Consider God’s response to Adam and Eve when they failed by sinning against him. He made a garment of skin and clothed their nakedness Genesis 3:21. In other words, his immediate response was to forgive their sin by sacrificing an animal, then to cover them in long-wearing clothing.
Consider that every person in every generation since, once reaching the age of accountability, continues to offend God by SINNING against him. And what is his response once we repent and ask forgiveness? He forgives. As Jesus said in Matthew 18:21-22, he forgives repeatedly since we repeatedly sin and ask forgiveness. When a child of the family rejects parental teaching to practice gratuitous pre-marital sex, the offended parents still consider him their child. When a friend offends, and apologizes, we still welcome him as a friend. And only after repeated offenses do we distance ourselves from the offender. When we fail even our own expectations and pledges, and sin against God’s, do we not still accept ourselves as his children? Pop theology would say, forgive but don’t let yourself be hurt again. (I confess to once thinking that way. More mature spiritual growth has corrected that assumption.) Consider: we won’t know the kind of Christian we are until we’re hurt/offended/failed by another, the hurt as deep as the love we had for and the trust we placed in that person. More importantly, we won’t know how strong a Christian we are until we put ourselves in a position to be hurt/failed/offended again. Remember Jesus. He repeatedly put himself in a position to be offended: by his disciples, by his enemies, by God’s will for his life, by everyone of us who repeatedly sin and as repeatedly ask his forgiveness. There are two ways a relationship can be a burden. One, by the decisions of a person we know. Two, and only Jesus experienced this, by letting God HURT him for the good of all humanity, as Isaiah 53:4-12 so eloquently predicted. Since Jesus knew that God willed his sacrifice on Calvary, John 12:20-33, Jesus accepted it. It pleased God to burden Christ. It pleased Jesus to be burdened by God so his will could be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Jesus never said, “Enough, I can’t take it anymore. Lighten the load to the level of my strength.” He allowed himself to be crucified as a criminal because God saw him as the Overcomer, the Conqueror, the Majestic Glory! Since Jesus alone could forgive sin, he stayed on the Cross those terrifying hours, including the last three of separation from God, when mockers challenged him to come down Matthew 27:41-44. To live in a fallen world is to expect disappointment, failure and broken promises. To live as a forgiven sinner in a fallen world is to experience being disappointed, aggrieved, offended and betrayed, sometimes most egregiously by OUR OWN SELF! Remember that our personal relationships are bigger and more important than the offences against them. And…a challenge to all Christians…surely, when having the chance to PROVE the greatness of Christ’s love in us, we don’t want instead to choose grudges, vengeance and alienation.
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