The Cross Did Not Change God

This past week, in my sermon, I mentioned the Covenant of Redemption.  This covenant was made between the three persons of the Trinity - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  The Father agreed to elect his people, the Son agreed to be the redeemer, and the Spirit agreed to apply redemption.  God planned this from the beginning.  However, some of us might think that Jesus' death on the cross changed the way God felt about us.  Not so.  God has always pursued His people with an everlasting love.  I ran across the following words from A.W. Tozer during my personal devotion and I thought it complimented the sermon from this past week.  I hope you find these words comforting and know that God has always loved you - nothing can or has ever changed His love for you.

"The cross did not change God. “I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6). The work of Christ on the cross did not influence God to love us, did not increase that love by one degree, did not open any fount of grace or mercy in His heart. He had loved us from old eternity and needed nothing to stimulate that love. The cross is not responsible for God’s love; rather it was His love which conceived the cross as the one method by which we could be saved.
God felt no different toward us after Christ had died for us, for in the mind of God Christ had already died before the foundation of the world. God never saw us except through atonement. The human race could not have existed one day in its fallen state had not Christ spread His mantle of atonement over it. And this He did in eternal purpose long ages before they led Him out to die on the hill above Jerusalem. All God’s dealings with man have been conditioned upon the cross.
Much unworthy thinking has been done about the cross, and a lot of injurious teaching has resulted. The idea that Christ rushed in breathless to catch the upraised arm of God ready to descend in fury upon us is not drawn from the Bible. It has arisen from the necessary limitations of human speech in attempting to set forth the fathomless mystery of atonement.
Neither is the picture of Christ going out trembling to the cross to appease the wrath of God in accordance with the truth. The Scriptures never represent the Persons of the Trinity as opposed to or in disagreement with each other. The Holy Three have ever been and will forever be one in essence, in love, in purpose.
We have been redeemed not by one Person of the Trinity putting Himself against another but by the three Persons working in the ancient and glorious harmony of the Godhead."


Tozer, A. W. (2005). The radical cross : Living the passion of Christ (118–119). Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread.

Chick Fil A, Causes, Politics and the Gospel

I don't know about you, but I am pretty weary. I am weary from all of the rhetoric, the causes, the hatred, the politics, the same old, same old coming from all sides of any debate, and especially experts who aren't really experts. I am probably guilty of some of the rhetoric on social networking in my own little corner of the world. When I write, I try to think through things and wait until I have something that I think is worth hearing. As everyone knows, a Christian man who owns a fast food chain recently said that he likes marriage the way the God of the Bible says He likes marriage. It's plain and simple. He did not say he hates gay people. He did not say that he would not serve gay people. He said that he personally believes that gay marriage is a sin and not God's plan for marriage. By the way, as I understand it, the man was asked a simple question about what he believes. He answered honestly at great risk to himself. He is to be commended no matter what side of the debate you land on.

Here it is plain and simple, gay marriage and homosexuality, according to the God of the Bible, are sinful. Both the Old and New Testament say that homosexuality is wrong and sinful. Yes, the Old Testament also says that eating shellfish is wrong - in Leviticus. If you want to go there, we can. Jesus, who is God by the way, said that all foods are declared clean and so he, God, brought a new way of doing things. Peter had a vision from God in the New Testament about food as well in which God, just in case Peter had missed it when Jesus walked the earth, told Peter to eat any food he wanted. So your shellfish law argument is just theological throw up. However, God did not provide any disciple with a vision concerning homosexuality - just the opposite. That is why Paul declares it an abomination. That is why Jesus defines marriage as between a man and a woman - yes that Jesus - reinforces God's creation mandate and tells us under no uncertain terms that God wants men and women together in marriage - one man, one woman. Period. I have numerous conversations with gay people, gay friends, and so on, and the sane ones all agree that this is what the Bible says. They choose not to believe it. Mr. Chick Fil A has chosen to believe it and hold to it. Praise God someone still has intestinal fortitude. Now before you Christian straight politically conservative people get all excited, remember that God also calls gossips an abomination. He groups them in with murderers, gluttons, liars, thieves and the like. I have been in church my whole life and church's are full of loose lipped liars, gluttons, thieves, homosexuals, adulterers and murderers (by Jesus' definition). Many of you have gotten very excited that there is finally a big business that agrees with your convictions about the Scriptures. I must admit, it is encouraging. But isn't it enough that the God of the Bible already agrees with you? Shouldn't your passion be the same day in a day out? Not if it is driven by a cause rather than the Gospel. The response has been obviously overwhelming. I saw one Chick Fil A off of a main road where I live that looked like the Beatles had been reincarnated and were performing a roof top concert. Lots of people were joining the cause. Meanwhile, lots of people supporting gay marriage are also joining their cause. Everyone is lining up behind their favorite Mormon and favorite professing Christian President so that they can wage a moral war. Every four years we get excited about the cause and a new Messiah. We get excited about politics and change and hope. Yet we continue to live nominal lives where Jesus doesn't make much of a difference. But what about the Gospel. One of the main things I hear from gay people is that Christians love to pile on the rhetoric when it comes to homosexuality. Many of these pastors are struggling with their own secret and public sins. They see hypocrisy. We join up on a political side, we talk of legislating morality, and meanwhile we forget that Jesus said, when given the perfect opportunity, "My Kingdom is not of this world." Do you know what that says in the original Greek? "My Kingdom is not of this world." In other words, when answering Pilate and facing death, Jesus said, "Your politics are not my cause. My cause is the Kingdom of God." The Kingdom of God is about repentance and faith. That is the cause of the Christian. What do you expect a non-believing person to believe about marriage? They can believe anything they want because they have no moral guide or law. What do you expect a nation to legislate that is not founded on the Gospel? What do you expect from them? The job of the Christian is to tell the entire world about Jesus and teach them everything we have been taught. We are to call them to faith in Jesus, repentance unto life and to be baptized. We are then called to disciple them and show them Jesus. The Holy Spirit does the changing work. What if our government legislates morality? Do you know what President George W. Bush said when asked about his view on abortion? He said, "You cannot legislate the heart." In effect he said that hearts had to change and then and only then would the law change. Isn't that the truth? Think about slavery. Slavery didn't change in England until hearts were changed. Slavery didn't change in the U.S. until hearts were changed. There is still extreme prejudice because hearts haven't changed in some parts of the country and world. It is about heart change. What changes hearts? The Gospel changes hearts. "I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God to save." Christians aren't called to a cause we are called to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Do we actually trust that God changes people when we preach? Paul said that the foolishness of preaching is God's method of change - real heart change. And by preaching I don't solely mean what I do for an hour on Sunday mornings. Preaching is the job of anyone who is a witness to the power of the Gospel. I can't imagine what kind of effectiveness the church would have if they were just as excited about a crushed savior on a cross, who rose again and is reigning now as they are about a CEO's statement on gay marriage. Can you imagine? I know there are other issues in this whole Chick Fil A ordeal and the response of the media. There is hypocrisy all around. When a conservative person says what he believes, he is ultimately crushed for it. We talk of freedom of speech and religious freedom yet those liberties seem to be slipping away. I would suggest that the liberty of conviction is slipping away. There is room for concern and humble debate on these issues. But is your passion a cause, or is it the Gospel. And might I ask what have we done with our religious freedom up unto this point? For years and years, Christians have been able to say what they want when they want without much of a firestorm. Maybe our freedom has silenced us? I know the issue is complex and I can't address it perfectly in a blog. But I do pray for the church and for those outside the church - I pray we will not be ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God to save those inside the church and outside the church.

Why Jesus is All That Matters

The following words have been borrowed from my personal study this morning.  It is too good not to share and better said than anything I could write today.  Many people often wonder how a loving God could condemn some and save others.  This question is a result of a misunderstanding of the holiness and love of God.  Out of God's holiness comes perfect justice.  Out of God's love comes perfect mercy.  A.W. Tozer explains this concept for us today.  I pray this will draw you to Christ the way it has drawn me.  Enjoy.

"Jesus Christ is God, and all I’ve said about God describes Christ. He is unitary. He has taken on Himself the nature of man, but God the Eternal Word, who was before man and who created man, is a unitary being and there is no dividing of His substance. And so that Holy One suffered, and His suffering in His own blood for us was three things. It was infinite, almighty and perfect.

Infinite means without bound and without limit, shoreless, bottomless, topless forever and ever, without any possible measure or limitation. And so the suffering of Jesus and the atonement He made on that cross under that darkening sky was infinite in its power.

It was not only infinite but almighty. It’s possible for good men to “almost” do something or to “almost” be something. That is the fix people get in because they are people. But Almighty God is never “almost” anything. God is always exactly what He is. He is the Almighty One. Isaac Watts said about His dying on the cross, “God the mighty Maker died for man the creature’s sin.” And when God the Almighty Maker died, all the power there is was in that atonement. You never can over-state the efficaciousness of the atonement. You never can exaggerate the power of the cross.

And God is not only infinite and almighty but perfect. The atonement in Jesus Christ’s blood is perfect; there isn’t anything that can be added to it. It is spotless, impeccable, flawless. It is perfect as God is perfect. So Anselm’s question, “How dost Thou spare the wicked if Thou art just?” is answered from the effect of Christ’s passion. That holy suffering there on the cross and that resurrection from the dead cancels our sins and abrogates our sentence.

Where and how did we get that sentence? We got it by the application of justice to a moral situation. No matter how nice and refined and lovely you think you are, you are a moral situation—you have been, you still are, you will be. And when God confronted you, God’s justice confronted a moral situation and found you unequal, found inequity, found iniquity.

Because He found iniquity there, God sentenced you to die. Everybody has been or is under the sentence of death. I wonder how people can be so jolly under the sentence of death. “The soul who sins is the one who will die” (Ezekiel 18:20). When justice confronts a moral situation in a man, woman, young person or anybody morally responsible, then either it justifies or condemns that person. That’s how we got that sentence.

Let me point out that when God in His justice sentences the sinner to die, He does not quarrel with the mercy of God; He does not quarrel with the kindness of God; He does not quarrel with His compassion or pity, for they are all attributes of a unitary God, and they cannot quarrel with each other. All the attributes of God concur in a man’s death sentence. The very angels in heaven cried out and said,

      “You are just in these judgments,
      you who are and who were, the Holy One,
      because you have so judged;…”
      “Yes, Lord God Almighty,
      true and just are your judgments.”
         (Revelation 16:5, 7)

You’ll never find in heaven a group of holy beings finding fault with the way God conducts His foreign policy. God Almighty is conducting His world, and every moral creature says, “True and just are your judgments.… Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne” (Revelation 16:7, Psalm 89:14). When God sends a man to die, mercy and pity and compassion and wisdom and power concur—everything that’s intelligent in God concurs in the sentence.

But oh, the mystery and wonder of the atonement! The soul that avails itself of that atonement, that throws itself out on that atonement, the moral situation has changed. God has not changed! Jesus Christ did not die to change God; Jesus Christ died to change a moral situation. When God’s justice confronts an unprotected sinner that justice sentences him to die. And all of God concurs in the sentence! But when Christ, who is God, went onto the tree and died there in infinite agony, in a plethora of suffering, this great God suffered more than they suffer in hell. He suffered all that they could suffer in hell. He suffered with the agony of God, for everything that God does, He does with all that He is. When God suffered for you, my friend, God suffered to change your moral situation.

The man who throws himself on the mercy of God has had the moral situation changed. God doesn’t say, “Well, we’ll excuse this fellow. He’s made his decision, and we’ll forgive him. He’s gone into the prayer room, so we’ll pardon him. He’s going to join the church; we’ll overlook his sin.” No! When God looks at an atoned-for sinner He doesn’t see the same moral situation that He sees when He looks at a sinner who still loves his sin. When God looks at a sinner who still loves his sin and rejects the mystery of the atonement, justice condemns him to die. When God looks at a sinner who has accepted the blood of the everlasting covenant, justice sentences him to live. And God is just in doing both things.

When God justifies a sinner everything in God is on the sinner’s side. All the attributes of God are on the sinner’s side. It isn’t that mercy is pleading for the sinner and justice is trying to beat him to death, as we preachers sometimes make it sound. All of God does all that God does. When God looks at a sinner and sees him there unatoned for (he won’t accept the atonement; he thinks it doesn’t apply to him), the moral situation is such that justice says he must die. And when God looks at the atoned-for sinner, who in faith knows he’s atoned for and has accepted it, justice says he must live! The unjust sinner can no more go to heaven than the justified sinner can go to hell. Oh friends, why are we so still? Why are we so quiet? We ought to rejoice and thank God with all our might!

I say it again: Justice is on the side of the returning sinner. First John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Justice is over on our side now because the mystery of the agony of God on the cross has changed our moral situation. So justice looks and sees equality, not inequity, and we are justified. That’s what justification means.

Do I believe in justification by faith? Oh, my brother, do I believe in it! David believed in it and wrote it into Psalm 32. It was later quoted by one of the prophets. It was picked up by Paul and written into Galatians and Romans. It was lost for awhile and relegated to the dust bin and then brought out again to the forefront and taught by Luther and the Moravians and the Wesleys and the Presbyterians. “Justification by faith”—we stand on it today.

When we talk about justification, it isn’t just a text to manipulate. We ought to see who God is and see why these things are true. We’re justified by faith because the agony of God on the cross changed the moral situation. We are that moral situation. It didn’t change God at all. The idea that the cross wiped the angry scowl off the face of God and He began grudgingly to smile is a pagan concept and not Christian.
God is one. Not only is there only one God, but that one God is unitary, one with Himself, indivisible. And the mercy of God is simply God being merciful. And the justice of God is simply God being just. And the love of God is simply God loving. And the compassion of God is simply God being compassionate. It’s not something that runs out of God—it’s something God is!"

Taken from, Tozer, A. W. (2005). The radical cross : Living the passion of Christ (6–10). Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread.

19 Years Gone By

Today I rode my bike 44 miles round trip to pay a visit to my brother Mark's grave in Wilmington, Delaware.  It was hot as hell and not the easiest ride with wind in my face.  But I finally made it.  I sort of just decided to take the trip and figured it might become something I do every July 6th as a tradition.

It was just as hot today as it was in 1993 when we buried my 16 year old younger brother.  As I pulled into Gracelawn Memorial Park some of the memories came flooding back.  I remembered pulling into that same park 19 years ago in a limousine that MBNA Bank had rented for us (Mark and I were both employees annoying people with telemarketing calls).  Our family was stuffed into the limousine and we laughed on the way to the grave site.  I remember pulling up and the car fell silent.  The door opened, the heat came rushing in and it was like I was suffocating.  For some reason I remember the walk to the grave and coffin being so much longer than it actually is.  It seemed like our waiting friends and family were miles and miles away.

Honestly, I don't think I had ever been to a burial before in my life.  Watching my dad struggle through the Psalms, the benediction and a chorus song was my first experience at a grave site.  It was horrible.  It was a tiny piece of hell.  I didn't cry much and I don't remember why.  I was just overwhelmed.  We didn't stay long.  It was fast - very fast.

I have visited my brothers grave several times over the past 19 years.  Every single time I go I come away with the same feeling and thought - there is nothing for me there.  Today, those words were ringing in my ears as I walked the same walk we walked 19 years ago.  I placed my bike up against a tree and walked out to Mark's grave marker.  It looks the same as it has for 19 years only with a bit of aging but there is nothing for me there.  It made me think of the women who went to visit Jesus' grave on the first Easter morning.  What were they looking for?  What did they think they would find?  They were going because tradition and custom demanded that they go.  They expected to find a beaten and bloodied dead man.  They expected to find Mary's son, the itinerant preacher turned failed messiah wrapped in grave clothes.

Instead, they were the first ones to hear the earth shattering, history changing, universe shaping news, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?"  I think that is why we go to grave sites.  We go because we want to remember the living.  But why do we look for living among the dead?  But wait, isn't my brother dead?  Aren't I going to visit the dead among the dead?  Yes and no.  Already and not yet.

Mark did die.  There is no mistaking this awful truth.  He was 16 and he should be 35.  He should have been playing music with me tonight.  He should have a little extra weight, a beautiful wife and children.  He should. But he isn't.  He died.  However, because he believed what he believed, because he knew Jesus was Savior, because he knew his sins were forgiven, because he gave his life to Jesus, when he took his last breath in that car, he met Jesus.  He is alive.  He is absent from the body but he is present with Christ.  He is with Jesus and like Jesus.  Why do I look for the living among the dead?

I am not trying to cheapen the sting of death.  But I am trying to live by the promise that death's sting has been crushed.  Jesus has destroyed the grave.  Even so, death is still death, we live in a period of already and not yet and so that is why there have been 19 years of grief.  I miss my brother Mark.  More than that I hate how my mom and dad have to live wondering why and what if?  But they also taught me in the midst of their grief to live in the already and not yet.

Time has gone by very quickly.  I don't hurt the way I used to.  I wonder why and what if but the bigger question now is "When?"  When will God make all of this right?  When will God wipe away the tears, crush the cancers, destroy evil once and for all and reign victorious over a new heaven and new earth?  For me it is not a question of "Will He?"  it is a question of "When Will He?"  That is why I can ride 44 miles to my brothers grave on a hot July afternoon and leave with confidence knowing that there is no reason to look for the living among the dead.  Jesus is coming back.  Bank on it.

The God Particle and the Easter Bunny

The news is out that scientists have discovered "the God Particle."  This particle, as theorized by some in the scientific community, has given us some insight into the origins of our world and the universe.  One article from yahoo news says, "Fermilab Staff Scientist Robert Roser says the Higgs boson is a particle that attracts other particles, and explains how matter has mass.  This gives clues to how planets, and ultimately life, is formed.  But he points out his colleagues at CERN were careful to say they found a "Higgs-like" object, but not the Higgs boson itself."  In other words, contrary to public belief, the "God particle" known as the Higgs boson has not been found.  And that is why I am writing today.

Before I get to my main point let me say that I love science.  I love how small science can make humanity feel.  It is humbling to see a picture of space from the eye of the Hubble Telescope.  When we understand that there are trillions of stars and many trillions more that we will never see I am immediately humbled.  Science continues to draw me to the Creator.  Many Christians might be afraid of science but I am not.  I love it and I love what comes from it.  I am however saddened that when humans discover something great they immediately look for ways to disprove the existence of God.  The God Particle, astronomy, physics, biology, and all of the sciences prove that God has done something wonderful - create.

What happens with stories like the God particle is that the general public will not investigate before they propagate.  They will read quick headlines, tweets, facebook statuses and a listen to a few jokes about how stupid God is and how cool science is from the likes of Bill Maher and they will assemble all of this into one giant fact - the God particle means there is no God.  But we will fail to realize that our conclusion that God is dead is based on non-facts.  Right now all that has been proven is that there is no God - particle.  We have looked and we have not yet found it.

All of the sudden scientific rules (which many don't understand or take into consideration) will be forgotten and bloggers and facebook trolls will begin to argue from idiocy rather than intelligent discussion.  For example, the "God particle" is not called the "God particle" by serious scientists.  Second, the particle has not been found and there is only theory rather than real scientific evidence that it actually exists.  Third, even if the particle does exist, and I think it would be cool if they do discover it, it does not disprove the existence of God or His creation of the world.  It only tells us more about how God got things done.  But somehow, we will hold onto catch phrases, comedy routines and what our most intelligent facebook friend said about the God particle rather than what the truth actually is.

When I was younger my parents would hide an Easter Egg basket on Easter Sunday morning and each of my brothers and sister would search for the basket as my mom and dad would chant "colder" or "warmer" depending on how close we were to finding the basket.  Obviously, the closer we got the "hotter" the chant would become.  When we found the basket we hugged our mom and dad and thanked them.  Never did we imagine that an actual Easter bunny came into our house and left a basket full of Reeses Cups.

Science is like an Easter Egg hunt in my humble opinion.  We are looking for answers and we are delighted when we find answers.  However, when we discover something incredible we act like children who believe that an actual Easter bunny left the eggs for us rather than our parents.  Scientists have been looking for this God particle for years and have spent millions of dollars and countless hours hard at work.  You can almost hear God saying, "Warmer, warmer, hot, hot, hot!"  as the scientists came closer and closer to discovery.  But now that we have found something significant we begin to give credit to ourselves, to chance, to fate and to chaos - the Easter bunny - rather than God.

Romans 1 tells us that we are in the sinful habit of giving credit where credit is not due.  Our sinful nature causes us to look at creation and attribute it to something else or someone else other than God.  That is exactly where science has gone wrong.  Science should be about discovering what God has done and how He has done it.  Instead we are out to prove that our parents would never leave us a basket full of candy because the Easter bunny makes more sense.

Tonight I will go home after a long day at work.  I will hang out with my family.  I will play music with our band.  I will lay down in my bed and eventually turn on the Science Channel before falling asleep.  I will go to sleep knowing that I am pretty insignificant but that God has done something wonderful.  I have lived another day on a planet that continues to orbit and rotate around a sun that continues to feed life.  I will give Him thanks that He didn't leave anything up to chance.

Jesus and Gay Marriage

This past week, President Barack Obama revealed in an interview that he personally believes that the U.S Government should allow gay marriage.  He confessed that this was a personal journey and that it had taken time for him to arrive at his conclusion.  Personally, I am not shocked by President Obama's revelation.  I am also not shocked that gay marriage is such a hot topic in our country and around the world.  However, what disturbed me most about our President's interview was how he invoked the name of Jesus in order to seemingly back up his claim.

The problem with Obama's statement doesn't have so much to do with his declaration in support of gay marriage (who didn't know that was coming?) as it does with his theological statements. Let me make this clear - Jesus and our President are not in agreement on gay marriage.  Jesus' view on marriage is stated clearly in the Scriptures - it is between a man and woman. Many would argue that all Jesus cares about is love.  It is true that Jesus desires we would love one another but he makes sure to define that love because he knows how desperate and evil our hearts can become. Jesus defines what he means by loving one another by first starting with the Greatest Commandment - Love God. The love we are to have for our neighbor is defined by the first command. That is why after giving us the first and greatest commandment to love God he says, "and the second is like it - love your neighbor as yourself." True love begins with "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, strength." Our love for God and His commands defines our love for one another. God defines Himself, not us.

So if we are to love God we should look at what He says about cultural issues. God has made it clear in His Word that homosexuality is wrong - regardless of our feelings on the matter, how we think we are born, or what our natural proclivities are. God also tells us not to trust our feelings on the matter and to forget following our heart. Our hearts are deceitful above all things. If our President and others are going to quote "the Golden Rule" then they must allow Jesus his presupposition that our love for God defines our love for one another. In other words if you don't love God as God defines himself then your love for others is distorted - which is why so many can justify their sin under the guise that Obama uses (The Golden Rule).  

Jesus, on his numerous teachings about marriage defines it as between a man and a woman. I say all that to say that if we are going to bring Jesus into the argument, then Obama and any professing Christian has no moral ground to stand on to justify gay marriage. Plain and simple - take it or leave it. If we want to invoke the Scriptures as President Obama has done then we must deal with the Scriptures alone on the issue. Obama is trying to have it both ways. And that is my main problem with his statement. He is trying to justify his decision by using Scripture. It just can't be done. 

If you are a follower of Jesus than you cannot agree with the decision Obama has made. I have gay friends who understand this very clearly and it is a big struggle for them. They know what the Bible says about their choices. One of my friends who is a practicing homosexual recently wrote to me, “I would agree that you can't defend gay marriage with Scripture. ..So, yeah, if Obama is using Jesus to defend his views, then I can see why churches would get upset.”  My friend does not try to cover up their choices with justifications and platitudes about what they want Jesus to say. They know what Jesus says, they know what the Law and Prophets say and they choose to live in rebellion against God. I have more respect for those who know that their behavior is in opposition to the Christian faith and admit it and are still able to be my friend and care for me just as I do for them. We don't live in this pretend relationship that all is good. We have opposing viewpoints but still love one another.

Obama has tried to associate Jesus’ teaching with his own decisions concerning gay marriage.  My main problem with his statement is that he tries to justify his personal and political beliefs with Scripture. In this case, it just can't be done. I would rather him say, "I know that the Bible teaches that homosexuality is a sin. I know that the Bible teaches that marriage is between a man and a woman. I just don't agree with the Bible on this issue so I am going with what I believe, not with what God says is truth." I think it would take more intestinal fortitude for him to say that he is in disagreement with the Bible rather than try and straddle both lines. His personal beliefs don't line up with Scripture regardless of whether or not they line up with the Constitution. I don't think that he is to force Christian values on the U.S. but he also cannot call non-Christian values, "Christian". That is my problem with his speech. What he has said, and the decision he has made is in no-way Christian or in line with the Scriptures. President Obama, like so many of us, is trying to make something fit into an unscriptural view of God and call it Christian. His decision is thoroughly in rebellion with what God has declared in the Bible - President or not.

(Portions of this post have been adapted from a facebook conversation I had with many others concerning President Barack Obama's decision to announce he is pro-gay marriage.)

Covered

"Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, who sin is covered.  

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no inquity,"

During one of my spring breaks while in college I took a road trip with two of my buddies to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a surf trip.  Just a few days into the trip I decided that I wanted a new surf board.  I didn't have the funds to purchase a new surf board.  The trip I was on had been paid for by my parents so that I could get away for a little bit.  My dad had given me his Mastercard to use in case of emergencies.  Something inside of me was able to somehow justify a new surfboard as an emergency.  So I spent 650.00 on my dad's card to pick up my new board and board bag and a few accessories.  It was a sweet board.  It had the WRV symbol and fire and flames emblazoned all over it.  I can't possibly tell you what I was thinking when I handed the cashier my dad's GM Gold Card.  I honestly don't remember how I could have been so foolish.  I didn't have permission to purchase this board.  I didn't have the cash to purchase the board.  I was on a trip that had been paid for by my parents out of the goodness of their hearts and love for me.  Why not abuse their grace?

I can't remember if I told my dad that I purchased the board or if he had to confront me.  But when he did find out we set up a payment plan so that  could pay my debt back. The problem was that I had other debts from other foolish spending.  I was sporadic with repayment to say the least.  I was able to pay the debt down by a few dollars every month.  My dad should have taken the money out of my hide.  He could have thrown me out of the house.  He could have made me work the debt off.  He could have made me earn what I had spent plus interest.  He could have held that fact over my head that I had abused his trust and the gift of an expense paid vacation.  But he didn't do any of this.  Instead, he forgave me.

My dad didn't just forgive me in spirit.  He paid for my debt.  One day he gave me a card.  When I opened the card I saw a few hand written words which simply said,

"From the man in whose house you are livin'

Do not fear, thy debt is forgiven!"

I don't think I was able to fully register what my dad was saying upon reading these words.  If I am honest, I probably had forgotten that I owed my dad the money because I had other debts that were pressing.  When I realized what my dad had done, the weight of my own sin against him weighed down on me.  But when I looked up my dad was smiling - I knew I had been given a great gift.  

My dad was telling me that he had me covered.  I didn't deserve to be covered, but because of his great love for me he covered me. My dad never again spoke of the debt.  He never asked me to "remember that time."  He simply didn't count what had been owed to him.  

Our sin against God is much greater - infinitely greater.  We do our very best to diminish our sin.  We say that our sin is not greater than our neighbor.  We compare ourselves to cruel men and women throughout history and think that we stand up pretty well and that God will simply overlook our sins because we just aren't that evil.  But we are sinful.  We are full of evil intent and action and yet God offers to not count our iniquity and sin against us.  He has covered us by the blood of Jesus Christ.  What does God ask of us?  To confess our sins, repent of our sins, and trust that He will not hold them against us because we have been bought with a price by His grace.  

When we try to hide our sin, manage our sin, excuse our sin or pay for our sin on our own we end up wasting away.  We cannot be our own savior.  The Psalmist knew this when he wrote, "For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away."  Don't waste away.  Don't allow sin to tear you up from the inside out.  Don't allow sin to crush you.  Jesus has crushed your sin.  

The Psalmist writes, "I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and you forgave the iniquity of my sin."  There is nothing you have done, said, or thought that God is not able to forgive.  I want to encourage you not to live under the religious burden of trying to fix yourself.  We owe a great debt and yet God has offered to pay that debt.  When you first read the words of the Psalmist, that God has you covered, you may not realize the amazing depth of God's grace.  But look to God, His greatness, His holiness, His transcendence and you will see just how great His gift of forgiveness is.