God Reaching for Us

If you have ever had to clean up someone else's mess, you know the frustration that can bring. Perhaps you are a diligent recycler, drive an electric vehicle, and manage your carbon footprint. Yet, the wastefulness of others means you still pay high prices on everything from food to power, you breathe polluted air and find plastic on the beach during your vacation. It's not your fault, but you pay the price.

THAT IS NOT THE CASE SPIRITUALLY

The truth is that we are willing participants in the mess-making, both in the world and in our own lives. Though Adam and Eve broke things first, we bear personal responsibility for breaking our relationship with God.

READ

Romans 5:12 (NLT) When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

Mark 7:21-23 (NLT) “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

Psalm 14:2-3 (NLT)The Lord looks down from heaven
on the entire human race;
he looks to see if anyone is truly wise,
if anyone seeks God.
But no, all have turned away;
all have become corrupt.
No one does good,
not a single one!

CONSIDER

• How does your own conscience bear witness to the truth that sin comes from within you, not from an outside force against you?
• Do you agree that you are personally responsible for the choices you make?
• Do you agree that your choices, past or present, turn away from God and His goodness, putting your own desires first?

READ

1 John 1:8,10 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth... If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

The very first step in restoring our relationship with God is acknowledging that we are not separated from Him as victims of someone else's choices. Our broken relationship with God lands squarely with us.

Look again at the verses above. How are they an accurate charge against you before your Creator?

As God warned the first of humankind that disobedience will only lead to one outcome - death - so our disobedience brings the same end. God's word clearly and consistently communicates what an Apostle named Paul summed up in a few words in the Bible, "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23 NLT).

Not just physical death, but something far worse. Physical death is a moment in time. Spiritual death is an eternity not only apart from God, but apart of every good thing that finds in source in God. No light, no love, no joy, no comfort, no peace, no fellowship.... "Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens" (James 1:17 NLT). Apart from God, a second never-ending death awaits.

Why does God tell us this?

God does not engage in scare tactics. He is gracious and kind to warn His image bearers SO THAT they can avoid the consequences that His justice demands.

Everyone values justice, and demands it even, until it is rightly meted out on us. God's character requires that He act justly. He can do no other. Every human sole has chosen rebellion against God, embracing sin and falling under the judgment of God whose holy standard requires perfect holiness. Yet, His kindness demands that He warn us. And His love goes further still when God satisfies His justice through Another.

While it is true that there is nothing you can do to reach God on your own

GOD HAS REACHED OUT FOR YOU THROUGH HIS SON JESUS CHRIST.