the
whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised [deliverance], being given through faith in Jesus
Christ, might be given to those who believe." (Galatians
3:22) God
chose to pardon some sinners--even though they were as guilty
as the rest of the sinners (Ephesians
2:3; Micah 7:18) This is the
Gospel: God chose to treat everyone who believes in the
person (and work) of Christ in a unique way; He chose to deal
with believers on the basis of Christ's record of righteousness
instead of according to their own record--of violations of God
law. God had substituted Christ's record for theirs.
(Colossians
2:14; Isaiah 53:6; Psalm 103:10,12)
When the apostle who knew the power of sin and realized how
great was the mercy that God had shown him he could not help exclaiming
one of the glorious truths of the gospel--that the saints (all
believers) have been placed in a new category--the category of
people
"whose sins are covered."
He shouted: "Blessed
are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against
him." (Romans
4:7-8) (He was quoting this
statement of the gospel which was announced in the Old Testament--Psalm
32:1-2)
What a cause for gratitude we Christians have: "Who will bring any charge against those
whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns?
Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is
at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. " (Romans 8:33-34)
How astonishing is his character; God's actions reveal an immeasurable
degree of "feeling," compassion and caring for us. Such
mercy. "Because of his great
love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ
even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have
been saved." (Ephesians
2:4-5) That God did this when he did it shows that God's
mercy is just that--mercy. He did not do it when anybody (including
believers) were a little bit worthy of receiving a gift or receiving
a pardon but when we were wretched, when we were foul, when we
were sinners; it was at that time that God's love reached down
and enveloped us. Let me get personal; it was when I
was completely unlovable--filthy, treacherous,
arrogant; when I was saying in my heart I
"will not have this man to reign over
(me)" (Luke 19:14 KJV),
when I was saying in my heart "who is the Lord that I should obey
him?" (Exodus 5:2) that God
did this for me. It was at that time when I deserved the
reproach of men that Christ laid down his life to take the punishment
that my behavior had earned. It was when I was unlovable and undeserving
that God's love expressed in mercy showed through. "God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
What makes this part of God's character (his mercy) stand out
even more vividly (if that were possible) is that the God who
did all this for us is that same God who finds sin to be abhorrent,
filthy, vile. It was the God who cannot stand the sight of sin,
who cannot stand the pollution that sin is. It is he who "gave his one and only Son [only begotten
Son--KJV], that whoever believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal life."
(John 3:16)
It was this God who purchased the Church "with his own blood"
(Acts 20:28). The bible says,
"Christ died for sins ... the
righteous for the unrighteous...."
(1 Peter 3:18) that I would
not have to "pay" for my sins. It was the sinless Son
of God who voluntarily "laid
down his life for the sheep"
(John 10:28)--that I (and all other believers) might be
given the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23). "Do you not know
that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you,
whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you
were bought at a price..."
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
How often do we need to be reminded of the price that our Savior
paid? "For you know that it
was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you
were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from
your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ,
a lamb without blemish or defect." (1 Peter 1:18-19)
How awesome are God's motivations and ways; how beyond comprehension
is the love he has for us--the love which came to expression in
mercy. And this all came about according to God's loving purpose
which he had long before I was ever born, long before I was a
twinkle in my mother's eye.
How can it be that I am not horrified at the very thought of
causing grief to such a God? Do I have the nerve to make a determination
about God--one which is at odds with what the Bible reveals about
him? How can I believe that he is no longer provoked to anger
by the sins he sees in my actions and in my thoughts? Do
I think that the sins that I commit now are less than sinful?
less than foul? less than insolent? less than detestable? less
than worthy of death? The price of sin has not
changed. The teaching of the New Testament is clear: "If
the message spoken [to Moses]
by angels was binding, and every violation and
disobedience received its just punishment, how shall (I) escape if (I) ignore
such a great salvation?
(Hebrews 2:2-3)
And again,
"If we deliberately
keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth [what the gospel sets before
us], no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful
expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. (Hebrews 10:26-27)
Who is hurt by sin? (by my sin?) The Bible is clear on this too. After King David had committed adultery and (indirectly) murder he prayed to God. (What else could he do?) He said, "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge." (Psalm 51:4) The New Testament records the occasion when after Jesus' resurrection and ascension the Lord (Jesus Christ) confronted Saul who was on a mission to seek out and persecute Christians. "He [Saul] fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' 'Who are you, Lord?' Saul asked. 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' he replied." (Acts 9:4-5) (It was by this encounter with the Lord that Saul was transformed into the apostle Paul)
But the reality of the unity of Christ and his people is a
forgotten or denied fact not only when his people are being "attacked"
or persecuted. It is also being forgotten or denied when his people
are not being befriended. Not befriending them is synonymous
with not befriending Christ The Bible says, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all
the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory....Then
the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry
and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?....The
King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one
of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' Then
he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are
cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty
and you gave me nothing to drink..' They also will answer, 'Lord,
when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing
clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply,
'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the
least of these, you did not do for me.' Then they will go away
to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." (Matthew
25:31,37, 40-42,44-46) Not befriending
those for whom Christ laid down his life is the same as not befriending
Christ. There is no neutral ground. "He
who is not with me," Jesus said, "is against me, and he who does not gather with
me scatters." (Matthew 12:30)
Yes, God is "hurt" by seeing people show contempt
for his "values" and ways. (Numbers
14:11; Malachi 1:6-8; Hebrews 10:29) And this includes
behavior in which there is no deliberate attempt to offend him.
Is God not "hurt" by seeing people--especially those
he adopted into his family commit yet another sin by trying to
excuse behavior that God's own word says offends him?
What is the only response believers can have that
is not a mockery of the mercies of God? God says to me (and to
every believer), "In your struggle
against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding
your blood." (Hebrews 12:4) My son whom I sent into
the world to take the punishment, the consequences, which your
sins deserved resisted sin to the point of shedding his blood.
Are you more worthy than he? Even though he was innocent of any
wrong (sin) he laid down his life for you." (Philippians
2:7-8)
"Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure." (1 John 3:3)"Therefore I urge you, brothers," the apostle Paul says, "in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices... which is your spiritual worship." (Rom.12:1)
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on the homepage. Also, if, as you read any of the
meditations, you feel you know
of a situation that beautifully illustrates any of the points made I would be
delighted to learn of it. I might incorporate it.)
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