The Costs of Being a Christian
We believe that God is merciful because we have been spared. We were once sinners, but the grace of God was big enough to save us. What a great God we serve!
But the truth is, we only see God as merciful as we are. We have made Him into our image.
We feel that we are righteous because of our actions and sin avoidance, even though we read scripture that tells us our righteousness comes from Christ. We look at others and tell them “God loves you, BUT NOT…” which is usually followed by a sin that the person is committing. We believe in a Gospel where we accept Christ, but then have to pay for it. The Kingdom of God doesn’t work like this. In fact, it’s a membership fee that was paid once and for all by Christ! If your paying for it, you are saying that His payment wasn’t good enough. 🙁
Why do we do this? Why do we immediately inform unbelievers that their lifestyle is not acceptable? Why do we play God?
We tend to do this when we trust our own efforts for righteousness. We look at others and think “God loves you but, in order to be “approved” by Him, you have to stop sinning.” what we are really saying is “God loves you, but He can’t stand being around you!”
The truth is, to believe that God is more merciful that we are real pisses us off! We feel that people should be judged because of their sin, all the while believing that the Father is FULL of MERCY (merciful).
Listen, His love and mercy are greater than we could imagine!! Because of Christ, God does not look upon our sin the way we do (He never has). He just wants us, but He knows that sin seems to separate us, BUT only in our minds (Col 1:21), because NOTHING separates us from His love!
God is not judgemental as we are. We say that His judgement of sin was fulfilled in Christ, but yet we continue to judge.
When we realize what we have in Christ and the mercy that was dealt to us, we are able to offer that same mercy to others, free from judgement. The message of the Law was sin, the message of the Gospel is Christ. Let’s just make it about Christ. 🙂
Your image of God creates you.