We, Humanity

There is a certain comfort that Christians have begun prescribing to their humanity that follows along the lines of Shakespeare when he writes that "the Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose." The doctrine that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" and created "in the image of God" is familiar, but not perhaps straightforward. We are God's children, created in likeness to him and loved unerringly by him. It's also true that humanity has sinned, and is fallen from birth. Our failure, however, has not caused God to turn away from us, and we find that he loves us still, perhaps even more necessarily. If God loves us at our most fallen moment then he surely continues to love us as we draw closer to him even as we continue to stumble. Unfortunately some Christians have taken God's unconditional love to acquire the idea of a grandmotherly love, the kind that accepts its object as perfect in every way simply because it's a grandchild. The grandmother view of God is harmful to the growth of Christians and nothing more than a sugar pill for sin.

Under the doctrine of grandmother love there is no need for change. God loves a man in his fallen state and God's love is really all we need, so why bother changing? This assumption is based in the idea that because God loves us, he accepts us. That is simply not so. Not in the sense that he will accept our spiritual dormancy until the day of our death when we find it necessary to have an excuse in the presence of Judgment. The apostle states this fact as so: "God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth." If we have claimed salvation through Christ we have received sanctification along with it, and if we are to practice truth then we must discontinue our living in spiritual darkness whether God loves us in such a state or not.

We do not need to worry about finding this light on our own or not being able to reach. If we submit that we are not acceptable in our present state, then God will be free to come in and work within us. Paul's words, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus," give us hope that not only are we changing to be like God, but it is God doing the work and not us. Our job is submission to God and his work is remission of our pride.

Change will hurt us though; nothing becomes better by remaining the same. In many ways change is presented to us in the form of pain, and we all fear it very much. Part of our job then is to realize that this world is not a palace built for our happiness and pleasure, but rather more a prison of sorts for our souls. When we come to terms with the idea that pain and hardship are methods of changing us, and that we live on this earth for that very purpose, we will not look so badly on either. And above all it is imperative to remember that God loves us, that our pain does not result from a lack of God. Our response to the Father when we are in pain should follow the words of the Proverb: "My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." In fact, our pain is often not pain in the real sense, but instead a smudge on our pride. When we do wrong and are caught openly we are hurt because our pride wants to tell us that what we did was right and that we should simply be ignored if it was not. Until we surrender our pride to God we will fear pain and disregard change. Pride cannot be a Christian's final stance on the matter. We must not consider ourselves acceptable as is even if we are lovable; we do not know God fully nor thus what he wants in a finished product, but be confident, God is not finished with us yet.