By David ReayWednesday 24 Jan 2018LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 2 minutes
Read Romans 1:21-24
21-23 What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.
24-25 So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. (THE MESSAGE)
We sometimes imagine God’s judgement to be his hurling down thunderbolts from heaven, spittle flecking his lips, an angry furrowing of eyebrows. But his judgement takes another form. Our text sees it as God simply letting us do what we have set our hearts on doing.
God says, in effect, if you really want to pursue that course, speak those words, think those thoughts, then have it your way. I will do all I can to dissuade you. I have after all offered you new life through the costly sacrifice of my Son’s life. I have shown you a better way and plead with you to take it. But if, after all that, you spurn my help, then so be it.
This may sound harsh. We may even prefer the idea of thunderbolts. But God is honouring our freedom. He certainly wants no-one to perish. He doesn’t want anyone to live in what our translation says is a ‘pigpen’. But if that is where we choose to make our home, he is not going to drag us kicking and screaming into a delightful palace.
God does not give up on any of us. Till our dying breath he tries to get us to come to our senses. But if we will not, he respects our choice. His love of us does not mean control of us. Our freedom is both a delight and a danger.
Blessings
David Reay