Being a Jerk and Coming Home

I heard Ben Stuart at Breakaway speak about how we rebel against this idea of God’s just nature….it makes us uncomfortable…this idea that we might owe God a recompense for a wrong done. Ben began countering this argument with the idea that we actually love justice…when we hear about a dog-abuser, child-molester, or murderer being put behind bars, we rejoice. We have an innate desire to see justice done. But, Ben added that the severity of the offense is always congruent with the victim of the offense. If you shoot a man on the street, yes you’re in big trouble. If you shoot the President of the United States, you have just affected the entire country, and the consequences will be direr(had no idea direr was the comparative adjective for dire…..wow). His argument was thus: if we demand justice for a dog being beaten, how much MORE of an offense is it for the created being to rebel against the omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and immutable Creator and Savior of the entire universe? We can have not even an inkling of what we deserve as recompense.

Thus enters the sweetest story ever told… the story of a Father pursuing His wayward child, alluring His precious one to just. come. home. The Father sees how much destruction the child has wrought in trusting in their own understanding and going their own way, and He's pained. He wants them to see that even though the child burned the bridge to return, He stepped down in humility and condescension to build it back all the stronger. He paid the price we earned; He took the punishment for all…on a physical level on the cross and a spiritual level in experiencing God’s terrible but much-deserved wrath.

Yesterday, I was surprised to hear that I had unknowingly hurt someone pretty badly in the past by one of my many sinful patterns, and my heart was incredibly heavy because of it. That I, a Christ-follower, would cause a sister to feel anything less than Christ’s love and grace toward her, was a shock to my soul. I felt shame and helplessness that I had been oblivious to the effects of my sin, and I felt uncomfortable knowing that I had an imbalance, something owed, and something to reconcile. I immediately reached out to seek forgiveness, and it was given freely and even came with a circle she humbly drew around herself to accept her small part in the situation. I was truly moved greatly by this experience, firstly, by how it pointed to my dependence on Christ to change my stupidly wicked heart, and secondly, that I would be extended such undeserved grace. There was an immediate feeling of peace and of relief….a breath of fresh air that the “balance” had been restored…

My next thought was that as much as I consider the Gospel; as much as I preach His forgiveness and desire to be in relationship with me to myself, it’s not enough. If a relatively small human offense and reconciliation brings such joy(thank God for analogies), how much more peace should a reconciliation to the Alpha and Omega after the most severe crime ever perpetrated bring to my life?

An old hymn reads, “All the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace,” and truer words were never spoken. If the Gospel is true, what need have I to please man? What need have I of riches or comfort or control with the blessed assurance that I have been adopted as a daughter of the First and the Last? What other goal do I have in life but to point others toward the Healer of all hurts and Defeater of all death?

I hope that you, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice. The Lord is at Hand.”(Phil. 4:4), and that Romans 13:11-12 rocks your world today. “And do this(love your neighbor), understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.” Praying that you would remember how He has brought us out of Egypt, is leading us to the Promised Land, and providing guidance and sustenance on the way. I pray that you look to Him as your Cornerstone today and that you rest in His strength, laying every hindrance aside that encumbers you to run the race He's set before you.

 

Go in peace, loved one!