Hi Karen
You ask very good questions. What's the difference? You already hinted at it, but essentially it is that one changes and the other does not. The unchangeable nature of God can be both a source of comfort and a source of great discomfort. The real difference lies in the fact that God is Holy, and we are not. Human political and personal agendas change from day to day, but Gods character remains the same "yesterday, today, and forever." (This has nothing to do with tongues). The application of principals derived from God's character may change as society changes but the principals themselves, do not. God cannot be bought by special interests, He doesn't rely on a majority in the house to see His agenda move forward, and He is not subject to manipulation through blackmail or kidnaping. That's the comforting part.
The discomfort comes when we realize that we are held personally responsible to meet that standard, or we then, become morally culpable. If God were to grade on the curve so to speak we might squeeze by. But require us to live up to every aspect of a completely holy standard and I think you can see how we all far short. No doubt you will fall less short than I would, but Short is not good enough. Therefore we are left with two options. Either we stand before God and receive Justice, or we can avail ourselves of His mercy by nature of the fact that Jesus came, lived a perfect life, and then laid that life down as a substitute for our sin. This is not quite the end of it however because God imputes the perfection of Jesus' righteousness to our account at the same instant that He takes our sin. That is why Christians are all saints. Not because of what they have done, but because they have received into their accounts, the very righteousness of Christ. Sanctification works from the inside out. Every day the Christian becomes a little more like Christ, until finally when we see Him we will be like Him. |
