It's the position we are told to prefer. Live and let live. Don't be judgmental. "Only God can judge me" (which is intended to say, "And He won't."). "Can't we all just get along?"
It's a nice thought. It really is warm and fuzzy. It's just ... wrong. Mistaken. Missing the facts.
In Romans Paul describes the human race as "vessels of wrath prepared for destruction" (because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God) and God's attitude toward those vessels of wrath as "desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power." (Rom 9:22) The deck is stacked against us. Well, probably a poor analogy, since we've stacked our own deck. We've earned wrath. We've made ourselves "vessels of wrath."
"Live and let live," they tell us, but the suggestion at this point is no one gets to live. If things go unchanged, God will judge us and it won't be pleasant. We might all get along together, being in the same boat, but not with God. We burned that bridge.
This is why it is so astounding that Paul goes on to say that He has "endured with much patience" these vessels of wrath by making some "vessels of mercy." He has done this to "make known the riches of His glory." (Rom 9:23) While we ask, "Why doesn't God save more?" Paul asks, "Why does God save one?" And in that question God is most glorified because He didn't have to.
Sometimes we become immunized against our own salvation. Yes, it's nice. Yada, yada, yada. Can we move on now? It's a mistake. We were not okay and the fact that we are now at peace with God (Rom 5:1) -- known by God (Gal 4:9) -- is staggering. He took vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, rinsed out their filth, and replaced it with the righteousness of Christ. All on His own. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
4 comments:
Lots of good stuff here. What I find interesting is that people are willing to settle of OK. Even Christians are willing to settle for OK. God promises us life in abundance, yet we're just fine with OK.
I was just reading John's Gospel where Jesus said, "Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" (John 7:38) And I ask myself and others, "Is that you? Is your experience a heart with living water flowing out? Why settle for less?
In all honesty, it's probably not for almost all of us, and we do settle for less. Likely because the American Dream is pretty seductive and it's more tangible. It's also easy to rationalize that those things are for Heaven.
It seems like the key is to at least strive for the "to the full, and streams of living water", with what we have and trust in a loving, sovereign God.
Indeed. Because what we tend toward right now is "fall short of the glory of God," and that never worked out for the best.
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