Imagine

Imagine a world where no one ever went to bed hungry, where everyone was trustworthy and kind and generous, where there were no weeds, no insect pests, no venomous snakes or other such creatures

Imagine a world where no one was ever injured or killed by a drunk driver, a mugger, or even by accident, where everyone awoke strong and healthy and full of energy every day, where there were no eyeglasses, hearing aids, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, MS, or any other such things.

Imagine a world where no one was motivated by fear, guilt, shame, anger, bitterness or revenge - one where everyone had a meaningful life, enjoyable to themselves and significant in the community, best of all, there is no sign of this life ending. There are no hospitals, hospices, hearses – crypts, mausoleums, or cemeteries.

I've invited you to imagine such a world, but it's hard, isn't it. We struggle to concieve of such a world because so much of our time every day is devoted to dealing with or overcoming at least some of the negative things I just mentioned.

Yet, such a world has strong appeal to us. Why? — Because God designed us to live in just such a place. A world as I've just described, and better, was precisely the kind of place God intended for His human creatures to inhabit and enjoy. I believe this is at least part of why God calls us to holiness now. It fits His plans and purposes for the created universe and it's best for us.

Oddly, while most of us would opt to live in that perfect, holy environment I just described, we would have one condition. We'd like to take our personal sin with us.

We'd like everyone else to be honest, but we'd prefer to keep the option of cutting corners ourselves. We'd like our spouses and children to be faithful and loyal and cooperative, but we'd like to be able to be self-indulgent and just a little bit selfish when it suits us. We'd like our employers to be gracious and generous and go beyond the letter of the contract to benefit us, but we'd like to not feel any compulsion to give more than the minimum back.

We all have the same perverse desire to keep our own sin because all we've known is a corrupted world. Our selfishness and sin feed the system so that the whole thing just gets worse and worse. You can see then, the horror of what sin has done. It's like simple versus compound interest. Each sin is not a simple violation of God's system. Every time we act selfishly, we set off a ripple effect which tends to provoke sinful responses in others. The only way to do anything about this situation is to imitate God's holiness as He calls us to do.

This is not easy for it flies in the face of our natural tendencies to please ourselves first, as well as standing in opposition to the conventional wisdom of our time expressed in many ways:

Yet all of these ideas defeat themselves because they ultimately promote the kind of selfishness which contributes to our own dissatisfaction and the deterioration of the system.

God is faithful. He is loving. He is just. He is good. He is kind. He is holy. And it's this last item that we struggle with the most.

Early in Peter's first letter, there is a passage which challenges conventional wisdom. He wrote "as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.'" From the beginning, God intended human beings to be holy - as He is. He created them that way. Not only that, the whole material creation was designed to function in a sinless state. And presumably, in a sinless state, it would have gone on perfectly indefinitely. But God's perfect creation became contaminated with sin. It became "unholy" and the whole thing started to break down. Decay, disease, deterioration and death all started their insidious work. Sin - that is selfishness, rebellion against God - unleashed forces which attacked and spoiled God's holy creation, including humanity. It seems that all the horror we recognize as stemming from sin started as something as seemingly innocuous as the desire to act in what our first parents perceived as their own best interests. They just wanted to be independent of God.

In the New Testament, we often read of God's intentions for us. The writers frequently provide guidance regarding how we should live. At the root of this, we find a fundamental desire to please God. Now, that is an entirely unnatural desire. Humanly speaking our desire is to be independent of God and to focus on pleasing ourselves. Because of this, I can say with assurance that if you find yourself tired of the constant frustration of detours and deadends on the way to fulfillment, God's Spirit is working in you. He is awakening the idea deep within you that you need to refocus your life on pleasing God instead of yourself. Ironically, when you do that, you will find that you are happier than you've ever been. In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul wrote: "Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.. (that word "sanctified" comes from the same root as the word holy). In other words, Paul is simply declaring that God wants us to live holy lives. A little further on, in verse 7, he again affirmed: "For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life." Now if the very idea of being holy is unnatural to us, you can imagine how foreign is the ability to be holy. God knew that this would present an insurmountable obstacle to us so He did something that also seems very unnatural. He, the Holy One, took our sin on Himself. How unusual! Jesus, the Son of God, took our sin upon Himself on the cross and died there in our place. When He did that, He removed the barrier that kept us from connecting with God. Now, we have the privilege of responding to Him by faith. That is simply a matter of believing that God really does extend forgiveness on the basis of Jesus' death. It's one of those things we choose to believe or reject, but here's God's word on the subject.

Paul wrote: "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Timothy 1:15-17

Ron Hughes
© May 2007