The Contrast of Sinfulness and Holiness

Today's passage is Romans 3:5-6. which says:

But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I am using a human argument: Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath? Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world?

I have a cat named Casey, and she is adorable. I love this kitty dearly; I play with her, I start my day with feeding her and petting her, yada yada yada. But there is one time when I avoid her with all of my being: when I am dressed in a pair of black dress pants, headed to somewhere important. 

Without fail, every time I put a pair of black pants on, Casey will find me and start rubbing against the legs of the pants. She may have wanted nothing to do with me just moments before, but now, there are black pants to rub on. If you have a cat, you know where this is headed. If you don't, I have one word for you: fur. 

Cat hair stands out on a pair of black pants brighter than a full moon on a clear night. You can't miss it. Thus, I so try to stay away from my cat when I am dressed up because I don't want to end up with hair all over my pants, which is embarrassing if it goes unnoticed (so I hear).

Here's the deal: like cat hair on a pair of black slacks, our unrighteousness (our sinful hearts, our rebellion against God, etc.) actively highlights our God's righteousness. Our sinful actions show just how holy He is in comparison. Truly, we all deserve wrath and judgment, and there is no hiding it. It can't be missed when put in contrast with the Lord's holiness. 

This is why we daily need to preach the gospel to ourselves. It's not because as a believer we are likely to fall into judgment--we cannot. Christ already paid for that on the cross, securing life eternal for all who trust in Him as Lord and Savior.

However, there are others all around us that are in danger of the coming judgment. They have not put their faith in Jesus, and are sitting in their sinfulness, ready to accept God's righteous wrath if they do not repent. And that's something that should burden believers.

We are called, as the people of God and followers of Jesus, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Just as we love ourselves enough to repent of the sinfulness in our lives (I hope), we must love others well enough to want them to do the same. We must warn a sinful world that a holy God is bringing righteous and deserved wrath upon them, judging them for their blatant sinfulness. 

Lord, work the beauty of the gospel into us today. Show us our need to preach, proclaim, exclaim, and shout the good news of salvation in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Give us a bigger heart for the lost, and a greater love for others--like your love for them. 

The Horrible Result of Christian Hypocrisy

This morning I was stricken by Romans 2:24, which reads: 

For, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. 

This passage is at the conclusion of a long rant from Paul about a lack of godliness in the Jewish people. The Jewish people were calling for the Gentiles (those outside the people of God) to live up to the values of the Old Testament Scriptures, yet they themselves were not living up to them, either. It's hypocrisy, plain and simple.

The Lord makes it clear in this verse that the hypocrisy of His people is not just reflecting poorly upon their own holiness, but it is ultimately a reason that the world is blaspheming and rejecting the Lord as their God! Can you imagine--the behavior of God's people, and lack of godliness in it, is turning people away from the Lord!

This has always been a struggle for God's people. In the Old Testament, this verse is actually stated in its original context in the prophetic books of Isaiah (who tried to get the Jews to repent of their hypocrisy before judgment came through the Babylonians) and Ezekiel (who tried to get the Jews to repent of their hypocrisy amidst their trials with the Babylonians). Then, in the New Testament, we have Peter clearly applying this principle to the church (and specifically the false converts and teachers that we fail to root out of the church), saying that our hypocrisy will lead the lost to follow our shameful ways and bring The Way, the path of Jesus Christ, into disrepute. We must not allow for this. 

To put it simply, our hypocrisy as believers leads to the world's rejection of Jesus as Lord and Savior.

There are almost an infinite number of ways that I fail to live up to what I preach and claim to believe as a follower of Jesus, but a lack of love for the Lord is the root of all of it. Because I do not love the Lord my God with all of my heart, all of my soul, all of my mind, and all of my strength as I ought, I end up failing to live according to the commands He said I would follow if I love Him. I allow other gods before Him. I make little idols out of any number of possessions, hobbies, or worldly ideals. I use His name in vain every time I refer to Him in a flippant or irreverent way (which includes half-hearted worship through singing or prayer). I fail to keep the Sabbath whenever I choose not to rest in His works and truly worship with His bride on a Sunday morning, allowing worries and distractions keep me from Him. I fail to love my neighbor or even myself as I should, all because my love for God is imperfect. 

The good news, however, is that these shortcomings in my own walk with Jesus upon The Way are what the gospel is all about! As I reflect daily on the salvation I have through Christ, which began when He knew me before I was born and will be completed throughout eternity as I walk with Him in the new earth, I become more ensnared by the beauty of His grace. As I reflect on the work of Jesus in my heart, on the cross, and on His throne today, praise and worship naturally blossoms in my being! I must daily, hourly even, remind myself of the beauty of the gospel!

Are you doing the same? Are you reflecting on the good news of Jesus to help you prevent hypocrisy among a lost world, Christian? Are you a non-Christian, and want to know more about what Jesus has done in my life? Drop in the comments below, and I'll be happy to talk with you more. 

Fearing God

"The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge."

-Proverbs 1:7, HCSB

This idea of "fearing God" is something I have just recently started pondering on. It is a foreign, understudied concept for many of us. I mean, doesn't Jesus want to be our Friend and Father? Why does the Bible encourage fear of God?

It all lies in our definition of fear. When Scripture talks about fearing God, there is more to it than the quaking, trembling sensation that we feel when a wolf is bearing down on us (what, that's never happened to you?). Instead, it is a far larger concept.

Robert Strimple described it as a "convergence of awe, reverence, adoration, honor, worship, confidence, thankfulness, love, and, yes, fear." C.S. Lewis described a person who fears the Lord like this: "...one filled with awe, in which you feel wonder and a certain shrinking or a sense of inadequacy to cope with such a visitant of or prostration before it."

I have been reading R.C. Sproul's book The Holiness of God, and a large focus of this book is the fear of God. You see, God is holy, and holy is a big descriptor. Holy means more than just pure, although that is certainly part of it. Holy literally means "separate." God is separate from everything and everyone else. There is nothing like Him or even close to being Him. He is completely separate and set aside from the world, so there is no sin in Him. He is an entity that we cannot even fathom, and even to say this has really been a bit of a struggle for me. God's holiness isn't just hard to define, though; it is even harder to approach.

In Isaiah 6, we see the prophet Isaiah before the throne of the Lord. The angels and other beings are flying all about, praising God and His holiness. God is in His full glory, beaming in holiness on His throne. Isaiah, the prophet of God, responds to this immersion in holiness by dropping to the ground in worship, and yes, fear of the Lord.

Isaiah, when confronted by the holiness of God, didn't have any other response other than "woe is me!" He was overcome with everything Robert Strimple mentioned in his definition of fearing God: he was filled with awe, reverence, honor, fear and worship to start, and once he realized that God wasn't going to smite him on sight for his sin, he experienced adoration, confidence, thankfulness and love. Isaiah feared the Lord.

I've gone through all of this to get back to my focus verse for today, Proverbs 1:7. This verse is considered the theme verse for the book of Proverbs, and it is huge. If fearing God is the beginning of knowledge, then we need to fear God. We need Isaiah's approach to God. We need to look at God with awe, worship, adoration, confidence, love, honor, thankfulness and even an element of fear. He may be our Father and Friend, but He is also our Creator God.

Sovereign Lord.

King of Kings.

Ruler of Everything.

Punisher of Sin.

Holy, righteous, pure.

This is the God we serve, this is the God that has saved us from our sins. Let's look at Him through the lens of all that He is, not just a portion of it. He's a holy God; let's live lives that reflect a fear of the Lord. He commands no other response.