Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us according to our iniquities.

Psalm 103:10

If this isn’t a reason to be shouting thank you on a daily basis, no such reason exists. Adonai is not dealing with us according to what WE deserve. Adonai has NEVER dealt with us according to what WE deserve. Not to Adam and Eve. Not to Cain. Not to Moses. Not to the Israelites. Not to the Judeans. Not to Peter. Not to Saul. Not to me. Not to you. Not to ANY of us. Not even to Jesus. Jesus didn’t deserve ANY negative thing, but He BECAME SIN for us. Jesus SUFFERED. Jesus DIED. Jesus got treated according to what WE deserved, not what HE deserved. He was repaid according to OUR iniquities, because HE didn’t have any! Jesus was the ONLY ONE who could survive that experience long enough to pay for Sin. He got what WE deserved because Adonai had NEVER dealt with us that way. Adonai is MERCIFUL. Adonai is full of GRACE. Adonai is LOVE.

“If Yahweh of hosts had not left us survivors, we would have been as few as Sodom, we would have become like Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1:9). Adonai had been telling the people of Israel and Judah to repent and turn back to Him for decades upon decades upon decades. Judgment was coming and they would pay and He didn’t want them to. They – as a nation – did not. So the coals of His wrath toward Sin fell upon them. But not full force (Ezekiel 10:6-7). Adonai let it cool some before it went out onto the people. In addition, He preserved a remnant (Joel 2:32). NONE of them deserved a reprieve, but they got it (Isaiah 10:22). That’s how Adonai has ALWAYS dealt with us. Adam and Eve rebelled, and He clothed them properly (Genesis 3:21). Cain murdered, but was given protection from abuse from other people (Genesis 4:15). Abraham followed Adonai’s plan in his own human way, but Adonai still blessed the child of that union (Genesis 17:20). Jonah was actively rebelling, but Adonai gave Him a chance to change his mind (Jonah 1:17). None of us are perfect. None of us are qualified. None of us deserve ANY favour of Adonai. No matter how good we manage to be (and there ARE good people out there), we don’t stand up in the fullness of goodness that is needed to be justified on our own merits (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8; Ecclesiastes 7:20; James 2:10; Matthew 5:18-19).

Adonai doesn’t give us what we deserve because what we deserve is death, which is the cost of sin (Genesis 2:17; Romans 6:23). Sin brought death. Death is THE result of sin. Adonai didn’t want to leave us there. If He had, He would have stopped interacting with us the minute we sinned and it would have been all over in a very short period of time. Instead, Adonai had a plan in place before He created ANYTHING (Revelation 13:8). Adonai moved Heaven and Earth to make sure that He didn’t HAVE to judge us, but could embrace us as He always wanted (John 3:16-18). This is always how He deals with us. Story after story, person after person, there is fault and mistakes and rebellion and foolish human thinking again and again and again, but Adonai doesn’t respond with what they deserve. He shows GRACE and MERCY and acts according to HIS character, not ours. He is CONSISTENT and CONSTANT in how He treats us. That’s not to say He doesn’t CORRECT us – He DOES (2 Timothy 3:16-17). But He TREATS us as Jesus deserves.

“He made the one who did not know sin to be sin on our behalf, in order that we could become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). “because those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he should be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). “and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and that life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). THIS is how He treats us. THIS is how He sees us. The proof? Ruach HaKodesh. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). If you read Leviticus, you’ll notice that Adonai is VERY PARTICULAR about the Holy things – whether items, sacrifices, offerings, or procedures. He hasn’t changed. In order for HIM to dwell IN US, WE have to be CLEAN. Jesus accomplished that for us. Jesus made a Way. Jesus cleansed us through and through. In the eyes of the Father, we are as Jesus is. We are NEW creations (Colossians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 5:17). Ruach HaKodesh is our PROOF that we are getting what JESUS bought for us and NOT what we deserve (Ephesians 1:14).

We should be thankful that we have the ability to be in Jesus. We should be thankful He made the Way open. We should be thankful we are not getting what we deserve. We should be thankful we are sharing in the things of Adonai. We should be thankful we were cleansed. We should be thankful we have a new nature. We should be thankful that we are children, adopted into the family of I AM. We should be thankful EVERY DAY and NEVER stop thanking Him for what He has done for us. He is SUCH A GOOD GOD!!!!!

Daily Affirmation of the Goodness of Elohim: John 20:27

“Then he said to Thomas, “Place your finger here and see my hands, and place your hand and put it into my side. And do not be unbelieving, but believing!”” Thomas in that moment deserved a slap upside the head. He deserved correction. He SHOULD have believed. He SHOULD have not needed physical evidence. He SHOULD not have decided not to believe. But Jesus did NOT give Thomas what he deserved in that moment. Instead, Jesus turned it into a blessing. Into an opportunity to show more mercy and grace. THAT is the God we serve. A MERCIFUL God. A LOVING God. A God who seeks to BLESS, not punish. To ENCOURAGE, not put down. To do whatever is needed to get us to the level He wants us on, not the level we’re determined to stay at. All Jesus asks is that we put our hand in His (Matthew 19:26). If we will do that, He does ALL the rest. He does the work. He does the lifting. He does the encouraging. He does the supporting. He does everything that is needed to get us to where He knows we should be because the Father showed Him that is where we are to walk (John 5:19). We’re not treated according to OUR thinking, but HIS. We aren’t left alone to get settled in wrong thinking. He gives us access to His mind (1 Corinthians 2:16) and His Word (Romans 12:2), so that we can be transformed by Him into what we can truly be. He is ACTIVE about it. He is DETERMINED to see us there. What a GOOD God!

Your Daily Confession of Elohim’s Goodness:

I taste and see that Yahweh is good; I am blessed because I take refuge in Him.

Psalm 34:8