The Main Point

We're Americans. We're proud. We're free. We have rights, I tell you! We're adamant and even angry over our freedom and our rights. "Don't infringe on my rights to freedom!" American Christians often see our freedoms as God's highest priority. Or, at least, they should be His highest priority. Scripture doesn't seem to agree.

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. (Rom 14:7-9)

Apparently, we are not the main point in God's worldview. He is. Apparently our perceived rights and freedoms are not God's primary concern, either. In fact, it looks like life and death are not about us.

If you've ever seen how many respond to God in times of crisis, you'll see a trend. "Things are going bad. Where is God?" The notion we humans appear to hold is that God's primary task is to ensure our comfort and if He doesn't, He's either not doing His job or He doesn't exist. Cancer is proof of God's incompetence. War is evidence for His nonexistence. A beloved family member dies of a drug overdose and it's the data we need to prove there is no God.

If we're right by placing ourselves at the top of the hierarchy of important beings, then we're right about God. Everything that exists is for our pleasure and we only need to be concerned if someone or something prevents us from our pleasure.

So we cut the only line of comfort. In God we don't simply find "good" -- we find "good" defined. Coming from a wise and an Omniscient God, we find good we didn't expect. Coming from a loving God, we find better good than we could have conjured up ourselves. Coming from a holy God, we find the best possible good. Coming from an Omnipotent God we find uninterrupted and undiluted good. When Scripture says He causes all things to work together for good (Rom 8:28), it leaves nothing out. There is no question of good where God is concerned. Our problem is that our understanding of good is tied up with our self-centered concepts of good.

Scripture says we don't live for ourselves; we live for God. That's a good thing because He is the ultimate good. And, wonderfully, when God is most glorified, we are most satisfied. We experience the greatest good by seeking God's best. It is that principle that causes Satan to fight against it most ardently. So we turn from the best because we're complaining that we didn't get the best. The best is living for God. In fact, "to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living." (Rom 14:9)