God Loves the Lost – Part 3

God loves the lost, even when the lost don’t love Him in return.

When someone is without a true understanding and personal knowledge of God, they are god-less and so they are lost.  We/they are, by nature, without God’s life and nature (Eph 2:1-3).  We shared God’s nature at one point in our collective past, but that was given up in the Garden of Eden when Adam rebelled against his Father (God) and chose to side with his wife Eve.  Adam rebelled against the commandment and partook of the forbidden fruit, and at that moment he became corrupt. Because sin is passed down through the human male, the corrupt nature of Adam  is shared with each and every one of us(Rom 5:12-14).  Adam became separated from God and received a new father, which was Lucifer – the prince of rebellion.  Lucifer himself is twisted and godless, and so are his children (because people assume the spiritual nature of their fathers).  Adam was corrupted because he assumed the nature of his new father Lucifer, and so Adam has passed that godless nature down to each and every one of us.  Until we receive a new nature from God we are all, in one degree or another, as corrupt as Adam was.

When corrupt men make choices in life (regardless of good or bad intentions), there is a strong possibility that their choices will eventually have corrupt outcomes. Sometimes moral or religious people make better choices, but not due to any inherent goodness.  They follow a pattern that is somehow or in some way tied to Godly principles, and that association will help to produce better results.  Industry, personal responsibility, fairness and impartiality are just some of the examples of godly attributes which will help produce good results, and most religions of the world espouse following those examples. The problem is that if a person does not have a change in nature the essence of the person making those choices is still the same – godless. Once someone is born again and receives a new nature from God, they can then maintain a growing and deepening relationship with God through Christ (referred to as abiding, John 15:1-17). By submitting to the authority of God’s Word we can continually grow in peace, grace and wisdom. Because God set up the structure of authority throughout creation this process can happen to young or old, individuals, families, communities and nations. This process was designed to begin in the home and with the nuclear family as the origin, but any number of individuals can partake of increasing godliness. The inverse, however, is also true. The lack of a godly presence in the home allows all kinds of mischief to become established and grow.

Unfortunately the vast majority of people in the world do what they want simply because it is what they want.  There is something to be gained for them.  They are not so much interested in what effects their choices might have on others because they want to do what they want to do. It’s because their choices fulfill selfish desires.  This selfishness is what drives them to do what they do.  They are compelled to do selfish things because they are self-centered.  Many times people don’t have a counter to this way of thinking because they do not know God’s Word.  They may have heard bits and pieces here and there, or even heard some misquoted Bible verses, but by and large they don’t have a personal understanding of God or His Word.  They are at the mercy of their own sin nature, and of Satan who drives them.  This is the essence of the unregenerate human being.  All is not lost, however, because this is where the power of personal choice comes into play.

God has given each of us one of the most valuable qualities in life, which is the quality of free will.  He does not force or pressure anyone to do anything.  Rather than driving someone to do something, He leads us.  Men drive cattle but lead sheep.  Satan drives others to fulfill his will, but God leads others to do His will.  This is why He refers to us as ‘the sheep of His pasture’ (Ps. 100:3).  Driving, forcing and pressuring others are the devices that Satan uses, because that is his nature.  He is selfish and wants others to do what he wants them to do; willingly is best (because it is more convenient) but by force if necessary.  That, however, is not how God operates.

God is love, and He offers us the choice of following Him or not. It is up to the individual as to whether they will follow or not. Either choice we make (whether to follow Him or not) is honored by God, because He has given us free will and does not force Himself on anyone. As surely as He has given us free will, He has also established consequences (rewards) for the decisions that we make. If we decide to follow His leading and accept the forgiveness and life He offers then the reward for that choice is a new life with Him and adoption into His family.  He again becomes our Father (just as in the original state of Adam) through the new birth, and we have the ability to develop and mature an intimate and eternal relationship with Him. This new birth doesn’t absolve us of trials due to the outcomes of the evil in this world, but rather it gives us hope and peace throughout the troubling times. Eventually we will spend eternity with Him! On the other hand, if we decide to reject that offering of fellowship then we have a different reward. In contrast to a new life, the reward for disobedience is continued spiritual death (separation from God and His nature), along with never-ending strife, anguish and hopelessness.  The end result of continued rebellion is an eternity without Him, labelled as a rebel – just like Lucifer and Adam – and forever separated from God and lost in hell.

God is the opposite of self-centeredness.  God is the same each and every day (Heb 13:8). His nature is unchanging – from everlasting to everlasting (Ps 90:2; Rev 1:8; Ps 102:25-27).  In all these quotes, God carefully chooses to use the present participle in describing His existence. Since God is omnipresent (present everywhere at the same time) He is both at the beginning of time and also at its end. He can’t change because He IS (Ex 3:14). Because He IS, His nature and attributes are consistent and ever-present. So then we understand that God is always the same and He responds the same way all the time! God IS love and He has actively sought you out. He seeks out the lost, therefore when He seeks you it’s not to punish you but to offer you forgiveness! He doesn’t hate you. God is not searching for ways to destroy you, because if He were He would never have sent Christ to die for you, as well as dying for everyone else.

As mentioned earlier, we all live in a fallen world. It is a world that is out of synch with God’s original creation and intent. At one point or another evil comes to everyone in this world because it is filled with sin, but God did not send evil your way because He wants to kill you.  Evil happens to everyone because this world has been corrupted through sin, and bad things happen to each of us as a direct or indirect result. Neither is He delighted when bad things happen to you (because He IS love). The simple truth is that He pities us and has offered a way out of our collective mess. Instead of resigning Himself to the helplessness of our fallen nature and consigning us to death, He has offered us a way to learn and grow from the things which come against us. What is it that we can learn from our trials and circumstances? To come to Him and by doing so to learn to trust Him more and more!

God is not trying to avoid you, either. Instead of avoiding you He wants to build a relationship with you. To prove that fact He actively pursued you and sent Jesus to achieve that very purpose! The issue preventing our acceptance of His gift is that we want to continue in our stubborn desire to do things our own way, instead of following the truth of God’s Word. We also need to understand that, just as He IS love, God IS holy. A holy God cannot allow sin (rebellion  against His Word) to remain unaddressed – not in His presence, in His kingdom or in His creation. At the same time that He wants to have a personal relationship with each of us, sin has effectively put up a barrier preventing that. At this point we should see that God is faced with two seemingly contradictory desires, one of which is forgiveness (due to love) and the other which is judgment (due to holiness). How could He effectively deal with both of His desires – to defeat sin and yet have a personal relationship with each of us? The answer is found in the Person of Jesus Christ! The arrival of Christ provided a way to meet and complete – once and for all – both desires that God has regarding how He deals with fallen people. Christ has not only defeated sin and death, but He has opened the way of life for us, offering the opportunity of fellowship and a deepening relationship with Himself and the Father.

Our individual response to His provision for all Mankind is the key that unlocks the promises of God for us. He does not push or drive us to make the proper choice, but He does lead and encourage us in that direction. So then, it all comes down to the willingness of the individual to repent of sin (doing things apart from God) and believing the gospel (doing things God’s way). This is why Christ came, died and rose again! It was in order to reconcile us to God, so that He could freely offer us this opportunity.

The words “at all” forever answers the question of how God views the condemnation of those who are separated from Him by sin.  He does not make a distinction between those who don’t know Him versus those who rebel against Him.  He simply lets us know how He views those people who, for whatever reason, are not a part of His family.  In my opinion that doesn’t sound like some old bearded guy sitting on a throne somewhere ‘up there.’ Rather, it sounds like Someone who has gone to extraordinary means to find a solution to the separation problem – once and for all.

The sum of all these things leads us to the conclusion that we have a choice in the matter. We can continue in our selfishness and rebellion against God, or we can submit ourselves to the Lord of Life and live. We can try to manage things on our own, or we can be empowered by His life now and rest in the promise of an eternal reward of an unbroken relationship with Christ. The power of choice is why God states that He would rather see the wicked “turn from his ways and live.”  He is not going to make people obey Him, but He has empowered each of us to make the choice. He doesn’t force us to believe in Christ, but it definitely is His desire.