mathias7's blog

You suck! but God loved you anyway

When I go to buy something I like to feel that what I'm buying is at least equal to the value of the money I am giving in exchange for the item I'm purchasing. Some would say that God saw value in us (before we came to Christ) and that the investment God made to purchase or redeem us back to Himself was equal to the value of His investment.

  At first this sounds wonderful but it is FAR from Biblical! This kind of theology will rob you of the true nature and depth of God's love, mercy and grace. This mindset stems from a lack of understanding of who you were (or are) before you became a new creation in Christ.

Ephesians 2:1-5 says:

1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).

What are the attributes of a man “dead in trespasses and sins”? A dead man has no attributes! No talents, abilities or value. They are completely unable`to please God or to even come to Him (John 6:44). So why did God give so sacrificially to redeem a people that were from His perspective of no value? The question is so much bigger that that. It's one thing to be dead, it's a whole other thing to be dead in trespasses and sins! Here's where we see the love, mercy and grace of God toward us in an exponentially greater way!!!

Look at Romans 5:6-8   

6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Not only were we without strength (useless, worthless) but we were ungodly! You probably have someone in your life that you would die for - but certainly not an enemy! Would you die for Osama bin Laden? Would you die for someone who tortured and killed someone you dearly love? This is the position that God found Himself in. Am I over-exaggerating? If anything I'm under-stating the point! Do you exclude yourself from the responsibility of your sin and the need for Jesus to suffer and die in your place? In the closing lyrics to the song ”The Dream” the 80's Christian rock band Barnabas rightly sang “I killed Jesus Christ, and you were with me too.”

One day when I was describing the sinfulness of humanity to someone my daughter blurted out “Man, we suck!” This statement (while maybe crude) is very true. All of us have been (or still are) an enemy of God in our minds through wicked works but God loved us anyway (Colossians 1:21-23). He loved us NOT because we were worthy of His love or because there was a guarantee that we'd respond to His love. God demonstrated His love solely because He is Love. Despite the fact that we were much less than worthless He placed value on us. He gave His only begotten Son that we might find life and value in Christ alone (John 3:16). And maybe after reading this article you can know that all of us can love (God) much because we've all been forgiven much (Luke 7:47).

The Irrelevant god

The 2nd of the Ten Commandment’s says:

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” Exodus 20:4

Obviously you can make a graven image or idol with your hands but you can also make one in your mind. When someone says “You have your beliefs and I have mine” they have created an image of God that suits themselves rather than conforming their beliefs to the reality of Who God really is in light of His Word. Someone might say that “My God would never send anyone to Hell” and in saying this they have created a “god” in their mind that they are more comfortable with (Revelation 20:15).

What if a child had a wonderful grasp of a father’s love but completely disregarded the father’s disciplinary practices? That child would soon be in for a rude awakening! But if the child has a healthy respect for his father as well as a clear understanding of his love it would be much more likely that he will obey him AND avoid chastisement. And even more importantly he will know his father more accurately.

The Bible says in Romans 11:22

“Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God.”

The Bible literally commands us to live in continual awareness of the goodness and the severity of God. One without the other will bring deception into our lives and hinder our relationship with Him. In the book “John Wesley: A Biography” the author Stephen Tomkins talks about the perception that ordinary English people had of God in Wesley’s time (1703–1791).

“One thing to remember is the vast majority of them were as confident and unquestioning of the invisible reality of God, sin, judgment and the world to come as their descendants today are of the invisible reality of, for example, humans rights. Even the Kingswood populace “so ignorant of the things of God that they could only be compared to the beasts of the field” probably had a stronger sense of sin than many 21st-century Christians. The fact that they did not live lives in keeping with their beliefs no more undermined them than the same thing undermines today’s belief in human rights. Rather, it (their strong sense of sin) created a people who knew that they were sinners facing God’s judgment, ready to respond greedily to the offer of salvation. The Methodists’ emphasis on justification by faith opened a door to heaven for those who despaired of meriting God’s favor.“

In other words, as a society today, we are much more concerned about human rights than we are of the issues of sin, the Day of Judgment and where we will spend eternity! The primary reason John Wesley was successful in seeing so many come to God through his ministry was the common people already had a healthy fear of God. The church in America today is full of the knowledge of God’s love. The books and teachings on the subject are astronomical in number and yet most Christians live virtually unaffected and un-empowered by their knowledge of God’s goodness. This is because most Christians don’t have a Biblical respect and awe of Who God is because they see Him as a loving father that tolerates worldliness. The grace of God has been turned into an excuse to sin rather than a means for victory over sin (Jude 1:4). God has essentially become irrelevant in the lives of most Christians and therefore irrelevant to the world (Romans 2:24).

But how will God respond to this?

Hebrews 12:25-29 (New King James Version)

25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” 27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.

Pressure is coming to the church. God has already begun to shake those things that can be shaken. Those that thought they were Christians and are not will leave the church in a mass exodus. Only those who are madly in love with Jesus and would rather suffer for Him than be identified with this lost world will continue with us (1 John 2:18-19). We’re not far from the day when Jesus will be the most relevant subject in the hearts of those who love Him as well as those who continue to reject Him (Habakkuk 2:14).

The Irrelevant Church

In the year 1899 an uprising began in China against foreign influences (especially missionaries and Chinese Christians) by members of a secret society called the Boxers United in Righteousness. Over the course of the uprising, a force of some 140,000 Boxers killed thousands of Chinese Christians and a total of 231 foreigners. 18 years before, what is commonly known today as the Boxer Rebellion, a French missionary by the name of Remigio Isore met with his superior and asked to be posted in Zambia. At this time Africa was a hostile place where missionaries rarely lasted more than a few years before dying from violence or disease. When Isore’s superior asked him why he wanted to be sent to such a difficult place he replied “Because I long for martyrdom.” Isore’s superior, who had just returned from China, replied “You want chances for Martyrdom? There are more in China. Fine, you will go to China.”

On June 19th after laboring 18 years in the province of Hebei, Remigio Isore and his friend Modeste Andlauer were martyred for their faith by Boxers who hacked the two Frenchmen to death with swords and spears inside their church. To most Christians in the Western world today such a desire for martyrdom would seem abnormal and even foolish. But a desire to suffer for the Lord is anything but abnormal for Christians around the world who truly love Jesus more than life.

In Hebrews chapter 11 along with the victorious testimonies of men and women of faith another legitimate aspect of a life lived for God is described.

Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. Hebrews 11:35-38

So what am I saying? That you should embrace martyrdom? YES! But to be a martyr does not necessarily mean that you will die for your faith. It just means to be a witness. But so many disciples of the early church were killed for their strong witness that the term martyr become closely associated with death. In 2 Timothy 3:12 the Apostle Paul wrote from a Roman prison to his son in the faith “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” I am convinced that the Church in America and Europe does not experience persecution, not because our society is more accepting of the Gospel but because we are not a strong witness. The Church in the West has become irrelevant!

In this same chapter we see that Moses forfeited all the rights and privileges of Egypt (the World) and embraced the suffering that came with identifying with God’s people.

By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. Hebrews 11:24-26

Moses was not irrelevant. His identification with Christ was so strong that it caused him to come into direct conflict with a worldly society. He demanded nothing less from the Egyptians than repentance and obedience to God and clearly warned of the judgment that would come because of disobedience. Moses is a perfect example of what the Church should be; what a Christian should be and how we should engage this world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am convinced that when we finally do this that we’ll see persecution but we will also see the revival we’ve been waiting for.