Do we as believers really understand the beauty of redemption? If we did, would we be more patient and expectant concerning the lost? I think so.
When we look at the fact that ALL mankind needs redeeming, we can be put off. We can feel even disgusted by the fact that God has to redeem so many lost people, sinners…yuck. Ah, but I have seen something else. I think if the church would rightly handle this truth, that all mankind is lost until they are born again, that we would have most softness for the lost world. God does. We should as well.
A newborn baby though innocent of any practical sin is doomed at birth. He was born with a sin nature. He is innocent because he is unable to choose sin yet but filled with the fallen sin nature nonetheless, and therefore destined for Hell.
One of the saddest things I’ve seen in the church, especially the denominational churches where truth has really been lost, is that parents are so eager to save their baby that they baptize them and tell themselves that they are saved or confirm them and force them under duress to claim they are saved.
Have you ever thought of King David and his sin with Bathsheba? He is a great example of what I want to convey. But this is what I want to convey first, then we will look at his sin for a perfect illustration.
What a glorious thing to be born a sinner. Yes, that’s right. We will all see one day. How can I be redeemed if I need no redemption? How can I be died for, and covered in His precious blood, and indwelt with His Holy Spirit, if I were not in need of redemption? How dark in my eyes. How desperately sad. What would I have been then? An angel? Oh please no! Bless God Almighty that I was born lost and needed to be found!!! How else would He have found me if He never had to run after me? How else would I know the ominous beauty of His death, and the all-consuming depth of His love toward me, if my heart were not black to begin with and worse, I had no knowledge of it?
How would I be able to comprehend His jealousy for me if I had not been sought by Him!!!! There would have been none…no comprehension of it! Oh, my sin before I knew Him was great but one day He has promised to put it out of my mind. And in His heart and mind it is already done; so much so, that I believe, that in THAT day, He will have made it so that it never occurred. He can turn the clock back you know!
I am not by any means saying that sin is good. It required the crucifixion of the Chosen One. But I am saying that there is a mystery here. It involves free will. God’s Love is so great that it requires a free willed creation to choose it. That same free willed creation will always and eventually choose revolt. But once that same one chooses repentance and salvation, the picture is clear.
Let a man see his sin so he can delight in salvation. That’s what God did with David. Look: David was raised in a godly home. David had a heart receptive to God. This is why he was chosen to be king. But David never had an opportunity to see his depraved heart, so salvation was only so sweet to him, maybe.
God, in His mercy, allowed David to fall. He fell big. But all you have to do is read the Psalms where he laments in agony over his sin and praises God to the utmost for his salvation. We can see that his heart truly did pant after God. David, like us, had to see how depraved his heart really was, so God allowed it. It is because he saw that he loved God so much. Its the same with us.
Ah, but He grants repentance to whom He will! And what a beautiful thing repentance is! How horrible that the apostate church has robbed poor lost souls of the glorious gift of repentance. The false church lies and says repentance is not necessary unto salvation. How horrible. There is an exquisite euphoria to true repentance. Satan is jealous of it. God has not granted it to him or to those who deny the doctrine of repentance. They have no idea what they are missing.
The thing of course they are missing is salvation but let’s look at what salvation is: the indwelling of the Holy Spirit… they cannot know this. Being saved from the second death, damnation…they are doomed. We cannot know the infusion of God within us, without it.
So when we see friends, family, strangers, lost in their sin, don’t despise them…not yet. God hates the evil doer, so despise is not too strong a word. We are to hate the evil and love the good, just like God does. But hold your judgment. Instead, pray, watch, preach, love, and did I say pray?
Let them see!!! Let them see!!! Had I not seen my lost heart I would have never entered rapturous repentance and then salvation. Don’t be guilty of robbing anyone of that.
God opens a heart to repent unto salvation if that heart is destined for it. That is, if He has seen in His all-knowing way that they will repent…as these are the ones whose eyes are opened. He closes the eyes of the ones who will never repent. He knows who is who. The word says He blinds the ones who are willingly blind and opens the eyes of the ones who are willingly open, and He sees it all in advance but still gives everyone equal opportunity to repent. God longs that none perish but that all would come to the saving knowledge of God in Christ Jesus our savior.
The apostate church today is just prettying up the old, dead man. “Come in and love yourself and be a good citizen and do good works”. “Whatever you do, don’t, don’t, don’t repent of sin unto salvation. If you do, then you will know the secret of God and we can’t have that”. Satan has deceived them.
But if we then have tasted that the Lord is good, lets let others taste as well.
Amen!