God is not an Optimist
No, God is the ultimate realist. And from this I derive great hope and comfort!
You see, no matter how bad I think I am (or how good) God knows the real truth. I'm much worse than I think I am. That is my natural person, my "flesh" as Paul puts it, is much worse than I even imagine; God only knows how bad! Amazingly, He chose to offer Himself a sacrifice for me, not because of any good thing He saw in me, but for His love. Mercy may be defined as not giving someone what they deserve. God shows mercy every day to me by not striking me dead. (The wages of is death, after all!) Grace is giving something that is not deserved. It is Grace that God extends salvation from His own righteous wrath through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the cross at Calvary. That Grace should never be a license to continue sinning, because while it is a free gift to me, it cost God more than I can ever imagine.
God is not an optimist because He offered His grace while I was still deep in my own sins. God reached out to me where I was, because He knows that there is nothing that my natural self could do to reach Him. That is the danger of false religion and self-righteousness. (Now there is an oxymoron! God is the only being with true self-righteousness!) False religion tries to claim that if I would only work harder and stop doing wrong things, then God will accept me. That is a lie from Hell. God only accepts perfection. The only way I can be counted perfect is to stand covered by the blood of the perfect sacrifice.
There is a current popular Christian song with lyrics something like "Would you take the place of this man; would you take the nails from his hands". Taken in this out of context form, this is darn near blasphemous. The Messiah, the Christ, was the only one who was able to live a perfect life. I'm not qualified to take His place. The nails weren't the worse part anyway. Other people have been crucified and had nails driven in their hands and feet. Jesus suffered separation from God. That is the final death that our sins demand. And that is the punishment I was facing, until His grace reached me in the mire of my sins. Not because God optimistically hoped that I would reach Him, but because He realistically knew that I could not and would not. I'm very thankful God is not an optimist!
Tag(s): optimism
You see, no matter how bad I think I am (or how good) God knows the real truth. I'm much worse than I think I am. That is my natural person, my "flesh" as Paul puts it, is much worse than I even imagine; God only knows how bad! Amazingly, He chose to offer Himself a sacrifice for me, not because of any good thing He saw in me, but for His love. Mercy may be defined as not giving someone what they deserve. God shows mercy every day to me by not striking me dead. (The wages of is death, after all!) Grace is giving something that is not deserved. It is Grace that God extends salvation from His own righteous wrath through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the cross at Calvary. That Grace should never be a license to continue sinning, because while it is a free gift to me, it cost God more than I can ever imagine.
God is not an optimist because He offered His grace while I was still deep in my own sins. God reached out to me where I was, because He knows that there is nothing that my natural self could do to reach Him. That is the danger of false religion and self-righteousness. (Now there is an oxymoron! God is the only being with true self-righteousness!) False religion tries to claim that if I would only work harder and stop doing wrong things, then God will accept me. That is a lie from Hell. God only accepts perfection. The only way I can be counted perfect is to stand covered by the blood of the perfect sacrifice.
There is a current popular Christian song with lyrics something like "Would you take the place of this man; would you take the nails from his hands". Taken in this out of context form, this is darn near blasphemous. The Messiah, the Christ, was the only one who was able to live a perfect life. I'm not qualified to take His place. The nails weren't the worse part anyway. Other people have been crucified and had nails driven in their hands and feet. Jesus suffered separation from God. That is the final death that our sins demand. And that is the punishment I was facing, until His grace reached me in the mire of my sins. Not because God optimistically hoped that I would reach Him, but because He realistically knew that I could not and would not. I'm very thankful God is not an optimist!
Tag(s): optimism
posted by Bryan at 6:20 AM
3 Comments:
Very good post on the omnicience of God Bryan! (See I spelled your name right this time.)
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
I agree with what you've written. God is not an optimist. But He is the God of Hope. God of peace. True God. God who is real. Realistic is too small a word. Real God, living God, true God.
Do check out my Christian blog at http://borax.wordpress.com I am sure you will like it!!
Rupert
How very powerful, beautiful and true. Thank you, Marybeth
Post a Comment
<< Home