Love the Transgressor

 

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Romans 5:8
Good News Translation
⁸ But God has shown us how much he loves us—it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!

It was my second year in college. The college bulletin listed 10 actions that were grounds for expulsion. I had offended in 9 of them. I wished I could have claimed all 10. I had a rebellious attitude, and the disciplinary committee met and suspended me for 6 weeks. They were kind to me. I deserved outright expulsion.

When I got home my parents labored with me. They were very persuasive about how my actions would affect my life in the long run. They also emphasized how my current course of action was threatening my eternal salvation. They encouraged me to go back to the college town and see how much I could do to clear up my record. Their logic and reasoning made sense to me. First, I shelved the rebellious attitude; then I went back the 1,500 miles and cleared up as much as I could.

The president of the college found out that I was back in town and what I was doing. I told him I had had a change of attitude and what I was doing to try and rectify things. He complimented me. He then told me that I was not speak to any of the students. Furthermore, he was not willing to ask the faculty to reinstate me into the college He didn’t mention the six-week suspension: he regarded me as having been expelled. He knew he couldn’t stop me from speaking to the students because my brother was at the school. I had not mentioned the six-week limit, but he was letting me know I wasn’t welcome there.

God, on the other hand, bore all my punishments before I committed the sins that demanded punishment. He welcomed me into his kingdom before I was born.

That president may have been frustrated some years later when I returned to the college as a professor. By that time, he was no longer the president, and they had eagerly sought my services. When I was introduced to the students at a college assembly, I mentioned to the whole group that the last time I had been formally connected with the college I had been expelled from there. As far as I could tell, it only improved the way the students accepted me.

 Thank You, Lord, for loving me—and my readers while we were still sinners.

 

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[1] https://www.linkedin.com/company/helderberg-college/?originalSubdomain=zaa

Emotional Religion Pitfalls

Ephesians 4: 24

King James Bible

And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Twice a year in boarding school we had a week of prayer. These were often conducted by great preachers locally or from overseas. Twice a day for a week they would tell stories and experiences of the mighty power and self-sacrificing love of God. These stories would tell how God renewed the lives of great sinners. They also told of the terrible punishments that God would inflict on wanton sinners.

By the great culmination of the week of prayer series, on Friday nights, with soft music being played on the piano, the preacher would invite us up to the front to tell about our experiences. For an hour and many times longer than that one student after another would go forward and with lots of tears and sobbing the students would tell of their sins. They would bring up a pack of cigarettes or an evil book or an object they had stolen and throw it in a waste basket provided for that purpose, renouncing their old lives.

Then with deep fervor they would “put on the new man.” They would promise that from then on they would live the righteous life God had given them. On Sabbath morning we would witness the baptism of some of these students. I would sit there in the audience, but I would not feel the great emotion that the other students expressed. I did not go forward except on very rare occasions when peer pressure would force me to. On my part there was never any weeping or remorse, even though I counted myself as being a worse sinner than the others.

Like a new garment, this “new man”, would quickly become soiled and torn. I knew this from early experience—these twice annual weeks of prayer had been a part of my education ever since the first year I went to school. I knew what the result would be. The man of God who had brought about such a marvelous emotional transformation in every student would leave to conduct the next week of prayer at the next school. He would be rejoicing that “God had used him” to save so many lost sinners. The conference leaders would claim another great success and heap accolades on the preacher.

However, by Saturday night or Sunday at the latest, the “new man” of Friday night would be so stained and tattered as to be scarcely recognizable. None of these preachers ever showed us how to keep putting on a fresh “new man” every day. The penitents would rapidly sink into greater sin. They would deny the origin of the repentance they had professed and boldly blaspheme God.   

Like a vain dieter who discovers a new diet, loses 10 pounds in 3 weeks and then over the course of the next few months adds 15 pounds back on, becoming fatter and less healthy by each experience, the poor student would be plunged more deeply under the control of the devil.

Lord, create a new man of righteousness and true holiness for me today and see to it that I wear it today.