Sin leads to death; in Christ, death leads to life.
God does not control us. He allows us to sin. Why?
Not because he is careless or punitive in nature, but because it is the nature of love to BEAR ALL THINGS. We humans tend to do the wrong thing. We are prone to wander like sheep; we have all gone astray and gone the wrong way. Love is not easily angered, though, because it keeps no record of wrong.
God bears with our wandering, because he knows that the deeper into sin we wander, the deeper our knowledge of grace will be when we are on the other side of spiritual death. Sin will reap death.
Everyone sins, and everyone pays for it.
The death and destruction of our natural life await all of us. But perhaps that is good news, after all. Is this a go-ahead for all sin, since grace abounds more? God forbid! Sin harms us all. No one truly desires to harm another…because no one desires harm to come to them. We are inherently designed to treat others the way we treat ourselves, and we only begin to love ourselves through the process of spiritual “awakening,” or, resurrection….death, and THEN life.
Perhaps the death that awaits us is actually a burning away (destruction) of all that harms us. Pieces of ourselves, yes…an “old self” destined for destruction from the beginning ( and that’s good news.) But our true selves, that which was created and sealed with a promise, have been guaranteed safe passage…through the doorway of death, and back into the arms of our Father. Repentant, whole, and walking in genuine love.
When we come up for air after we follow Christ into his death, we no longer crave grace. We know it. We receive it freely and we give it away freely. We no longer seek acceptance. We believe we are accepted. Our entire identity is “one with God in Christ.”
Can a heart be won right away? Is it possible for us to be sanctified the moment we are born? Or MUST we learn our lesson…must we choose the wrong thing, if only to return to right thing, with a deeper love learned along the way? Which is a more beautiful design, perfection or restoration?
Discipline is necessary for learning & growing creatures, and its reason is mercy. It is a mercy for the sinner to be stopped in their sin, for the suffering to cease for the oppressor and the oppressed.
But true love does not stop at discipline. It is reinforced by communion and lack of condemnation (keeping records of wrong) by the rule giver. As this process goes on, it will result in the sinner refusing to give in to sin, not out of fear for punishment, but out of genuine love and obedience to the law giver.
The law is then, no longer a limitation, but rather the very road to freedom! The sinner is redeemed into a saint, and is free from the patterns that cause harm to themselves and others.
Everyone will come to the end of themselves, only to find Christ. Because humanity has limits. But God is limitless. God has no beginning and no end. He IS the beginning AND the end. No matter how far we wander away and reject Him in our ignorance, He is always waiting ahead. I know it.