Our so-called straggle for freedom is really a quest for acceptance. The rejection of one group by another group of people gave birth to unjust, cruel, unfair and immoral treatment of the rejected.
The most principal and critical rejection above all others is the rejection of sinners by God. And the rejection of God by sinners. God’s word is His Law and sinners are transgressors of that law. The penalty for breaking the Law of God is death. As a result all sinners are rejected by God and thus condemned to eternal death.
Now all the religions of this world purport to have the answer to the problem of how can a man be just or acceptable before the almighty God. How can a man be free from this rejection that he may be reconciled to his maker? These are questions man has struggled with since the beginning of history to this day. Many solutions have been presented and these ranges from proposals by men who think ” THERE IS NO GOD ” and goes all the way to people who imagine that “THERE IS A GOD BUT THERE IS NO SUCH A THING AS GOD’S REJECTION OF ANY MAN (SINNER OR NO SINNER), SINCE GOD LOVES EVERYONE.”
The majority of people subscribe to such beliefs and notions. The reason why many people would follow such lines of thinking is that both of the above mentioned extremes imply the same conclusion. They are as two roads going in different directions but ending at the same destination. If there is no God then man is free from God’s punishment and rejection. Therefore man has nothing to worry about. He can just go through his life without care of anything because he is neither wrong nor right, since there is no binding law or standard of right and wrong from a supreme being that man should live by. There are no responsibilities, nor are there consequences, only freedom to do what one likes and loves. No absolute truth, since truth is relative, meaning you have your own truth and I have my own truth. There is no absolute morality since what is right or wrong is what the people agree on. Truth is truth by a majority vote, the masses agree so.
Similarly if God is not just, meaning a God who rewards what is right and punishes what is wrong. If there exist only a God who loves everyone regardless of whether they know and keep His Words and Commandments. If there is a God who loves everyone to the point of allowing them to reduce His word and Commandments to guidelines and convenient suggestions of how man can navigate his way through the course of life. Even here the Conclusion is that, man has nothing to worry about, he may live as he pleases since the love of God overrides God’s justice. God only says He will punish those who reject His word but He does not mean it. He loves everyone and wants the best for everyone. When the time for judgment and punishment of all sinners transpire, God will have pity on all of us because His love for humanity will confront Him and He will not bring Himself to harm or reject or punish anyone He loves so dearly above everything including His word and will.
Here we see the false doctrine of the Universal Salvation of All Men (past, present and future). There can never be heaven without hell, Where there is no punishment there can never be reward, where there is no wrong there can never be forgiveness and where there is no perdition there can never be salvation. What are we then saved from?
The destination of the two roads that seems at first to be so different, is at last the same. The inference is that man has nothing to worry about as he will never face any punishment, rejection or Judgment. Man is secure and all is well with him here and after.
However according to God’s Word this is a false sense of security as it is not founded upon truth. Scripture which is God’s testimony, answers this ultimate question “How can a man be acceptable to God ”
(Job 25: 4) -All scriptural reference are from the KJV.
“How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
Job asks the ultimate question and this is still an all important and relevent question till today. This question Implies that man is not acceptable before God and seeks an answer that explains what can be done to change this hostile relationship between God and Man.
( Psalm 5:4-5)
“For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
The idea that this verse propagates is that there is a specific group of people whom God hates. The category given here is “all workers of iniquity”. This term refers to all sinners. Now if amongst a group called “all men” there is a group of people called “sinners or wokers of iniquity” that God hates. How then can He love all men? We have to accept then, that there are people God loves and there are people God hates.
(Psalm 10:3)
“For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth. ”
We are told by the Scriptures that God abhors the covetous. If God despises such people , then surely the argument that God loves everyone should be false.
(Leviticus 20:23 )
“And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.”
God hated and despised all the pagan nations of Canaan which He drove out before Israel.
(Proverbs 6:16-19)
These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
God hates a false witness that speaks lies.
(Hosea 9:15)
“All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.
God hated the people for the wickedness which they did at Gilgal. God says I will love them no more. He will stop loving them.
At this stage it might be appropriate to define terms like love and hate. The prevailing though of this modern secular world we live in, is that the two terms refers to two opposite emotions , or that one term refers to the absence of the other emotion. It has been said that love is the absence of hatred and vice versa. But these definitions are not in line with what the Bible means when it uses the terms love and hatred.
According to scripture the term love has nothing to do with emotions, passions and feelings. The scriptural meaning of the phrase “the love of God”, is God’s acceptance of the person who is the object of that love. And this love is expressed by God’s forgiveness; justification; conversion or regeneration; sanctification and glorification of those whom He loves or accepts. Conversely hate can only mean God’s rejection and it too, is expressed by condemnation , punishment, death and eternal torment of those who are objects of God’s hatred or rejection.
(John 3:16)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The famous and widely quoted verse in scripture, makes it is clear that the love of God is associated with the salvation of believers. Here in the quoted verse believers are objects of God’s love.
(Roman 5:8)
“But God commanded his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
(Titus 3 :3-5)
“For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; ”
(1 John 4:9-10)
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
(John 15:13)
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. ”
(Ephesians 1: 6-8)
“To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; ”
It should be then noted and admitted that all the scriptural verses cited above say the same thing. They teach that God accepted or loved some people. And He showed His love towards them by saving them through the Works of Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son. Christ Jesus obeyed and fulfilled all the requirements of God’s Word and Commandments and not only that, but Christ through His death on the cross satisfied all the demands of God’s justice.
Therefore God in the scriptures provides for us the solution to the problem of how can man be just or acceptable before God . The answer is that all those who believes and trust in all that God has said in the scriptures through His Son and all other prophets, will be accepted or loved by God. Those whose hope and salvation is in trusting in the merits and finished works of Christ Jesus are those whom God loves. And by imputing the righteousness of Christ upon or on their behalf, God finds them acceptable.
At last the Solution has been given by God in His grace and mercy to us, our search and struggle for an answer should be over. But sadly for some the quest of trying to solving the problem and answering this ultimate question continues, this is because they find no satisfaction in how God has answered and solved the problem. So they resolved within themselves to remain in the dark and to hold on to their false sense of security.
Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
The question is “Free” from what? Truth can only liberate us from error or falsehood. To reject truth is to reject the freedom it provides.
Freedom and acceptance by God, is only found when we accept (believe) His truth.
Author: Pastor Tshepo Laka, GGCF.