The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
{BE SURE TO PRAYERFULLY VOTE ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6}
To Live Within the Culture Of Hope
One of my prayer partners and I were talking the other day about why “bad” things happen to Christians. The reasons include God’s training by testing, God’s glory, the spread of the gospel, Satan’s sieve, or the consequences of unconfessed sin. I addressed this in my book The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith and so I decided to incorporate part of chapter 8 here as it deals, in part, with the consequences of unconfessed sin in a Christian’s life.
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In both practice (real-life experience) and biblical wisdom our own choices can be the cause of the catastrophes in our lives, but not always. As we saw in the chapter on shortcuts, when we as Christians choose to sin and step outside the will of God, we need to be prepared to accept the results of our disobedience. Some of our trials are brought about by our own foolish behavior. One Peter 2:20 warns that suffering patiently with the outcomes of your own faults does not bring glory to God: “But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.”
Unconfessed sin in the life of the Christian always has consequences! In fact, 1 John 2:1–6 makes it clear that unconfessed sin is reason to doubt a person’s salvation.1 It is always God’s will that His children walk in His way. In not obeying God, we step outside the protection of God.
Biblical Metaphors of Disciplinary Intervention
The Bible presents two commonly understood metaphors for our relationship with God in which there is the understanding of disciplinary intervention to lead us back into His will (i.e. protection) and away from harm. The first metaphor is that of a loving Father training His child to know to do right and to mature to responsible adulthood.
Hebrews 12:5–12 outlines that relationship, making it unmistakably correlative to the spiritual bond in which obedience and holiness to God is expected:
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord [loves he chastens2, and scourges3] every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
The second metaphor is that of the shepherd leading His sheep. While there are numerous biblical references to the shepherd and sheep aspect of our relationship with Christ, Hebrews 13:20–21 seems to sum it up in this blessing:
Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well–pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Except as we live for Christ and take hold of His great and precious promises or choose to disobey His will, we have no choice about the circumstances of our lives. Quite often, however, what feels like chastisement has nothing to do with our choices. God alone is sovereign and omniscient, knowing how world events and the events of each individual life coalesce into the tapestry of His plans.
But we do have a choice about how we will respond to those incidents that leave us breathless with their unexpectedness and devastation. As Christians we can choose to live within the culture of hope represented by the promises of God and thereby glorify Him. Romans 6:14 reminds us that “sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
We do have the choice, and are in fact exhorted to glorify God in all that we do (1 Cor. 10:31; Col. 3:17, 23). We do this, in part, by thanking Him for everything. One Peter 4:12–13 states it this way:
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
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1 Notice that we do not lose salvation when we step outside God’s will and sin. One John 2:1b tells us we have “an advocate,” or lawyer, in Jesus Christ who argues our case before God. Confession (as a result of repentance) brings forgiveness (1 John 1:9), but continued and unconfessed sin demonstrates an unconverted soul (1 John 2:4).
2 i.e., scolds or corrects.
3 i.e., the equivalent of a parental spanking or physical discipline.
