He gave us instructions: The Ten Commandments. Can you recite them? And "Judge not that you be not judged" is not one of them, lol, though our post-Christian culture would have you believe it is the first and greatest commandment--"leave me alone, let me do what I wish, and I will do the same for you, so long as what you do does not interfere with my selfish desires."
We unknowingly seek God in all of our wants, thinking that we can replace the true first commandment by worshiping the creation, by seeking pleasure as our god as though it will replace the joy of knowing and honoring and worshiping Him. As G. K. Chesterton said: "Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God.” "We seek our satisfaction from that which was intended for our delight--only He was meant to satisfy." (Bruce Johnston, JH Ranch).
We defeat the first two commandments in one fell swoop: not putting Him first and worshiping creation. Then we deceive ourselves: we think we are not committing blasphemy simply because we do not use profanity (or maybe we do). But we ascribe to God things that are not of Him; we credit/blame Him for things of our own doing and assuage our conscious by attributing our action to His leading.
I will not go through all the remainder of the 10. You get the picture. We don't keep the Sabbath Holy consistently; we dishonor our parents; we steal, cheat, lie, covet, commit adultery (against God, if not against our mate), and kill in our hearts, and all of this is defined in the one word: rebellion.
Is it not amazing that God did not just burn it down and start over? He could have, and would have been justified, even in our human terms of justice. We would have no leg on which to stand legally; we would not even have legal standing to defend ourselves, for slaves do not have legal standing in their realm of service.
But, of course, He knew of our rebellion before He created the first man. His love balances His justice. Without love, there is just the legal consequence--death. Without justice, there is no freedom, without freedom to choose, there is no love--there is no obedience, no opportunity for rebellion, no freedom to choose Him, or not.
If justice is a necessity of meaningful love, then the Answer to our rebellion had to incorporate justice and love--the justice we deserved, death, had to be delivered upon someone. No created human could be that someone unless we all died an eternal death--justice would have been served, but Love would have not. Only Someone who did not deserve death could balance the scale of justice. Only Someone who loved humanity could have been willing to sacrifice themselves for that justice; only Someone who was obedient to the Father even unto death could have been willing to die in our place.
"Jesus is the Answer"--an often used quote, but often taken for granted. He chose to come and live and die and submit Himself to the power and love of the Father. He would not have been any less God had He decided not to come. He may have been compelled by love, but He was not coerced, just as He will not coerce us to be obedient, to set aside our rebellious ways.
We either lay down our own wills out of love or we rebel. Receive our daily bread or forfeit peace; pray or prey; be lead from temptation or yield to it--yielding sounds passive but it is active and rebellious.
The blind men in the ninth chapter of Matthew knew they could not heal their blindness but they had faith that Jesus could, and He did. We cannot heal our rebellion, our spiritual blindness, either. Like the blind men of Jesus' earthly days, we have to ask in faith for Him to change our hearts, place in us the will and desire to be obedient, to yield to the only One in all the universe worth yielding to--Jesus. And He will intercede with the Father for our healing. There is no other Way.
"Jesus is the Answer"--an often used quote, but often taken for granted. He chose to come and live and die and submit Himself to the power and love of the Father. He would not have been any less God had He decided not to come. He may have been compelled by love, but He was not coerced, just as He will not coerce us to be obedient, to set aside our rebellious ways.
We either lay down our own wills out of love or we rebel. Receive our daily bread or forfeit peace; pray or prey; be lead from temptation or yield to it--yielding sounds passive but it is active and rebellious.
The blind men in the ninth chapter of Matthew knew they could not heal their blindness but they had faith that Jesus could, and He did. We cannot heal our rebellion, our spiritual blindness, either. Like the blind men of Jesus' earthly days, we have to ask in faith for Him to change our hearts, place in us the will and desire to be obedient, to yield to the only One in all the universe worth yielding to--Jesus. And He will intercede with the Father for our healing. There is no other Way.
