I remember a time that I had meatloaf, but because I didn’t have the right ingredients, I tried to substitute the ingredients instead and as well as the meatloaf tasted, it could have tasted better, had I not only used the right ingredients that was called for but also followed the directions exactly instead of trying to do it on my
own.In a way, following the Christian faith is the same way.
We run into a danger of living a false belief, when trying to adapt God to what we think He is and what we think it should be when in reality, we are mixing in the ingredients for a distorted view of Christianity.
“Jesus did not simply accept the outcasts, He changed them. Yes, He touched the leper, but that touch healed him. Yes, He ate with the prostitutes and tax-collectors (who were notoriously dishonest), but He didn’t encourage them to be better prostitutes and more proficient tax-collectors, He transformed their lives and brought them to repentance.
The inclusion Jesus practiced and that we must practice today is a transformational inclusion. Otherwise, we are hurting people more than we are healing them, and that is certainly not the path of justice.” Source: Americans for Truth
Romans 1:18-19 (King James Version)
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
As much as we want to believe that God is a God of Love, if we are honest about the scriptures and do a thorough study of the bible, we find that He is also a God of judgment and He doesn’t grade on a curve. God does not like sin.
He doesn’t say….if you skate by, I don’t care…
As we read His word, we see that , if He does not like it, He has no room for it and will not stand for it. He loves the sinner yes. He doesn’t love, however the sin or the continue committing of the sin.
Sin is considered fundamentally an offense against Him and He does and will punish sin.
There is no, all will be saved so just keep on sinning. There is redemption from the sin, stop committing the sin and grow in His grace. There will be those who has accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior and those who made the free will choice of didn’t.
Saying He isn’t…doesn’t change what is in the Bible and leaves a person in one of two positions.
Either you believe in the Bible or you don’t.
If you don’t believe in the Bible, you’re not a Christian. There is no other way t o it, because being a Christian means being a follower of Christ and His Word and belief in Him and His word, not just bits and parts of His word that makes us feel good and not convicted.
If we feel convicted…maybe because deep down, we know its not right in the eyes of God.
Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” – Luke 6:46-49.
It’s in scripture and if someone is going to profess they are a bible believing, Christian who believes Jesus Christ is their Lord and Saviour part of that is the reality that God does not excuse sin. Even though we are saved, it doesn’t give us a ticket to do whatever we want on earth and then we go to heaven….We are expected, on earth to emulate Christ, NOT to be perfect because the ONLY one who is perfect, is Jesus Christ Himself.
God knows we are human.
We are imperfect.
We are flawed and we will make mistakes but if we knowingly and continue to choose to make those mistakes or to knowing sin knowing it’s wrong, God is not at fault.
We are.
It’s difficult to say we don’t know what God thinks when it’s written in the Good Book for us.
Don’t believe it? Pick up the bible and check it out:
Psalm 78:19-21 19.-Then they spoke against God; They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? “Behold, He struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, And streams were overflowing; Can He give bread also? Will He provide meat for His people?” Therefore the LORD heard and was full of wrath, And a fire was kindled against Jacob, And anger also mounted against Israel;
John 3:36-”He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Psalm 5:5-The arrogant shall not stand in thy sight: Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
Isaiah 13:11-Thus I will punish the world for its evil, And the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud, And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.
There are many occurences where God shows that He is equally a God of redemption and a God of judgement. He is the tough parent who loves but doesn’t let us go unpunished for pushing the boundries.
As Christnotes.org puts it,”In an effort to make the Gospel more seeker-friendly, some Christians avoid talking about God’s wrath, anger, and hatred toward those who have sinned against him. By watering down the wrath of God such people cheapen and diminish the love of God.”
In effect….it cheapens Christ sacrifice on the cross.
Let’s take a look at Romans 1:18-31 (ASV):
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; [they are] gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,. without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;
H. Richard Niebuhr, professor at Yale Divinity School, described this as,”"A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through a Christ without a cross.”And in effect…by saying that there is no God of wrath….that man never sin, then what is the point of the cross, but if we are to believe that Christ lived and then died on the cross for us, part of that is because we have to accept the fact that He paid for our sins, due to a a God that is wrathful.”
Romans 5:6-8 (NAS) For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
It never ceases to amaze me that people keep talking about Jesus
William Sloane Coffin….most of us want peace at any price as long as the peace is ours and somebody else pays the price.
as if He was here for just peace although Jesus,himself said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34 NIV)
Christ came to offer us hope, freedom from sin, but our world isn’t on this world, but in God’s world.
We must not mistake the world, the society that we live in, as the kingdom that God hopes to build.
The kingdom He is building will be built by His hands not by ours. Until Christ returns, there isn’t peace and won’t be peace and it’s only by Him and through Him will we one day have peace. Until then, we still live in a world that is broken by sin, sin that we by free will caused, but through the blood of Jesus Christ, He paid the price so we are freed and have hope.
If we use Matthew Henry’s Commentary to look at this verse, it goes simply:
The apostle begins to show that all mankind need the salvation of the gospel, because none could obtain the favor of God, or escape his wrath by their own works. For no man can plead that he has fulfilled all his obligations to God and to his neighbor; nor can any truly say that he has fully acted up to the light afforded him.
The sinfulness of man is described as ungodliness against the laws of the first table, and unrighteousness against those of the second. The cause of that sinfulness is holding the truth in unrighteousness. All, more or less, do what they know to be wrong, and omit what they know to be right, so that the plea of ignorance cannot be allowed from any. Our Creator’s invisible power and Godhead are so clearly shown in the works he has made, that even idolaters and wicked Gentiles are left without excuse. They foolishly followed idolatry; and rational creatures changed the worship of the glorious Creator, for that of brutes, reptiles, and senseless images.
They wandered from God, till all traces of true religion must have been lost, had not the revelation of the gospel prevented it.
MHCThe nature of man, whether pagan or Christian, is still the same; and the charges of the apostle apply more or less to the state and character of men at all times, till they are brought to full submission to the faith of Christ, and renewed by Divine power.There never yet was a man, who had not reason to lament his strong corruptions, and his secret dislike to the will of God.
For whatever may be pretended,as to the sufficiency of man’s reason to discover Divine truth and moral obligation, or to govern the practice aright, facts cannot be denied.
And these plainly show that men have dishonored God by the most absurd idolatries and superstitions; and have degraded themselves by the vilest affections and most abominable deeds.
This is coming from the NEW TESTAMENT, so it’s not easy to say, it’s not for us…Because the truth is that God’s word is still relevant today as it was yesterday.
Even Pastor Steven W. Cornell argued that,
Yet when Christians oppose practices the bible clearly condemns , it is amazing to notice how quickly some people appeal to Jesus’ words, “Judge not, lest you be judged.”
Another more subtle way people misuse this saying is to excuse personal responsibility for making judgments. “Who am I to judge?” they ask, “After all, Jesus did say, ‘Judge not.’”
Jesus’ intention is not to excuse us from all moral judgments, or to promote an individualistic attitude. Our modern society constantly conditions us to resist strong convictions about right and wrong. Jesus, however held to such convictions and taught them with authority.
We are responsible for the free will, for the personal choices that we make.
It’s not a conditional, we can blame others and deflect the blame for the personal choices that no one else, but ourselves make about ourselves and our lives. What we choose to do, often tends to be more in our control than we sometimes want to admit.
Who makes us lie?
Who makes us feel right to gossip?
Who makes us choose to handle a situation in bad graces versus with a sense of dignity and love as characterized by Jesus Christ?
It’s almost like expecting to live life with one foot in God’s world and one foot in the world and when things go wrong, we expect to be enable rather than say, “Hey I made a bad choice” and take responsibilty for bad moral judgements or actions.
It is all too easy,” writes the late N.T. scholar F.F. Bruce, “to believe in a Jesus who is largely a construction of our own imagination-an inoffensive person whom no one would really trouble to crucify.But the Jesus we meet in the Gospels, far from being an inoffensive person, gave offense right and left. Even his loyal followers found him, at times, thoroughly disconcerting. Jesus did not go about mouthing pious platitudes; had he done so, he would not have made as many enemies as he did.“
Jesus offer to us the truth, but to accept the truth was and is to also accept the harsh fact that we live in an ugly, broken sin filled world where there are people unsaved, who don’t know Christ, or who know Him but choose of their own free will to reject Him.
We live in an imperfect world where it’s not about us and not even about God, but about the “I”. With God there is no “I”, there is and always will be, only “Him”.
There are three actual conditions that are shared that can be used to determine the situation:
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When behavior is clearly commanded by God and that includes going to the ONE source, The Bible. Not to a website about the bible, or a pastor, but THE STRAIGHT SOURCE: The Bible. If a person doesn’t believe that the bible is the infallible word of God, in all honesty, what argument is there? On whose moral basis other than scripture are they going to base this on?
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God clearly defines without question what is forbidden without an “if”, “and” or “but.
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There are some matters that God leaves open to personal responsibility and judgment.
Though the pastor does point out, “However, to agree with God’s clearly stated standards does not constitute unlawful judging–unless, of course, it involves hypocrisy. “
The Christian walk is rewarding but it can also be a walk of balance. It’s so vital that we keep seeking our Father and finding that balance in our walk. It’s not a free for all, or a “get out of ticket” card.
It’s helpful and encouraging to keep in walk with other Christians that we know without a doubt, are spiritual mature and for ourselves, to find that time to seek God in His word and to read God’s word each day if possible, and in every situation instead of trying to make it up as we go.
God is the tough love parent. He loves us and wants to guide us and direct us but also knows to that for us to love Him without conditions, He also has to allow us to make those choices on our own. I wonder how it must pain Him, when we only seek Him when we are in trouble or when it’s ONLY convenient for us rather than all the time.
Gentle Friend,
Do you place conditions in your relationship with God? Do you take the time to really seek His word and see what He wants to offer?
What can you do for yourself to take that steps to not thin your walk with God but to walk an authentic walk with our Heavenly Father?
Heavenly Father, I pray that I seek an authentic walk with You Lord that isn’t so thinned, so watered down so cushioned that rather than following You faithfully, I live a faith of blindness and cushions. Remove the blinders Lord, Remove the cushions and I pray You hear this servant’s call to live a simple and authentic faith with You that includes both the loving and the harsh truth of Your words.
In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
Sources:
Recently we received some concerning news that a family member was showing signs of Parkinson disease so they were going in for testing.
I never expected homeschooling to change my life as much it has, but it’s something that I am glad that my family and I have made the decision to do.
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