You Are Not the One to Build, Part 2: How can a just God not revoke gifts and callings of bad people—yet care for his own reputation?

Linked text to accompany the second in a series of videos about God's gifts and callings for people, which he sometimes gives to notorious evildoers who clearly did not earn them. How can this be fair or just? It has to do with his plan for the whole cosmos.

Hebrews 11:29

The video which this linked text accompanies:

Slide 2:  This leads to the question whether God is unfair or unjust.  He gives gifts and bestows important callings on people he knows will be notoriously evil, even compared to most other people.  He then then fails to revoke those gifts and callings when the evil manifests itself.  This doesn’t align well with our human notions of justice.  Shouldn’t a just God reserve the gifts human traditions associate with sainthood for people who have earned them by living lives that are, well, “saintly?”

Slide 3:  Romans 2:1-4.  The answer starts with Paul’s observation that God’s work in us doesn’t invite us to judge each other’s sins.  It is not an exercise in comparative sinning.  We all do things that would disqualify us if that were God’s approach.  But it isn’t.  God doesn’t lead us to repentance by inflicting judgment.    God himself leads us to repentance through his kindness. 

Slide 4:   In fact, God’s whole plan for the cosmos depends on his plan to forgive and restore humans. I here give references to some major scriptures on this point.  I will be explaining each of these.

Slide 5:  1 John 1:8-9.  The real issue is not the bad things we do–the bad things I have done. It is that I deceive myself into believing I am right, in myself, without God. Once this is overcome, he forgives–and then cleanses the evil out of me. It is a continuing process.

Slide 6:  Hebrews 8:11 and 12 says it a different way. Forgiveness of the bad things I have done is a necessary product of coming to know God.  But God’s underlying purpose is that I should know him.  Forgiveness comes as a result.  Now, multiply this times the membership of the whole Body of Christ, past, present and future, and you will understand what God is doing in being kind to me, despite my unsaintly past.

Slide 7:  Hebrews 10:14-18: Once again–the purpose is that I should learn from God to live as he does, as Jesus did, with God’s true Law in my heart.  Forgiveness of my lawless acts follows, as a necessary part of the process. I need make no sacrifice to buy it.  I need not earn it.

Slide 8:  Colossians 1:12-14:  Again, the objective is to bring us out of the realm where darkness reigns into the kingdom of light in which Jesus reigns. Redemption from sins is just a necessary part of this, a means to an end, not the objective.

Slide 9:  Ephesians 1:7-10:  Here we see the forgiveness of our sins as a necessary part of a much bigger picture.  He forgave us so that he could make his grace known in and through us.  But even this is part of a bigger picture.  He is demonstrating his grace through us to make it possible to bring all things back together under Christ, in the unity for which they were created.  As I said earlier, God’s plans for the entire cosmos depend on his forgiveness toward my sins.

Slide 10: 2 Corinthians 5:16-19: The purpose is that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him, becoming a new creation. But to make that possible, we must be reconciled to God–not God to us–through the assurance that he doesn’t count our bad acts against us. Our message to the world is not that God is your enemy, unless and until you repent.  It is that God never was your enemy, even though you were his enemy and believed he always would be yours  because he held your sins against you. But he wants to reconcile you to himself and to give you his life within.    

Slide 10: Colossians 1:19-20:  These verses appear to take forgiveness of bad acts clear out of the equation.  The Father’s purpose in sending His Son was to end the hostility of the entire Creation–humanity included–toward himself.  His purpose is to make peace with us! This is the same peace in which we are to live.

Slide 11: In preparation for the next part, consider that the context of Romans 11:29 shows this same purpose to restore people–specifically, his first covenant people, the Jews. To that end, their calling will never be revoked!

Next: You Are Not the One to Build, Part 3: God Making Peace with the World Through the Most Notorious Sinners!

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