Once in a blue moon I find myself scanning through the
sports channels and watching competitive wrestling for a while. I am not referring to the painted up, dressed
up, messed up personalities that are more actors than wrestlers, I am speaking
of competitive wrestling. The object of
the competition is to bring an opponent under your control, usually by applying
a "hold" from which he cannot escape, and is forced to submit.
It was while watching a rerun of such an event and admiring
the strength and technique of these wrestlers, I had an idea. God could do himself some good if he would
just put us in some kind of position where we couldn't escape if we wanted
to. Then he could be successful in
forcing us to submit to him
Ooops. My thinking ran into a roadblock when I remembered
that at no time has God ever forced anyone to submit to him, and to do so would
violate his entire scheme of redemption. I cannot find a single scripture where
he says, "You will submit to my ways and the lifestyle that I dictate to
you." That is always left to our choosing. In fact, as far as I can tell,
you can turn your back on God and he will still love you. You can mock his son, you can even put his
son to death, and he will not force you to follow him or believe him or accept
his plan for your life.
Oswald Chambers points out that once God's life has been
created in us through redemption, something happens and we being to recognize God's
absolute authority over us. Chambers
calls it a complete and effective domination over us in which we acknowledge,
"Thou art worthy, O Lord."
Can we see the tremendous picture of God's love here? God isn't forcing us into anything, and our
failure to submit to him does not make him any less God. His desire is for us
to see his love and his forgiveness and recognize his faithfulness and
worthiness, and choose to follow his ways.
When we come into relationship with him in this way, obedience replaces
our stubbornness, hope replaces our despair, and fellowship replaces our loneliness.
For too long we have had the mental image of God being one
that cracks the whip to keep us in line, and causing calamity when we fail to
measure up. We are even guilty of
telling our children things like, "God doesn't love you when you disobey
mommy."
If I am reading scripture correctly, God does not base his love for us on how good
we are....and aren't we glad? It doesn't
mean that he is agreeing with our sin, or deciding he is going to let a few
sins slide. Make sure you understand
this. Every sin you have ever
committed, and every sin you commit today and in the future, demands a punishment.
When sin stops requiring a punishment, then the righteousness and justice of
God comes to an end.
Now do you see why it is so important that we make the
choice of believing and obeying the commands of Jesus, the sinless Son of God,
who, on the cross, paid the required price and took the punishment that was
ours? Those things happened because God loves you. He loves you enough that he
will not leave you in your sinful state.
He longs for you to grow into the likeness of his son.
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