Jesus is not your boyfriend: Have you ever thought that you were so evil and rebellious towards God that you could never approach Him? Have you ever thought, or said, that if you walked into a church it would probably burn down? Maybe you tried the “church thing” and felt too hypocritical to commit yourself to a perfect God. You had a sort of three strikes mentality and gave up on yourself and God. Thinking God to be like an irritated boyfriend or girlfriend who is just looking for any reason at all to dump you. Have you ever felt like God wants nothing to do with you? This is the issue I wish to pursue to address with whoever may be reading this. First, in order to answer your questions we must understand that we cannot ask ourselves these questions. We cannot search deep into our heart of hearts to know the truth. Our heart is unreliable, “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). So we cannot trust ourselves. We are too prone to mix our emotions in with the reality of what really is. Not only can we not trust our hearts, we also cannot compare God and his virtues to ours. “My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the Lord “and My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts!” (Isaiah 55:8, 9) Okay next, if you’ve ever felt like you were so rebellious that you could never approach the holy God, than you are 100% right. You are bad. You are rebellious. You are sinful. And you don’t deserve to approach God. “All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:12) “All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God’s path to follow our own.” (Isaiah 53:6a). “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!” (Romans 3:23) The “all” and the “we” is every person on the face of the earth. Everyone who has ever lived has sinned. “All” including you, myself, our friends, our family, our coworkers, role models, the pope, Ghandi, Oprah, Mother Theresa, rich and poor, the ignorant and the intellect. If you could think of the best person that you know, guess what, that person’s a sinner. Okay so we’re all a bunch of sinners, big deal. But “the wages (or penalty) of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23) So not only are we all sinners, but our sin is going to kill every last one of us. There is no escaping death. We are sinners because of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 3), “therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death passed to all men (and women) because all have sinned” (Romans 6:12) It’s almost as if Adam the first person had aids. Now everyone born after him is going to have aids and its going to kill them. Its going to kill them whether they are “good” or bad, whether they’re rich or poor, whether they are smart or not. The death is not just physical, but its spiritual also. We have been separated from God. We are by our very natures rebellious before God. “Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies.” (Psalms 58:3). Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. (Psalms 51:5) Ever seen a child do what he’s told not to do? Even if its’ for his or her own good? Well there’s the reason why. He (or she) isn’t just trying to be cute, we are all naturally disobedient. Now we have seen that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” “that the wages (or penalty) of sin is death. So what can we possibly do? Nothing! But God in His perfect love has. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever (that’s anyone at all) believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies upon) Him, shall not perish (or come to destruction on account of their own sin) but have everlasting life (John 3:16). So God knew that we couldn’t meet His perfect standards so He gave His son to die in the place of all who would believe in Him. What great news. “The wages (or penalty) of sin is death…BUT the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Once you become a Christian, Jesus said He would never leave you or forsake you. He has loved you with an everlasting unconditional love. Unconditional means that you don’t have to do anything to earn it. It’s there. You can’t do anything to lose it. He is not an irritated boyfriend or girlfriend who just can’t wait to get rid of you, but He is a loving Father who “causes all things to work for good to them that love Him” (Romans 8:28). When you stumble and fall down or make a mistake as a loving Father, He’s not going to beat His child, screaming, “You stupid kid, what’s your problem? Won’t you ever get it right?!!” But instead He says lovingly and assuredly “Come on my son (or daughter), try again, take my hand, its going to be alright.” His love is unfailing. His mercies are new every morning. Don’t miss out on account of the world and what it offers, its passing away. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? (Matthew 16:26)
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 15:05:02 +0000