Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding:
    far be it from God, that he should do wickedness,
    from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.
For the work of a man he will render to him,
    and cause every man to find according to his ways.
Yes surely, God will not do wickedly,
    neither will the Almighty pervert justice.
Who put him in charge of the earth?
    Or who has appointed him over the whole world?
If he set his heart on himself,
    if he gathered to himself his spirit and his breath,
all flesh would perish together,
    and man would turn again to dust.
“If now you have understanding, hear this.
    Listen to the voice of my words.
Should even one who hates justice govern?
    Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty,
who says to a king, ‘Vile!’
    or to nobles, ‘Wicked!’?
He doesn’t respect the persons of princes,
    nor respect the rich more than the poor,
    for they all are the work of his hands.
In a moment they die, even at midnight.
    The people are shaken and pass away.
    The mighty are taken away without a hand.”
(Job 34:10-20)

“Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death passed to all men because all sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come. But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not as through one who sinned; for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift followed many trespasses to justification. For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous. The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly, that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
(Romans 2:25-29)

Elihu is pointing out Job’s two faults in this discourse: he claims his own righteousness and he claims God is unjust in his actions (in letting Job be afflicted). But God is GOD ALMIGHTY. He CANNOT deal with us unjustly. God shows no partiality. It is an attitude of rebellion against the sovereignty and justness of God to take the attitude that we don’t deserve chastisement or correction from God. The degree or limit to our chastisement or correction is totally in the right of God to decide. He is GOD. We have NO IDEA what else is going on. We have NO IDEA what is happening, what could be happening, or what SHOULD be happening. God is not affected by us and what we say. But we are speaking in total ignorance when we start saying how it should be what what we should be receiving. God has absolute authority over the universe(s). He is our Creator. He IS. He determines what is and is not right and good and proper.

This is why obedience is so important. This is why love for Jesus is so foundational. We get to obey God, and enter into His covenant. By doing so, God CHOOSES to give us not what WE deserve, but what JESUS deserves. We stand in Jesus’ righteousness. It is not US who are righteous, but Jesus. It is in and through what Jesus did that we are saved. That we are restored. That we are called what He is. We cannot do anything but submit and obey. We cannot do anything but love Him back. To accept His love and to love Him in return is how we enter into the household of trusting in God. It is how we are adopted and made sons and daughters of God, not on our own merits but on the merits of Jesus. God chooses to justify us when we choose to accept Jesus and enter into His covenant.

Summary

We live in a fallen creation. Things are going to happen that we do not like. We live surrounded by billions of human beings with free will. Things are going to happen that we do not like. We don’t ‘deserve’ it. We don’t NOT ‘deserve’ it. We are not spectacular people. We are dirt. And we consistently choose rebellion against God. We consistently put our own wants, desires, and needs above His. We consistently take our eyes off of Him. But we are not performance-based people. God is MERCIFUL and GRACIOUS. He opens the Way of love to us. We can choose Him. And in choosing Him, we can choose to choose Him in every area of our lives again and again and again. We can choose to learn about His point of view on something and train our minds to align with Him, turn ourselves around, and avoid doing that which is out of alignment with Him. We can repent. Of everything. One thing at a time. We can let Him transform us one thing at a time. If we focus our eyes and our efforts on the love of Jesus and loving Jesus in return, the rest will all fall into place. We’ll humbly submit, learn, and grow in Him. Every day in a new way. Ever moving forward. Ever moving deeper into who we are in Jesus. Becoming family.