The other day I sinned in such a way as to shock myself. I have read in books by Mahesh Chavda that fasting is like skimming milk. It causes that which is hidden within you to rise so God can skim it off you. Boy! Did it ever! I could not believe myself. Anyway, in the midst of all my guilt and shame God took that opportunity to teach me about his unmerited favor and what it means when he says I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Flash back to Calvary. Jesus is hanging on that cross for you and me and a great divine exchange is taking place. All our sins are being placed on him so that he is black with it. God the Father, who cannot stand sin backs away from Jesus turning his face away from him. Up till now Jesus has had the awesome presence of the Almighty giving him strength. He feels the Father withdraw from him and cries “Eloi, Eloi, lama Sabachthani?” which means “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” He is totally alone in the world. Utterly naked and abandoned because of the sin that now covers him. But guess what? He went through that so that you and I will never be forsaken even when we fall. What a divine exchange!
If you have accepted the covering of the cross of Jesus which is salvation, when God looks at you he sees you through the lens of what happened on Calvary. This means that when you sin, like I did, God looks at you, sees the blood of Calvary and stays by your side. He never, ever forsakes you because he already forsook Christ at Calvary. When you repent he is quick to forgive you and wash away that guilty stain.
Usually when I sin in a big way (in my human mind there are dimensions of sin) even though I repent I am racked with guilt. Then I go around worrying that God will leave me because of what I did and that he won’t help me anymore or show me the favor I have been enjoying in him up until the “great” sin. This time he told me that no matter what I do, he will not leave me nor forsake me. I must repent and turn away from the sin but his commitment to me, as long as I am in Christ is that he will always be by my side and with that, he will always give me his unmerited favor which is my help.
Christians tend to think that if we are spotless then God will favor us. In truth, there is nothing we can do to merit or deserve God’s favor. That is why it is unmerited favor. You can’t earn it. He just gives it to you. Got it!! The notion that when you sin God backs away from you, which is how many of us were taught about what happened at Calvary, is a half truth. When God sees me, he sees his son on Calvary, remembers that my sins past, present and future are already paid for and stays right by my side. What an awesome revelation! Therefore I can still approach the throne of God with boldness to repent of my sin and ask for the blood of Calvary to wash away that guilty stain so that I will still be presented on that day without spot or wrinkle.
No comments:
Post a Comment