Day Thirty-Nine
So You Think God’s Unfair?
Our Right – Not Our Obligation
“But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God…” Amp Jn 1:12
Yesterday as I listened to a young woman call in to the radio Bible answer show, To Every Man an Answer, on CSN (Christian Satellite Network 91.1) I was gripped by her tenaciousness, but I anguished at her dispair. You see – she was asking how God could create a man who He knew would never receive Him, and then judge him eternally for not receiving Him. Her feeling was – God was being unfair.
I wanted to be able to chime into this conversation!!! – Would you rather God made you a robot? If there is to be no possibility of people going to hell – there would have to be no possibility for people to disobey: God would have had to create robots with no soul, no emotion, no will of their own, and thus no choice. He would have had to program us, with no other option than to do what He desires (which would be to follow Him). Once you give someone the capacity to choose – you must allow for them to choose differently than you would desire. For that reason, a consequence must be attached to that choice. But it was never God’s desire for people to go to hell – that’s why He sent His Son – to preclude that very thing!!!
But you see – in this woman’s eyes God is unfair. She wants people to be able to choose their own way, and go to heaven. She is asking for something out of the realm of possibility. Let me give you a small example: denture cream.
Yes, it is odd metaphor but it works. People who have false teeth have trouble keeping them in place on their gums because they don’t adhere to their gums. They are of a different material (plastic) than the tissue structure of gums. So the false teeth are easily pulled away from the gums when people bite into something they need to chew. Ultimately, the denture cream forms a medium to hold (to adhere to the gums) because it is like gluey rubber. Now people can choose to use denture cream or not. But there are consequences to not using it: ugly drooping dentures, slippage, abrasions, wearing down of the gum structure – these are just a few of the consequences of choosing not to use it. Yet people have the choice, and we all know they do exercise that choice.
In a very small way – we can think of Jesus Christ like denture cream. As we receive Him as Lord, He holds us to Him and even within Him (we are the dentures here J). We live in Him and have our being in Him. Thus, He is a bridge between us and our restored contact with the Father – Almighty God (the gums J). It is Christ Who actually holds us in relationship with the Father. In Christ, we are now safe in our ability to approach the Father, to again be in relationship with Him – through our attachment in Christ. In Christ – we remain stable and fixed, we are held in place by Christ.
But in true reality in Christ, you and I are being constantly changed, transformed, from glory to glory. You see – we are constantly becoming more and more Christ-like: each at our own pace, we have more and more of His life in us. In the strength of becoming more and more like Him, the power of cohesion expands – the more we become like Him, the more our attachment to Him grows and becomes stronger.
Yet – for us to have Jesus Christ holding us, saving us, and restoring us – we must first choose Him. As many of us who receive and welcome Him, He gives the authority (the power, privilege, and right) to become the children of God. But if we choose Him not – we can neither fault the Lord for us not choosing Him, nor can we fault Him for giving us the choice in the first place. It simply cannot work that way.
Hearing the castigation of this young woman caller against the Lord, the parable of the nobleman and the minas rises to mind. It is found in Luke 19:12-26. A nobleman goes into a distant country to obtain for himself a kingdom. He gives ten of his own servants, ten minas to buy and sell with while he was away. The citizens there detested him however, and said they did not want him to be ruler over them.
When he returns – He calls these same servants together to see how the buying and selling has gone. After the first two display their profits, the third servant can only give back what was first given to him. He says to the nobleman: “Lord, here is your mina, which I have laid up in a handkerchief. For I was [constantly] afraid of you, because you are a stern (hard, severe) man; you pick up what you did not lay down, and you reap what you did not sow.”
This third servant did not know the nobleman. He did not recognize this nobleman’s authority to either pick up or reap. He did not acknowledge all that he had (the mina, the opportunities to serve, even his very life) were originally given by the nobleman. He just knew he was afraid of him –but also found fault with his methods. Sadly, this servant is judged as wicked – with the nobleman concluding, “I tell you that to everyone who gets and has will more be given, but from the man who does not get and does not have, even what he has will be taken away.”
“Getting” in this parable is like receiving Jesus Christ. It is like choosing Him – like choosing to use denture cream. If you choose Him, you will get more of Him (more understanding and more likeness of Him as you obey Him). But if you don’t choose Him, even all that you have (your very freedom to choose) will eventually be taken away as you descend into hell. Like dentures sans denture cream — you will be loosed, eternally slip, droop, chafe, and be eroded and fall into eternal damnation. It will be then that you see your error, but you will still only rail against God and call Him unfair – even though all your opportunities to know Him were equal to everyone else’s (each got one mina – the same amount).
A comic example may be welcome here — even as it clarifies this serious issue. An elementary school classmate of mine once shared a funny story about her mum. She recalled that her mum once laughed so hard on a roller coaster – that her dentures fell out. They were irretrievable broken by the fall. In my quirky processing – I see that even in enjoying life I need to be anchored in Christ! My classmate’s mum needed denture cream to stay secure – as do we all. There’s no exception to that. We need the attachment of Christ. He has provided it – how can we find any fault with that?
Be-loved, if you receive Christ as Lord, it is your right to be held securely. But you are under no obligation to have Him, or that right. Yet — it remains before you — to choose. Choose right. Choose Christ. Choose life.
Insolomonsporch's Blog 