{"id":7914,"date":"2013-04-11T01:00:27","date_gmt":"2013-04-11T08:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=7914"},"modified":"2013-04-11T10:08:46","modified_gmt":"2013-04-11T17:08:46","slug":"presume-not-upon-the-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/2013\/04\/11\/presume-not-upon-the-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"Presume Not Upon the Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Hansol An<\/em><\/p>\n

Growing up, my understanding of God\u2019s grace was somewhat skewed. I understood that God loved me and that he sent Jesus to die for me. I understood that as a result of what he did, I was supposed to stop doing bad things and only do good things. But if I did bad things it would be okay because God would forgive me. I presumed that God would always forgive me no matter how sinfully I lived. I could live as I wanted, ask God for forgiveness later, and be assured of my salvation. In essence, what I thought I had was a license to get away with all the \u2018fun stuff\u2019 and still get into heaven! In my arrogance I presumed that God needed to forgive me since I was following the system; sin, pray for forgiveness, be forgiven, repeat. Later, I realized that this understanding of God\u2019s grace was incongruent with the gospel message as it cheapened God\u2019s grace and took God for granted.<\/p>\n

But there is nothing new under the sun. The Bible gives plenty of examples of people presuming upon God. In Numbers 14, Israel, being distraught over a bad report from the 10 spies, decides to disobey God and not enter into the Promised Land as God had commanded. When Moses tells them of God\u2019s judgment because of their disobedience, they “repent”. Presuming that God would honor their admittance of sin, they decide to enter the land as originally instructed. But by then, God was not with them and they were defeated by their enemies.<\/p>\n

In Jeremiah 7, the prophet Jeremiah is warning Judah that their idolatry will be judged by God and that they need to repent in order to be saved. But they made the Temple into \u201ca den of robbers,\u201d a safe haven from God\u2019s judgment no matter how sinfully they lived. Judah presumed that God\u2019s judgment would never extend to His own Temple and so they would be safe in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

This type of presumption upon the Lord can also be seen in the New Testament. In Matthew 3, John the Baptist calls out the Pharisees and Sadducees for their superficial religiosity and misplaced hope in their ancestry. John explains to them that their sinful hearts were not going to be overlooked simply because they were sons of Abraham. True decedents of Abraham need to share his extraordinary faith.<\/p>\n

Paul warns the Romans not to presume upon God\u2019s grace in Romans 2. He tells them that judging another person\u2019s sins, while committing the same sins, invites God\u2019s judgment upon the one who is judging. He goes on to explain that for them to \u201cpresume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience\u201d is the opposite of what God desires: repentance.<\/p>\n

In all four examples we see people’s presuming upon God\u2019s grace, using it as an excuse to sin rather than a motivation for true repentance. They were living in a form of cheap grace and continual sin which Paul addresses in Romans 6. In that chapter, Paul, anticipating the arguments from the religious establishment against salvation by grace alone, unequivocally denounces the idea that one can be saved and keep on living a sinful life. In verses 1 and 2 he states, \u201cWhat shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” And again in verse 15 he says, \u201cWhat then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bible is clear that we serve a loving, gracious and merciful God, but that doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want without consequence. In order to avoid the trap of presuming upon God\u2019s grace, Christians must live a life that shows Christ to be Lord as well as Savior. Through Scripture we can know God and his will for us. Failing to show evidence of a changed heart through an obedient life will result in unwelcome consequences. Christ himself said in Matthew 7:21-23, \u201cNot everyone who says to me, \u2018Lord, Lord,\u2019 will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, \u2018Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?\u2019 And then will I declare to them, \u2018I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The people in the above examples were not going to be saved by their admission of guilt, proximity to God\u2019s house, birthright or misguided understanding of God\u2019s kindness. True salvation comes from an accurate understanding of the cost required to save and the cost required to be saved. Those who are saved will exhibit a changed heart that loves God, which in turn results in a holy life (John 14:15).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Hansol An Growing up, my understanding of God\u2019s grace was somewhat skewed. I understood that God loved me and that he sent Jesus to die for me. I understood that as a result of what he did, I was supposed to stop doing bad things and only do good things. But if I did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-affinity-groups","category-college"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7914"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7916,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7914\/revisions\/7916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}