On mistaken assumptions about God

I like this cartoon. Sadly, it says what is all too common. In most of the First World countries, the fable has taken hold that we can do whatever we wish, and God will forgive it. We are like the people in the bar who begin to drink and drink and begin to misbehave. And, somehow, because the customer is always right, we do not expect that our boorish and offensive behavior will have consequences for us. And so, when the bouncer comes we protest, and sometimes even fight, because it is the bouncer who must be wrong. We paid our money. We have the right to be in the bar. The bouncer has no right to throw me out.

We do the same with our Christianity in the First World. After all, we have “paid” our dues by going to Church. What is the problem with a little “celebrating” and “carousing?” Even if we “sin,” after all God will forgive us. No, we would never say that to ourselves. That would be admitting our attitude. No, rather, we speak in pious terms, and with a little tear in our eye, about how God forgives. We hold on to the unspoken idea that God would certainly never punish us. He might punish some truly evil people, but never us. He is the ever-forgiving God.

And so, we like Adam and Eve, are surprised that the “place had a bouncer.” For Adam and Eve, the bouncer threw them out of the Garden of Eden and out into the cruel world. They paid a rough price for their assumption that the ever-forgiving God would never discipline them in any way. But, what is our bouncer? Well, though the Orthodox are definitely not Calvinists, yet the Westminster Confession of Faith makes an interesting statement speaking of those who deliberately sin. And the Confession, at this point, is speaking about Christians not about non-Christians. The Confession, in the chapter on the Perseverance of the Saints says that those who sin:

. . . fall into grievous sins; and, for a time, continue therein: whereby they incur God’s displeasure, and grieve His Holy Spirit, come to be deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts, have their hearts hardened, and their consciences wounded; hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves.

Uhm, read that paragraph again. The Confession says that if we “fall into grievous sin,” and continue in it then God will be displeased. God will deprive the sinner of some measure of grace and comfort. As a result of the sins, the sinner’s heart may be hardened, their conscience wounded, the sinner may even hurt and scandalize others. And, uhm, ahem, “bring temporal judgments upon themselves.” This does not exactly sound like the never-disciplining God of First World myth.

You see, we have confused the idea that God does forgive the sinner with the idea that God does not discipline the sinner. But, the article in the Confession about the Perseverance of the Saints clearly sets out a process in which the perseverance of the saints is assured, in part, by some rather strong discipline on the part of God.

And, so, we like Adam and Eve, often need to find out that there is a bouncer in our Christian life, and that bouncer is willing to even throw us out from the “graces and comforts” of God in order that we may become aware of our boorishness, offensiveness and sin. The end result is still salvation, however, not salvation without a price. The price is not that we earn our salvation. We do not. Salvation is a free gift. The price is that we experience something of the wrath of God in the here and now precisely so that we will inherit his salvation. God will not be mocked. We have forgotten that in the First World.

Hebrews points to Adam being a man of faith in a way that clearly shows that he made it to the presence of God. But his way was made very tough as a result of his deliberate sin. The same may be true of us is the warning that the Westminster Confession of Faith gives.