God likes people.
Did you know that? God is a God of love, and he loves
us all, but more than that, he likes people. He doesn't want to be
some ritualistic, judgmental God who only appears in order to condemn
us for our wickedness or even to reward us briefly for our successes
before retreating to his throne on high, separate from us lowly
mortals. He wants to walk with us. He wants to speak with us, to
have us learn about him, to form a real relationship with us. He
wants to be involved with our lives, with our petty problems, with
our triumphs, and pains, and fears, and joys. He just wants to be
with us. That's why the human race was created—to commune with God
and to fellowship with him.
But we can't. When the human race decided in the garden
of Eden to disobey God, to partake in that which was forbidden, sin
entered us. We are literally born steeped in sin, and God is not
just merciful, compassion, and love. He is justice. He is
righteous. He is Holy.
He will not fellowship with sin.
We don't often realize this, but the Bible actually says
there are things that God will not do. The Bible says that
God will not lie, refuse to fulfill his promises, or
change his mind. (Numbers 23:19) It says that he does not change
at all (Psalms 55:19). For God to do any of these things would be
like asking a cat to bark or a fish to live on the land. You could
ask them to do it all you want, but they still won't do it, because
doing so would be foreign to their very nature. The things the Bible
says God won't do are things that are completely foreign to God's
nature. You can trust the Words of God because everything he says is
truth, and there is no lies nor deception within him.
But your iniquities
have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from
you, so that he will not hear. Isaiah 59:2
Sin is dangerous because it is the only thing on earth
or below it that can separate you from God. He will still love you,
not even your sin can separate you from God's love (Romans
8:35-39). But sin
will still separate you from God himself. Isaiah states that God
will not even listen to someone who is sinning. You are cut off.
But there is one
prayer that God will always hear: a prayer of repentance. Jesus
Christ took upon himself the punishment of our sins so that we would
not have to be separated from God.
I
have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in
repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. Acts 20:21
Since Jesus paid the
price for our sins, when we believe in him and repent of our sins,
then God will take away our sins and wash us white as snow. Then we
will be pure, righteous, and holy, not because we are righteous and
holy, but because God MADE us holy. Then we are able to fellowship
with him again, the way that he has always desired us to, even since
the beginning of the world itself.
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