Consequences

Today’s devotional makes me think about consequences, cause and effect, and the spiritual laws that God has created. As the Bible says, we reap what we sow.

But how does that work? I know people who do whatever they please and never seem to face consequences. Morally, their lives mock God but He has not struck them with lightning. The best biblical responses are that God is being merciful, or that they are piling up wrath. People can fill their shopping cart with whatever junk they find, but someday they will go through the check-out. Consequences will happen later.

The psalms have several sections about this. Most of them say something like this:

“Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.” (Psalm 37:1–2)

The idea is that those who do evil without repentance will eventually pay the price. The NT calls this the law of sin and death.

For Christians, Jesus eliminated that eternal consequence. That is, for every sin I commit Jesus suffered the price at the check-out. He wrote “It is finished” on the debt I owe by taking my place and paying it.

But what about the consequences in this life? If I robbed a bank, does the death and resurrection of my Savior keep me out of jail? Hardly. If I cheat and lie, will I prosper? Not so. The Scriptures are clear; God rebukes and corrects His children when we violate His will:

“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:6–11)

Consequences, and the quicker the better, are one of God’s ways to bring my life into obedience. Like any child, if I’m allowed to get away with my rebellion, then what? These verses suggest that without discipline I cannot claim to be in God’s family. Getting away with sin is the mark of those who do not believe or belong to Him!

“Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” (Romans 2:4–5)

No immediate consequence for sin is merciful in that God can use this to lead sinful people to Him, but anyone who keeps at their ungodly behavior is not thinking about eternal consequences. They are taking mercy for granted, and that is dangerous.

Tozer uses this verse: “Good sense wins favor, but the way of the treacherous is their ruin.” (Proverbs 13:15) The Holy Spirit tells me that I need to work with the spiritual laws of God. I cannot change them by presumption. If I want His favor in my life, then I cannot mess around. Knowing Christ died for my sin is not going to avoid repercussions in this life. If I presume so, I will suffer losses of some kind, losses that rob me of the full joy of my salvation. Would I want this to be any other way? I don’t think so. I want God to be serious about sin.

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Lord Jesus, I hate this awareness of ‘gloom and doom’ but need to think about it lest I step off the path of righteousness into unprofitable paths. In You, I am free from the law of sin and death, but not free from the effects of deliberate sin. Thank You for grace and mercy. Thank You also for being serious about my sin.

Relentless and overwhelming Grace

John Henry Jowett writes that he walked by the incoming sea and read the following verses to the accompaniment of the incoming tide. He said that the onrush of the ocean seemed to get into the words, as if the grace of God was roaring toward him and toward the entire human race in an overwhelming and glorious flood.

In (Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight… (Ephesians 1:7–8)

God often uses the circumstances of life as an exclamation mark for the truths He shows me from His Word. Faith in Him is a practical and real part of my life. I am thankful for all His “comments” that link truth with experience, just as Jowett was grateful for the ocean’s suggestion of energy in the ministry of grace. As he says, grace is too commonly regarded as a pleasing sentiment, a gentle feeling of favor toward us by God, but such an interpretation is weak. Grace is not like a shimmering lake, but like the “sunlit majesty of an advancing sea.” Grace is a superior and indescribable force, the energy of God “washing against the polluted shores of human need.”

I agree. I’m far from the ocean at the moment, but can imagine grace as a tide, as God’s deliberate choice to love us and want the best for us, over and over, like waves at the shore. Grace is more than a favorable inclination on His part, but a surging energy that moves toward sinners like the fullness of an ocean tide.

In the past few weeks, this amazing grace has washed over me time and time again, like a relentless tidal power. I’ve struggled with temptation and grace is there. I’ve opened the Word and grace has opened my heart to the beauty of God. Sometimes I’ve expected chastening blows, but been surprised by a glorious refreshing. The grace of God is incredible and unexpected. It woos the heart and mends all brokenness. My attempts to describe it are wimpy, but grace is never weak. It energizes and heals with unspeakable power.

It is grace that enables God’s people to do right. Notice the connection in these verses between grace and action…

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:7–8)

This instance is about giving, but it is true in all instances. No matter what God asks me to do, His grace abounds that I might do it. His grace is the dynamic of obedience, the energy of all decisions made to serve Jesus Christ. Grace is also from God alone, not in any thing I have or can do apart from Him. This is why He says, “Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace…” (Hebrews 13:9)

Grace is not license. That is, the goodness of God does not roll over my life so that I might freely do whatever sin invites me to do. That presumption fits the way of a determined sinner and is the way that leads to death.

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. (Romans 2:4–5)

Grace is poured out, washed over, splashed on me lavishly, that I would turn from sin and walk into the roaring surf of grace with confidence in the God who wants me to experience Him in oceanic fullness. He is never like the scanty trickle in a stream during a drought, but always like the powerful waves of a never-ceasing ocean tide.