In my search for God, I searched for wisdom among men and
I found none. I found theology, I found
religion, I found spiritual pontificating and doctrinal parroting, but wisdom I
did not find. So I asked God for wisdom
and He brought me face to face with my own ignorance. He showed me the true depths of human
ignorance and I fell into despair and He allowed me to wallow around in it so
that I could gain true understanding of how utterly wretched of a creature we
are without Him. He let me experience
angst and anguish over the darkness of the human soul without His light. He let me consume and eat what Jesus says at
John 15:4-6 so that as my food it would become a part of my very being.
We are obstinate creatures. We continue to charge ahead, lead by our
arrogance and hubris, despite our festering wounds. We are sick, mortally wounded, and the church
organizes a seminar to discuss our problem. There is no
seminar, conference, workshop or meeting that will fix this. There is no Bible study about biblical
manhood or womanhood that will fix this.
There is no annual denominational convention that will fix this. There is no politician, or political party,
or therapy session, or prescription drug, or confession of positive thoughts
that will fix this. No human being or
human method can fix this. There is no
cure for us but humility and repentance.
We are hopeless without God's grace and guidance. We
reach for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but when we do it without
God we are utterly incapable of making any correct distinction between the
two. In our reasoning, good becomes evil
and evil becomes good and our ignorance comes back upon our own head. We reach for the tree of knowledge and we try
to wield its fruit through corrupted wisdom.
Time after time, age after age, epoch after epoch, we fail. In our striving, we reach a crescendo of
rebellion, futility and wickedness and God has to reach down and set everything
aright again. Over and over we do this. Deception torments us and we don't even
perceive it. We naively invite the
serpent to our bosom, unaware that it is bleeding our soul dry.
God gave humanity His law and we failed. Then He gave us His Spirit, and again, we
have failed. God never fails, He gives
us good things, but we try to run out ahead of Him or make sense of those good
things in our own reason and we fail.
The Jews rejected the sufficiency of His revealed law and the Christians
reject the sufficiency of His quiet Spirit.
The Jews built their own theologies around His law and were led astray
by their own misapplied understanding, and the Christian church has done the
same with His Spirit. When will we
learn? What will it take? Sometimes I wonder, if I told everyone that
judgment was on the doorstep, would they even care? If I told everyone that their way of life was
about to evaporate into an unrecognizable oblivion, would anyone change their
path? If history teaches us anything, it
is that even when we are told our path leads to death, we simply smile and say,
"But this time it will surely be different!"
The Jews used religion as a means to manipulate God for
their own benefit. The Christian Church
does the same. The Jews engaged in meaningless
religious tradition and ritual as a way to solve their problems. The Christian Church does the same. The Jews believed that they were God's chosen
people and that they would never suffer judgment. The Christian
Church believes the same. Anyone can
follow religion and perform rituals, but it is only the person who truly
reflects God's character that has entered into a genuinely salvific
relationship with Him. But when our
behavior is no different than that of the world, our fate will be no different
either. If God judged the Jews for their
failure to faithfully uphold His Law, how much more so will the Church be
judged for its failure to faithfully reflect His Spirit?
That servant who knows his master's will but does not get
ready or follow his instructions will be beaten with many blows. But the one
who unknowingly does things worthy of punishment will be beaten with few blows.
From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from him who
has been entrusted with much, even more will be demanded. (Luke 12:47,48)
Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times,
He now commands all men everywhere to repent. For He has set a day when He will
judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of
this to all men by raising Him from the dead. (Acts 17:30,31)
But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are
storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God's righteous
judgment will be revealed. God will repay each one according to his deeds. To
those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He
will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the
truth and follow wickedness, there will be wrath and anger. (Rom 2:5-8)
"If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword." For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 1:19,20)
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