2003-08-01
Good Morning Treasured Readers,
While I’ve said this before, it bears repeating. Each of you is treasured by God and by me. In my last message, I mentioned that today I would look into the question: Are we going to be judged for our sins? Please understand that the bigger context in which I’ve been writing is about who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, so I’m still writing about people who have repented and come to faith in Christ here.
By the nature of who Satan is, he would like to keep us doubting the blessings of having faith. The more doubt the evil one can provoke, the happier he is. Even people who have a pretty decent knowledge of the Scriptures come upon times when they doubt. The problem in this instance is that the “father of all lies” has been doing his dirty work, and his target hasn’t allowed his “head knowledge” to be firmly implanted in his heart. I have seen this happen even to seemingly mature Christians, even some of whom were pastors. It’s one of the things that causes spiritual burn-out, if left unchecked. Satan is quite able to reach us in our vulnerable places, and he takes every opportunity to do this. How can we prepare ourselves for these fiery arrows on the devil’s part? We can arm ourselves with more than just “head knowledge” of the Scriptures. We can ask God to help us, recognizing our utter need for the weapons against the devil that only He can provide. Let’s see what the Scriptures have to say about if we will be judged for our sins.
2 COR 5: 21, “Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made Him share our sin in order that in union with Him we might share the righteousness of God.” RO 8:1, “There is no condemnation for those in union with Christ.” HE 1: 3, “He reflects the brightness of God’s glory and is the exact likeness of God’s own being, sustaining the universe with His powerful word. After achieving forgiveness for the sins of mankind, He sat down in heaven at the right side of God, the Supreme Power.” HE 10: 10, 17, “Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted Him to do, we are all purified from sin by the offering that He made of His own body once and for all…And then He [God] says, ‘I will not remember their sins and evil deeds any longer.’”
I find this kind of grace [undeserved merit] absolutely amazing! I have written in the past about my existence before accepting Christ [Yehsua] as my Savior. As a teenager, I was headed for trouble with the police for acts of vandalism and disrespect of authority. My father was infuriated by this and arranged for me to spend an overnighter in juvenile hall in response. While that and a change to an all-academic high school pulled me away from the direction I was taking, it did nothing to nourish my starved spiritual life. I can testify that spiritual nourishment is absolutely necessary for happiness. At the time, I knew only that something else beside my academic life needed to change before I would feel any kind of solace in my life. God waits until His perfect timing to take action, and demonstrate that He has been watching over one’s life right from the beginning. Leading up to October of the year I was 25, God began allowing me to feel His presence in my life and that He would be the Answer to this gnawing need in my life. It was then, that I made the decision to be baptized and to accept Christ into my heart. But that question, the one we are examining today bothered me tremendously. What about my sins? I was new enough to accepting Christ that I had not yet had the chance to study God’s word. Then, I came upon COL 1: 20, “Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to Himself. God made peace through His Son’s death on the cross and so brought back to Himself all things, both on earth and in heaven and COL 3: 3-4, “For your have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your real life is Christ and when He appears, then you to will appear with Him and share His glory.” This was a major awakening in my spiritual life. It was the beginning of the enormous hunger for His word that I have today. We are truly forgiven and what is more, God has forgotten our sins!
Needless to say, if a person professing to be a believer chooses a lifestyle of sins and human agenda-driven rationalizations, his faith was never strong enough from the git-go. The grace extended to us is not license to sin, not by a long shot. But each of us who opens our hearts to God’s word, and not just our minds, will find ourselves being given discernment and making choices to serve God in ways that please Him. It is what I long to be doing. I don’t profess to be perfect. After all, I haven’t been taken up to heaven yet. J But, as PHIL 3: 14 says, “So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God’s call through Christ Jesus to the life above.” Yes, Dear Ones, we can trust our Lord to be watching over us and constantly loving us. We can rely on what He says. 2 CH 16: 9, “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.”
PRAYER: O Lord, all too often we question Your motives or Your ability to keep the promises You make. We should know by Your history with us that there are no lies or evil in You. The Psalmist wrote in PS 107: 43, “Those who are wise will take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord.” A later psalm, PS 143: 5, asks us to reflect on our history with You and consider it’s impact on the contents You think should be in our hearts. “I remember the days of old, I think about all Your deeds, I meditate on the works of Your hands.” We are swept up by the frantic pace of our lives today, too busy with human tasks to take the time to meditate this way. Our desire, Dearest Abba, is to open our minds and our hearts to You. It is clear that Your promises are always kept, although often not when mankind thinks they should be. We can’t see Your whole perspective. Our human limitations won’t allow that. But, we have enough information from You to recognize our utter need to be patient with You, to trust Your motives, and to await Your perfect timing. We should know by now that You are our always-righteous, awesome, and trustworthy Deity, One Who deserves our reverence, obedience, trust, and diligence. You call upon us to make significant and often difficult changes in our lives. This is not done to drain away our faith, but instead, because You know it is the only way to further our sanctification. JN 6: 39-40 reveals clearly Your purpose in the Son’s own words. “And it is the will of Him Who sent Me that I should not lose any of all those He has given me, but that I should raise them all to life on the last Day. For what My Father wants is that all who see the Son and believe in Him should have eternal life. And I will raise them to life on the last Day.” If we will only keep our eyes on You and on the perfect plan that You have for us, we will be able to walk that hard path that leads from the narrow gate [MT 7: 13-14] that will bring us back to You for a life of eternal bliss and close fellowship with You. We can take comfort in the process of getting that reward, when we get to know You and Your plan. We can experience lasting joy in “heart-knowledge” that You will surely keep the promise of granting us eternal life if we will only endure in our faith. To You belongs all the glory for everything good that is in the universe. That includes the faith You have given us, Your Son’s Atonement, and the gift of the Holy Spirit –Your continual and loving presence in our lives forever. We confess our sins in humility before Your throne and offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, glory, honor, trust, obedience, thanks, and utmost praise. In Christ’s name. Amen.
There are more wonderful Scriptures to share which help to answer the question: Are we going to be judged for our sins? This will be the topic for next week’s message. Week after week, I write these messages to encourage and strengthen faith. God gives them to me through the Holy Spirit, knowing full well that I need them as much as you readers do. Peter and I are going through a long rough patch in our financial lives, one that has been in progress for four years now. But, the fact that God loves us enough to keep us obedient and faithful to Him throughout this process, however long it must be, is evidence that we have been forgiven for past sins. This heavenly enrichment from Him is not just for us; it is for each an every believer no matter what are the circumstances of his life. It doesn’t matter whether we are students, professionals or blue collar people, whether we are pastors, teachers, leaders, or simply members of a congregation, whether we are young or older, whether we are male or female, whether we are well-educated or never finished high school. The blessings God is eager to shower on all who endure in their faith are for everyone. Praise be to our great and glorious God!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn