As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head. Obadiah 1:15
Whenever I have caused my own misery, I have always cried out to God to get me out of my mess. I’ve even thought it was a little unfair that I was in the mess in the first place. God has forgiven me, so I shouldn’t have to pay the consequences for my sins, right?
Passages like today’s then, have been painful reminders that God made the world in such a way that we reap what we sow. When we use drugs, we become addicted. When we eat too much, we get fat. We may be forgiven by God, but if we rob a bank today, we’re going to jail tomorrow.
I’ve had to ask then, What does God do for me? If forgiveness doesn’t mean getting out of consequences, why bother? The very question exposes my ignorance and immaturity. In concerning myself only with me and my immediate gratification, I am still singularly occupied with what Paul described as living in the flesh.
The entire reason God made the world to be so painful when we go our own way, is so that we learn to turn from our way to his. We are not only flesh. We are spirit and we were made to live in an intensely real relationship with our creator. We may think life is doing whatever we want, but authentic, eternal life is to know God here and now (John 17:3).
God made us to live in relationship with him, but we’ve all gone our own way, turning our backs on him. Under the old system – before Christ – this separation required animal sacrifices to repair. Now though, since God descended to Earth as Jesus Christ, we have been forgiven for all time. When we believe, we’re restored forever to a right relationship with the God who made us.
Thankfully, on Christmas, we can celebrate that What goes around, doesn’t come around, in our spiritual lives. Though we deserve a life of isolation from God, because of his intense love for us, he has undone his own rules (from our perspective), forgiving us and restoring us to himself.
God’s grace and mercy, shown at Christmas, means that no matter what misery I may cause, I can be forgiven. In following God, I have the freedom to stop causing my own disasters as I learn to follow his way, instead of mine. Because of Christ’s mercy and love, I can know true life, here and now.