Christian Advantage? (6)
Once
we humans brought Sin into our existence we began a downward moral
spiral that affected and infected every facet of our life as a race and
each of us as individuals. God who had sustained us morally and every other way up to the moment of our Rebellion now related to a sinful family that abused its God-given and God-sustained freedom to live in holy love with him at a personal and corporate level.
God
had eternally committed himself to creation and to the human family at
its head so he had no wish to obliterate the creation; but he did curse
the humans and he cursed the non-human creation because of the human
rebellion. The “innocent” suffered along with the guilty under a
redemptive curse (see Genesis 3 in its entirety). It was a redemptive
curse in that it was/is an instrument God would and purposed to use to
keep the human family alive and bring it, in and through Jesus, to even
greater glory that it had known initially.
God
did not cease to love the human race and he did not withdraw his truth
and support from it. At times he performed radical surgery on the human
family but even those acts and the revelation of his righteousness in
those acts were redemptive. “When God’s judgments are in the earth the
nations learn righteousness,” a psalmist said. Through holy men and
women, through prophets and priests, through godly parents God continued
to bless humans with his truth and his provisions. He did not withdraw
from humans and leave them entirely unaided in their own corrupt and
corrupting ways, though he did allow them to walk away from him. Acts
14:15-17 and 17:24-29 make it clear that he continued to have dealings
with the entire human family so that they could seek after and find him because he isn’t far from any of us. See those texts!
One
of the divine moves to redeem and bring the human family to glory in
Jesus was God’s choosing certain individuals and people through whom he
would work. Having entered a humanity-wide covenant in Genesis 9 God
entered a special relationship with Abraham and his descendants through
Jacob. God blessed Abraham and his physical children with special
manifestations of himself and his activity not only because he loved
them but because he had chosen them as his instrument of blessing for
the entire human family. It’s this chosen family within the human family
that the OT deals with in particular but we’re not
to think that God left the rest of humanity in utter and total
ignorance concerning himself (Romans 1:18-32 shows how much truth he
blessed it with and note the High Priest through whom God blessed
Abraham in Genesis 14:18-20).
It
doesn’t matter that the nations suppressed and rejected the truth and
blessings that God gave them to enable them to seek and find him. That
was their choosing and not
God’s. It doesn’t matter that Israel as a nation consistently and
perversely suppressed and rejected God’s truth and blessings—that was
their doing. God’s kindness in the form of truth and provision was
extended to all nations though to Israel he gave something special that under God they might bless the world!
The
“extra” that Israel got was not some kind of “divine injection” into
their souls or some divine “white magic” that made Israelite hearts
different from all others on earth. What they got was a level of
intimacy; what they got was the possibility of a clearer vision, a rich
and inspiring understanding that life in God was fullness
of life and what they got was a relationship with the one true God.
What they got was something analogous to being raised by godly and
loving parents as over against children who are raised in a vile society
by perverse parents. (That analogy mustn't be overdrawn.)
Just
because Israel is the center-piece of the OT we’re not to think he
cared nothing for the entire human family and so he left it stumbling in
the abysmal depths of sinful gloom without offering light and blessing.
That isn’t Bible—that’s untrue!
And just because he has entered into a special relationship with the
New Testament elect in Jesus, whom he has gathered to himself through
the gospel, we’re not to conclude he cares nothing for the entire world.
We're not to think that because he helps NT elect, God refuses light
and help and provision for the non-elect. That too is false!
Out from among the sinful human family that God continues to love and work for he chose sinful
individuals and groups and peoples. Those he chose sinned like everyone
else; they were not special human specimens, they were not paragons of
moral virtue and they remain sinful human beings. His choosing them
brought them into a peculiar relationship with him and that brought with
it something that the rest of the human family didn’t have—the chosen
ones had an advantage over the rest in the war against Sin.
But the advantage is not a divine injection of super-human moral strength!
Stop
looking for that! Stop expecting it! If it suits God to call you by his
gospel with all your flaws then let God be God and come “just as you
are”. When you come you will come to Jesus, the sin-hater, the
sin-destroyer, the sin-forgiver and the righteousness-loving Lord of
Life and the human race. Stand up as a man or woman, boy or girl of God
who has been given a privileged place of service and note that you
aren’t the only one brawling with Sin. Your fellow-humans, in and out of
Christ, are defying the wickedness which attacks their hearts and
families and nations. They do it by the grace of God that’s extended to
them in countless ways. Sin is as real in your life as it is in theirs
but if you are in Jesus Christ by faith you have an advantage! Your sins
are forgiven, you’ve been honored with a special place in God’s saving
work and he has brought you to loving faith in the only human who has
actually and in fact defeated Lord Sin.
Some
of us were more deeply enmeshed in sins when we were called by grace
into faith in Jesus and God purifies and strengthens us in keeping with
our nature as humans and without “magic”. For some of us it’ll take
longer to rise to moral glory that’s seen in its perfection in Christ.
There are too many variables in each individual life for anyone to even pretend
to know all that’s going on inside that life. Bless me, we don’t even
know ourselves. Sometimes we’re astonished at the depth of our capacity
for wickedness and perhaps on rare occasions we’re amazed at the
selfless actions that flow from us.
This
we know: those who’ve been called by the gospel and have come to Christ
seek his likeness no matter how ulcerated and “sick” they are at
present and that’s the foundation on which all else is built. If God has
brought you into Christ he hasn’t been duped—he knows you altogether
and if he’s happy you’ve joined him in the war then it doesn’t matter
what others think of you. What’s more it doesn’t matter what you think
of you, for you are no more your own Lord than others are!
If
we want growth we’ll get it only in relationship with God and not by
pep-talks, 10 rules for successful growth or divine “magic”. Our eyes
need to be fixed on the Apostle and High Priest of our profession
(Hebrews 3:1) as we exercise such moral strength as we have in working
with him for the saving of a world. By songs of praise, confession of
wrongs, prayers of petition and intercession, by listening to and
studying The Story, by conscientious and wise leaders, by paying
attention to our ordinances and the shape of our liturgy, in communion
with the saints, by honest dealings and a caring eye for a suffocating
humanity and compassionate service—by these and in many more ways the
Lord God heals us while he forgives us.
“Sick” as we are we didn’t call ourselves! The Church didn’t call us! The world didn’t call us! God
called us, so ulcerated or not thank God we’re here and live in assured
hope of our final and complete personal victory over Sin and sins!