So I was perusing through my Bible the other day (1 Kings to be exact), looking for some news about Josiah (for a little lesson I was planning for the orphanage we go to every week), and I just happened across a couple of verses that are really neat.
The first set is 1 Kings 15:4-5. Which says (in the NKJV) (Bolding emphasis added by me):
4 Nevertheless, for David’s sake the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, by setting up his son after him and by establishing Jerusalem: 5 because David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
Once a man named Uriah was out being a good soldier and fighting in a war for King David. One evening during that time, King David happened to spy Uriah’s wife bathing. Overcome with desire, he sent for her, and they slept together. Then he sent her home as if nothing happened. THEN she tells David she’s pregnant, and since her husband is still gone, it’s definitely David’s. So David sends for Uriah, and tries to cover up what he did by giving Uriah the opportunity to “spend some quality time” with his wife.
David: You’re working so hard. Why don’t you spend a nice night at home with your wife before you go back to the awful, lonely war? *chuckles to self, pleased with cleverness.*
Uriah: (full of integrity) How could I let myself have all that luxury when my countrymen are in such conditions even now? I will not.
David: (to self) Crap.
So Uriah goes back to the battlefield without having any “quality time” with his wife. Which means he would definitely have a few questions concerning how she got pregnant (or if not ‘how?’, at least ‘with who?!?!’).
David, still not ready to give up, thinks up an elaborate plot. I’m not going to go into all the details (haha, because you know, I’ve been soooo accurate about exact details up til now), but David tells Uriah’s commander exactly how to purposefully place Uriah in a battle position so that he will certainly die. And die he did. After which David took Uriah’s now widow, as his own wife. Illegitimacy problem solved!
So let’s recap. Covetousness? Check. Adultery? Check. Lying? Check. Murder? Check.
I bet some of you didn’t know the Bible was so much fun!
Anyways, THAT’s “the matter of Uriah the Hittite” that the writer of 1 Kings was making reference to. And as I was chuckling, I thought “How can they make it sound like such a non-big deal like that?”
BUT (this is where the ‘Something Neat’ part comes in)…
Here is the second set of verses, and these ones blew my mind. 1 Kings 14:7-8 (Bolding emphasis added by me):
7 “Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel: “Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, 8 and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes;”
So I thought it was funny how a person minimized all of David’s flaws so much… and then I see that God not only forgave them, but forgot them completely! Not a new concept I know; we hear about God remembering your sins no more, but when I just randomly found those verses without even looking, it really hit me.
I hear quite often comments like the following:
About Other People:
“It’s so nice how God can still love that person despite their sins and problems. How quaint.”
OR
“HOW is God loving THAT person?! Doesn’t He see their sins and problems?!?! How scandalous!”
About Ourselves:
(Full of woe) “Ohhhhhhhhhh God. Thank You for loving ME, a wretched, awful, horrible sinner with nothing but problems!”
OR
“God can’t love me. Look at my sin and problems. It would be scandalous. There’s no hope.”
And I was thinking of all those comments when I was reading what God thought about David, and I think when God hears people talk like that, He must be thinking something like (for the next little bit, anything in different font will be how I imagine God thinks sometimes):
“You aren’t getting the point!!!!!! I’m NOT loving them or you or anybody in spite of anything! I am able to 100% FORGET ALL sins and problems and faults and flaws because I have already punished them on the body of Jesus at the cross! I am not keeping a back file somewhere of everything done wrong so that I can bring it up again later, or make anyone feel guilty about it. STOP trying to make people pay for their sins! And STOP STOP STOP trying to deal with all your sins and problems and struggles by yourself!
I love you!
I love you!
I love you!
How much do I love you?! Am I just turning a blind eye to your flaws? Don’t be ridiculous. I am Holy and just. But let’s be honest. The payment you can afford for your sins would never be enough. If I were to require the payment to come from you- you would struggle forever. Precious child. I don’t WANT you to struggle in ANYthing! Forget what you’ve heard about Me from terribly misguided people.
Just focus on Me.
I want you to have a life full of joy and gladness and purpose and fulfillment.
I don’t want you to feel as though you HAVE to do this or you HAVE to do that for me. Or that you are in a bad situation that I threw you into in order to punish you.
I am NOT angry with you.
How much do I love you?
I gave you My Son!! And HE took on ALL your sins and heartaches and problems so that you don’t have to carry them! LOOK:
(Bolding emphasis added) NKJV
Isaiah 53: 4-5
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows;… 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
Some of you think I am still punishing people! That I still require a payment to be made! NO! Often in church you will hear “Jesus died for your sins,” but has it been explained to you? When Jesus died on the cross, He took all the sins of the world on His body. YOUR sins. Even though He was perfect and holy, He gave up His life, for YOU! And I punished all of your sins- all the sins of the world, on Jesus, at the cross. One sacrifice, for ALL time, for ALL people. Now think. If I have already punished ALL sins on Jesus…. If My perfect, holy Son already took punishment from Me for things you’ve done…. Then do you think I would require you to pay for them as well? Do you think I would double-punish? No! I love you! LOOK:
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Jesus took YOUR sins on HIS body and completely put them away! Gone! I don’t just overlook them now, or pass them off as little “matters”… Jesus didn’t just TAKE your sin, He EXCHANGED YOUR sin for HIS righteousness! Problems, struggles, heartache, negative thoughts, addictions… Don’t think you have to deal with them by yourself! Realize that Jesus HAS dealt with them! As far as I am concerned, there is NOTHING between you and Me! There is NOTHING about you that causes Me to hesitate in loving you. To think “Psh. They don’t deserve My love.” TRUST in what Jesus has done for you! Trust in My love for you!
Not so that you can just go to church every Sunday, maybe read your Bible once in a while, and pray to Me when you think I want you too. No no no. That’s not what I want. I want you to experience JOY in EVERY area of your life! Really! I want you to live in the knowledge that Jesus has provided new life for you! That I can help you! In anything you need!! I love you! I love you! I love you!!! LOOK:
Isaiah 54:10
10 For the mountains shall depart And the hills be removed, But My kindness shall not depart from you, Nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” Says the LORD, who has mercy on you.
Ok. So when I started typing this I thought it would be a couple paragraphs…if you are still with me, I’m getting ready to wrap this thing up.
Often, even at our best, most gracious moments, we can only comprehend God minimizing someone’s faults until they are little “matters”. That He sees them but says “Well so-and-so did that, but Jesus paid for it so it’s ok.” But He flat-out, plain as day, DOES NOT REMEMBER THEM ANYMORE.
WOW.
And that’s what it’s talking about in the Bible when you read things like:
2 Corinthians 5:16-19
16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh…. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ… 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them,…
Now. Sometimes people hear this and they think “What are you saying? Since Jesus put away sin are you saying people can just live however they want and God doesn’t care?” No no no no no.
Romans 6:1-3
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
(“Grace” can be defined as the unearned, undeserved, unmerited favour God has given to us through Jesus). Since Jesus has put away all sin, can we keep sinning? No. That’s not even possible if you’ve accepted new life in Christ. You can’t believe Christ has provided new life for you without believing that He accomplished that by dying with your sin. When He died, your old self (sins, addictions, sicknesses) died with Him. When He rose again, you did too- your ‘new creation’ life in Christ that was mentioned earlier!
Romans 6:5-6
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
We WILL be in the likeness of Christ (in actions, speech, etc) KNOWING THIS…. That our sin has been put away with by Jesus! That it has no control over us anymore.
The key is the "KNOWING THIS" part.
A lot of times today, Christians will bring people to church, tell them they need Jesus, maybe get them to say the “sinner’s prayer” and then all of the sudden wallop them with a bunch of stuff they need to do to keep God happy.
“Read your Bible! Pray to God every day! Stop drinking! Stop having sex before marriage! Watch your language! Etc etc etc” and they get mad if the people don’t start having all this Christ-like behavior. But look above to the verses in Romans again. Us being in the likeness of Christ will only come after we are taught that He has put away our sins once and for all. That it is no longer our fight to win. That we are more than conquerors of any behaviors because of what Jesus has done on our behalf. And once people realize just what Jesus has done for them, you don’t have to tell them how to live (not really your job to begin with)- they have new creation Jesus life in them! Trust me, once they understand, they can’t help but show it.
I don’t know any more if my target audience for this is my Jesus believing friends or my Jesus non-believing friends, but if you got anything from any of this than it was for you.
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