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Who Moved? Me or God? |
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The Eternal Faithfulness of God |
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by David A. DePra |
| There was a sign outside on the church marque which said, "If |
| you don't feel as close to God as you used to, who moved?" This |
| holds a great thought. It merits much meditation and serious |
| discussion. |
| Most Christians picture a God who sits in heaven, reacting to |
| everything they do. When we sin, God withdraws. When we obey, |
| He draws near. If we fail, He gets mad. If we obey, He gets happy. |
| In effect, most of us have a God whose attitude and intentions |
| towards us depends on what we do. |
| This brings us back to the marque. It asked, "If you don't feel as |
| close to God as you used to, then who moved?" Many of us would |
| answer, "God." And then we'd add, "He distances Himself from me |
| because of my sins and failures." |
| Sin is Withdrawal from God |
| The Truth is, God never moves. In fact, there is nothing we can |
| do to make Him move away from us, or change His heart towards |
| us. We cannot sin, refuse to believe, or obey. No matter what we |
| do, when all of it is done, God is still there where He was when we |
| started. |
| So what does this mean? That sin doesn't matter? That I can |
| sin that grace might abound? |
| Notice how often that same question comes up when you talk |
| about God's grace and eternal love for us. That alone should tell |
| us something about the Truth of the gospel. |
| The answer is that sin certainly does matter. The fact that God |
| doesn't move away from us because of sin is NOT because sin is |
| irrelavent. It is because sin is forgiven and dealt with in Christ. |
| Sin matters. But not because it causes God to withdraw from us. |
| Sin matters because through sin WE withdraw from God. That is, |
| when all is said and done, what sin IS. It is withdrawal from God to |
| my own will. Thus, we see WHO moved. We did. Not God. |
| Now, this is so important for us to see. So many of us think that |
| God withdraws from us every time we sin. But actually, sin is OUR |
| withdrawal from God! What else could sin and unbelief be? It is |
| choosing our will instead of God's. |
| There are, of course, varying depths of sin. All of it is sin, and |
| all of it, outside of Christ, is of death. But there are more serious |
| sins than others. The Bible says so. |
| For example, all of us live in a fleshly body which is subject to the |
| fallen creation. Everyday we must seek to yield our members to |
| God, and to refuse to yield them to sin. Sometime we fail. We want |
| to do right, but cannot. Our flesh simply will not behave. |
| Now it is not really a withdrawal from God to want to do good but |
| not be able. (see Romans 7) But such a thing can and does bring |
| a corruptive element of the flesh. Thus, we must keep ourselves |
| open and exposed to God. We must embrace the fact that we are |
| forgiven and continually cleansed by the Blood. |
| There are, however, worse sins a Christian can commit. These |
| are not sins of weakness or normal failure. They are sins of |
| unbelief. These are the times when we launch off in our own will, |
| despite the fact that we know better, or could know better. Such sin |
| does damage to our relationship to God. It hurts our fellowship |
| with Him. |
| Now note: WE do the damage. Not God. We withdraw through |
| sin. Not God. Any damage that is done to our relationship with God |
| through sin is OUR doing. God hasn't moved. We did. |
| Confession and Forgiveness |
| If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, |
| and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9) |
| This brings us to the matter of confession of sin. Many Christians |
| interpret the above verse to mean that when they sin, God will not |
| forgive them UNTIL they confess that sin to Him. In other words, |
| UNTIL we confess, we are actually UNforgiven. God is withdrawn |
| from us and will not return to us until we confess our sin. |
| This is not the meaning. When I sin, God does NOT withhold |
| forgiveness until I confess. How could He? He has already |
| forgiven all sin in Christ. It is finished. God cannot turn around and |
| deny the sacrifice of His own Son by saying, "Jesus really didn't |
| die for all sin. He died only for confessed sin. Until a sin is |
| confessed, it is UNforgiven." |
| To some of us, that might sound right. But is cannot be right. |
| Why? Because it makes God's forgiveness of us dependent, not |
| upon Jesus Christ, but upon US -- upon our faith, obedience, or |
| confession. And this cannot be so. |
| There are other reasons this cannot be the Truth. For instance, if |
| God will not forgive me UNTIL I confess, then UNTIL I confess, then |
| I am -- what? Unforgiven. Right? Sure. But if I am unforgiven, then |
| I'm lost. That makes me a Christian, saved by the grace of God, |
| but who is presently LOST -- because he has an unconfessed sin |
| on his record. |
| What happens if I DIE in that condition? What happens if, two |
| seconds after I sin, I drop dead? I did not get a chance to confess. |
| Am I lost? |
| If I am unforgiven by God until I confess I am. And if I say, "Well, |
| God would know my heart and forgive me," then I am actually |
| admitting that there is much more to this Truth than the religious |
| routine of confessing to get forgiven. I'm showing that I know God's |
| forgiveness is not dependent upon me, but upon Christ. |
| So what are we saying? That we don't have to confess sin? |
| No. The Truth comes back to the marque. When we sin, WE move |
| away from God. We allow something into our lives and hearts |
| which damages our relationship with God. So it is not God who |
| has to come back to the relationship. It is US. And confession is |
| how we do it. Our confession is our move back towards God, |
| and our embracing of the forgiveness which God has always had |
| for us. Confession is therefore essential. We have to confess sin! |
| Now we can see the purpose of confession. It is not in order to |
| qualify for God's forgiveness. It is to embrace God's forgiveness. |
| God never moved. He was always standing there with forgiveness |
| in place through Christ -- from the foundation of the world. But I |
| moved away from Him. Thus, my confession is merely my return to |
| God, and my embracement of what God has always had for me in |
| Christ. |
| The verse from I John means, as to it's intent, "If we confess our |
| sins, we will find that He is faithful and just to have forgiven our sins, |
| and to have cleansed us from all unrighteousness in Jesus Christ. |
| In Christ, God's forgiving work is finished. Confess your need and |
| embrace it. Return to God." |
| God Seeks Us |
| I damage my relationship with God when I take my sin and put |
| it between myself and God -- and then blame God for putting it |
| there. This is unbelief. I must return to the Truth: God has never |
| moved. I did. |
| Actually, if we want to know what God does when we sin, we |
| need only remember what God did when Adam sinned. He sought |
| out Adam. He sought him out so that He could redeem him. That's |
| a far cry from withdrawal. |
| When we sin, God does seek us out. He seeks us out through |
| conviction, chastisement, and sometimes through the kindness |
| which leads to repentance. But God never forsakes us. He never |
| moves. He is eternally faithful and true. * |