The Aim is Change

I have had a hard and busy summer.  I've written several things, but not posted.  It is time for me to begin writing and posting again.  As in the past, this is my own thinking process based on my own study and growth.  It is not meant to be demeaning or conflagration toward any other person.  I'm not preaching, I'm just writing.

The aim is change.  In Fiddler on the Roof, there is a line where Tevya says “Send us the cure, we’ve got the sickness already.”  I laugh –sort of, but there is a deep truth here.  Who is God after all.  Three of his primary names directly translated mean “That which is” or “he who exists.”  “I am that I am.”  In the beginning was God –just God and the WORD was with God and He was God and the Spirit moved across the depths.”  Side note: all of the names of God are in plural form –all of them.

Who are we?  Something he created and not even on the 1st day.  But we are the first creation mentioned as given a separate will from that of the creator.  Mankind was allowed to choose to go on as he was –in perfect state and perfect harmony with the plan and purpose of God- or to choose a lesser personal goal.  As I see it in scripture, Satan was not given the right of choice, but he chose to rebel against God’s plan and purpose anyway.

So what is sin?  Is it eating something forbidden?  Is it giving in to deception?  Satan indicated to Eve that God was giving them less than the best by restricting them.  They disobeyed and life changed. Struggle, conflict, disease, deterioration, betrayal, jealousy, injustice, death, living separate from God became the new normal.  God’s best was gone.  We had the sickness already.  So we go on from there.  Human kind would not seek God for two generations.

What about God?  What was he doing about all this during the time that man was going on with the “I’ll handle this my way” routine?  The Bible says that Jesus, known to us by John as “the WORD” was crucified before the world was founded.  Before Satan had a chance to rebel and then deceive man and woman, God already had the cure in place.  Enoch walked with God by faith and didn’t die –but he was changed.  Noah found grace in God’s eyes because of his belief which led to obedience in a much more questionable task than not eating a piece of fruit. By faith he condemned the world that did not believe. Faith is being revealed as God’s plan for redemption.  Men are beginning to seek God through faith –but some are not.  The gap widens.

And now here we are today with people asking “Why is this wrong or why is that sin?”  The truth is that anything that sets itself against God’s plan and purpose, anything that doesn’t measure up to his truth and being is sin.  Anything short of his Glory produces death, disease, envy, quarreling, deterioration and separation from God.  It’s not about this group’s definition of specific acts or about one person’s quest for freedom from restraint.  It’s not even about God holding back the forces of the universe for individuals who please him and raining misery on those who don't.  It’s not about what you or I want or about what we think is right and just.  The question of sin is much more basic.  We have sin ingrained in this mortality.  We have the sickness already.

Jesus came to bring us back to a unified purpose with God’s original plan.  Some people don’t want that.  They don’t want to be fixed on the inside, they just want the circumstance brought on by sin to be fixed.  They call on God for all kinds of things, but not to submit to his purpose and plan through trust.  I don’t know that we can even do that in the beginning and yet he offers grace through faith to the ungodly because of his own sacrifice.  The bible says that because there was nothing greater, he swore by himself –I am that I am- and established a new covenant –see Noah, Abraham, and Moses- of Grace based on the sacrifice of Jesus, before time itself.  It is only after the new covenant becomes effective in us personally, through forgiveness and redemption, that we begin to see the real sickness of sin and allow the Holy Spirit to refashion us into God’s character.  He has the cure.  Most of us don’t know we have the sickness.