When I tell people that I am a prodigal son, and that, as an arrogant twenty-something, I decided to quit my job as an Assistant Pastor and leave the faith, I am usually asked,
“Why did you do that?”
The short answer is, of course, my sin. I wanted to do my own thing. I followed my heart, which was telling me to make this my mantra: “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”
Here’s another way to say it . . .
Like Pontius Pilate and the Jewish religious leaders, I wanted to get rid of Jesus.
Oh, the stupidity of my sin!
I’ve been reading John Stott’s book, The Cross of Christ. (What a great book!)
It contains an in-depth analysis of the humans involved in the death of Jesus, such as Pilate and the Jewish Sanhedrin.
For various reasons, they wanted to get rid of Jesus. He was, and still is, as C.S. Lewis wrote in Surprised by Joy, “a transcendental interferer.”
Here’s how Mr. Stott explains this determined assault on the authority of King Jesus:
“We resent his intrusions into our privacy, his demand for our homage, his expectations of our obedience. Why can’t he mind his own business, we ask petulantly, and leave us alone? To which he instantly replies that we are his business and that he will never leave us alone. So we too perceive him as a threatening rival, who disturbs our peace, upsets our status quo, undermines our authority and diminishes our self-respect. We too want to get rid of him.”
I read the above paragraph a few days ago and thought, that’s it! That is exactly the way I felt back in 1983. John Stott described perfectly my attitude toward Jesus. I had an intense desire to get rid of Jesus because he was invading my space, sticking his nose into my business, and disturbing my peace (according to my depraved way of thinking).
“Leave me alone! Get out of here! I don’t want you in my life anymore!”
How sad, ironic, and infinitely stupid is this – that what is best for us, we can view as what is worst for us. A fool believes there is no God. An even greater fool hears the truth about God and rejects it.
“There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12). What a boatload of truth we find in that verse!
And oh how grateful I am today that God continued to love me even though I hated him. How precious to me now are these words from Psalm 103.
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
God had every reason to treat me as my sins deserve and send me to hell. He could have repaid me according to my iniquities, locking me up and throwing away the key forever. But he didn’t. He was “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in love.”
Do you ever think about the amazing grace of God? Undeserving sinners like us receive exactly the opposite of what we deserve. Is this not incredible?
We deserve his justice; instead, we get his mercy.
We deserve his wrath; instead, we get his forgiveness.
We deserve his condemnation; instead, we get his justification.
“Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your amazing grace that saved a wretch like me. How grateful I am that the stupidity of my sin has been overcome by the lavish outpouring of your mercy through Jesus Christ. How I praise you, Lord, that my sin is no match for your love.”
Have a blessed day, my friend, and please let me know if you benefit from anything in this post by leaving a comment below. I welcome your feedback.
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