God Is NOT Guilty

(Message by Bro. Vijay Awale. Give God His due. Happy reading!)

 

 If you are one that go through tough times in life thinking that everything will work good on its own, or that God is responsible for those temptations in your life to make you strong, you may be missing some vital picture of who God is! There are people who have a tendency to put the blame on God for any and every situation that they face; they go through life always with a question why God would do such a thing to them. Even for unbelievers, it is easy to identify with luck, fate and a force above human endeavor. But I believe, the Scriptures teach something quite in contrast to “popular” thinking…(I will come around to this in a short while).

James 1: 13-17 says: Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

Look at the above verses carefully, and we can learn:

1.       God is ONLY the source of EVERY GOOD gift and EVERY PERFECT gift

2.       EACH one’s humanly desire DRAWS one AWAY to temptation

3.       There is an ENTICER and a DECEIVER waiting to bring forth DEATH

Jesus says in John 10:10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

Again, we are confronted with two sources: one source of destruction-the thief! And One who came to give abundant LIFE-Jesus Christ. It is important you identify correctly the individual authors of destruction, temptation, and abundant life; else you will never be able to obey a simple command in James 4:7 that says: Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

If you are still confused as to the SOURCE of bad things and those terrible things that has happened or is happening in your life, today put away that doubt once and for all and start resisting (actively opposing) the evil source-the devil, and submit (humbly accept) the good things from God; for we must know who to submit to and who to resist against.!

I want to emphasize on two Scriptures that have been misinterpreted or been misquoted a number of times, yes, even by Christian preachers; the believer too is guilty of accepting such error. When one is faced with a job-loss, a business failure, or rebellious child, or divorce-one must understand that such things are NOT from God, and therefore one must not quote from Rom. 8:28 under such situations in life. Yes, I understand God is in control, but there are boundaries where you must exercise YOUR CONTROL – that is why it is written, “Resist the devil”!

Otherwise, there is real danger of you being passive, inactive; being resigned to ‘fate’ and failure erroneously thinking that it, after all, must somehow fit into God’s plan for your life! NO, my beloved… you are in REAL DANGER of submitting to the devil and conceiving sin-this must not be! It is NOT God who is the author, and therefore cannot be guilty, of such BAD things.

Thinking over, and looking at my own life, it is now simple for me to understand SOME things (good) are from God, and some other things (BAD) were from the devil. Looking again at Rom. 8:28 it is clear that is applicable only for a subset of people: those who love God and those who are the called according to His purpose. Yes, it is applicable only if you are actively living out His purpose in your life. And what purpose? 1 John 3:8 says: For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Rom. 8: 28 is, therefore, applicable to those who are actively resisting the devil. We need discernment to know the source of everything that happens in our life and learn to accept what God offers, but exercise our spiritual muscle to resist the devil and his schemes. The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy; resist him. Jesus came to give abundant life-therefore choose life!

Another Scripture that does the rounds of misinterpretation is from the book of Job: The Lord gave, and the LORD has taken away (Job 1: 21). We hear this sometimes in funerals too! Job suffered a great loss in his life and uttered these words right at the beginning of his grievances, confusing God to be the 'author' of his calamity. How can this be? Because God cannot be the Author of calamity, and Job could not see the hand of Satan behind all those terrible things he was experiencing! Job displayed this attitude: He did not charge God with wrong (Job 1:22), but inwardly thought so!

At first instant, Job’s statement may be mistaken to glorify God (Blessed be the name of the LORD); but in fact, his view is an erroneous judgment of God-the LORD has taken away! If a person gives and then takes it away, he must surely be working at the loan-recovery department of some bank! And how trustworthy can he be? Would you really care to take something from such a person, whom you  knew would collect it again, you know not when?

But dearly beloved, our God owns the BANK; He is a Giver, He does not take away. He gives all things richly and for us to enjoy.

In some ways, Job can be forgiven for such an erroneous idea about God, because he lived in the Old Testament era; and Jesus was not yet manifested, nor was the Holy Spirit poured out. That is why I am inclined to think Job’s opinion in Job 1:21 was his own, and nothing more. The remarkable attribute of Job was that he did not harbor any bitterness against God, even in his calamity. But together with that, that he could not exhibit a full faith is made clear by the statement in Job 3:25 “For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me.” This is negative faith, and actually fear; it really sounds as if he had always thought God, after giving, would take it away someday!

But today, for you and me in the New Covenant age, we have become children of God; and it is our Father’s good pleasure to GIVE us the kingdom (John 12: 32). We know our God gave and gave…and He has not taken, and nor will He take, anything away. He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16). He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also FREELY GIVE us ALL things? (Rom. 8: 32) Jesus came to GIVE us abundant life (John 10:10).

Beloved, God is not waiting to catch you in the wrong and take away what He gave (Strangely, this is the idea some Christians have). Either you lose it yourself, or the thief has stolen it from you. But remember, it is not God who has taken it away from you, after He gave it to you first. Romans 11:29 clearly states: For the GIFTS and the calling of God are irrevocable. Those of you in the banking sector may well understand this legal term: irrevocable, for example one may use it while transacting via a letter of credit from a bank; It means that the terms and conditions cannot be altered!

Here is our God- a Giver. The Father has given Heaven's best gift-Jesus; yes, the darling of heaven to be crucified for your sake and mine. Have you received Him yet? Receive Him, receive life. In Jesus name, Amen.