Worshippers Rebel
(I’ve been moved by some recent incidents to start this new series on rebellion, which I foresee as a 3-part reflection. I have an exposition on Romans 1 long planned out in my head for part 3, but have been avoiding writting out my serious personal thoughts on the situation that is at hand in my own life. It is because I am in anguish for the rebels whom I have known as friends, and even as I share with you these intimate reflections, I hold a reverent fear of God in my heart for how holy He is and how I am not. While I pray for the repentance and reconciliation of the rebels in my life, please pray for me as I humbly share with you my concerns.)
“Rebellion” - Part 1
God loves turning rebels into worshippers.
But what happens when worshippers rebel against God, and disobey His commands, decrees, and statutes? Is God still gracious and merciful despite our continual, flagrant rebellion? Does God still have sovereign authority (exousia) over our lives and how we live?
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Most of us would agree that despite and even in spite of our sinful unfaithfulness, God is, has been and always be holy and faithful to His covenantal promises. In His justice and judgment, wrath and fury, He always stays gracious and merciful, loving and kind. However, as much as we strive to conform to imago dei and try to be as Christ-like as possible in our obedience to God’s law, we will never be perfect, for in our natural selves–we can do no good. That is why God sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, God Himself to become man, and to offer Himself as an atoning sacrifice in the place of sinners who have put their faith in Him.
Take note of that last thing I just said: sinners who have put their faith in Him. We were not saints when we put our faith in Christ’s substitutionary atonement, but sinners. When we were spiritually dead in our sinning, Christ in that moment died for us. And at that very moment where we were brought from dead to life, in that instant we were regenerated, God Himself enabled us to put faith in Him. All this happened instantly, without us knowingly seeing this process… but the whole time, the Father was gifting us with grace and faith in His Son, and His Spirit was working in and on us to melt our hardened hearts of pre-Christ rebellion.
However, this famous Hebrews passage speaks not of “non-Christians” or ”Christians”; it speaks of sinners who have a false faith. In as much as we are forever forgiven of our sin and saved eternally for heaven, there is a judgment and wrath reserved for those who know they should do right, but do wrong deliberately–those who have already received the truth.
I think there are often situations in life when we make promises to God that we are unable keep; we wanted to & tried hard but still failed. For some reason, if complete obedience to God’s moral law wasn’t hard enough to keep, we end up creating a pact with the Father–thinking that some how this legalistic method of discipline will make us more holy, or more worthy in His sight, as if it was necessary to make a vow to God so that we could receive a blessing in return.
In 100% of the cases, we fail, and in the large majority of the cases, we fail miserably. And in our miserably stressed weakness, we wonder how in the world we could have failed, when we were this close to making it! You know what I’m talking about?! What’s even worse, is that we leave the pact thinking “Oh well, God probably knew I was gonna mess up… He won’t mind, He still forgives me.” It is in this distasteful haste and rebellion after we acknowledge our sin, and brush it off thinking that it is ok, and repenting verbally but not truly. There is no genuine internal transformation, but only a surface external modification that aims to deceive God Himself and those around us. Making such promises to God reveals that it is futile, useless, and downright unwanted by our LORD. He has made THE sacrifice, and paid the price, once and for all, and does not want or need any more sacrifice, but rather loving obedience instead.
However, get this: God cannot be mocked… for whatever we sow we will also reap. Since we have sown to our own flesh, we will from our flesh reap corruption (Gal.6:7-8). What you have done against God will come back to haunt you… or in even plainer English, God will have His vengeance and judge even you, His own people. It won’t be a pretty sight, if you think God is loving and gracious… wait till you see what flows out of His love and grace!
This is how I feel about my own sin: fearful of how holy God is, how sinful I can be, and this possibility of power of sin to overcome the Spirit within me. However, I also write this feeling sick to my stomach, seeing the laissez-faire, I don’t care attitude of so-called Christians, even leaders, so called friends of Christ, who know the truth and yet deliberately sin. I have known them as fellow Christians, but I don’t know anymore. They serve and serve, worship and worship but something is still not right; they have yet to fully surrender and submit to the LORD’s sovereignty. They make their promises & pacts with God, acknowledge being too proud and failing once again, confess their sins and just…. move on in life, as if this mess up didn’t mean a thing to God. Well it does, and the writer of Hebrews clearly tells us this.
It would be painful to confront them with this, and it would be painful not to. I just… don’t want to lose the friendship.
(Continued in Part 2, coming soon…)
“Rebellion”: 5 part series
Part 1-Worshippers Rebel
Part 2-False Faith
Part 3-The Apostasy of Young and Old
Part 4-Abandoned by God
Part 5-Deprived of Restraining Grace
