The Bible everywhere takes for granted Israel’s ability to obey the law. Condemnation fell because Israel, having that ability, refused to obey. They sinned not out of amiable weakness, but out of deliberate rebellion against the will of God. That is the inner nature of sin always, willful refusal to obey God.
~ A.W. Tozer
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. From His presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
~ from Revelation 20
Oh beloved, it is true. Man – to a man – is a rebel. There is within us, this deeply seated desire to have our own way, and to have our own way at any price. And many of us know exactly what this is like.
We have heard, and even know the very good news of the Gospel that Jesus has come to set us prisoners free. However, the downside (we think) for us rebels, is that He wants to set us free His way. He wants to set us free through His Love and work for us, in His Strength, and by His Spirit.
We though (many of us) drove ourselves into a mindset and behaviors that left us nearly dead. We put chemicals in our bodies, while neglecting the same. We cast off any restraint. We would not listen to anyone. We would not look to anyone for help. In short, we rebelled.
Oh, many of us tried to do this in the name of the freedom we thought we had to live our own lives. But in taking our own trip into our own ideas of what freedom is about – we found ourselves in a place we never expected. We were in an inescapable trap, of our own making.
Said simply: in trying to set ourselves free, we failed.
It does seem to this fool of a writer, that this rebellion is the very thing of which G_d wants us to repent. We tried to do things our own way, and messed up badly. And then, note that in the passage in Revelation 20, those at the final and horrible White Throne judgement are judged similarly according to their works, and not necessarily just according to their sins.
Can we see it? What G_d is always judging is not our actions, but our hearts. Will we be willing to surrender to His goodness, and find the true freedom we have always sought? Or, will we rebel against His great Love and plan of redemption and attempt to stand before Him on our own merits one day before the Great White Throne?
Oh brothers, we may think the stuff we are doing is because we are free. But aren’t we just rebelling against the freedom He has for us?
Two words: Stop it.
And a few more words: Let Him quell the rebellion within you. Make the one final choice to let Him set you free. His way. For He truly is The Way and The Truth and The Life.
