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The Blessing Of Disobedience


I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:
“The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
  And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.  (Romans 11:25-32)
          This may sound a little strange. I may have shared something like this in the past. Certain themes tend to repeat in my mind. Do you realize how big a blessing it is that God allowed us to sin? Let me put it more strongly. Do you realize how big a blessing it is that God put us in a situation in which it was likely that we would sin? If you never sinned, would you understand mercy? If you never sinned, would you know what it meant to be forgiven? If you never sinned, God could not show the depth of His love for you because you would not have needed Him to die for you. If you had never experienced any of those things from God, how would you know how to give them to anyone else?
          Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that sin is good or good for us. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be held responsible for our sins. Sin separates. Sin kills. But God bound everyone over to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all. Without disobedience, mercy couldn’t exist. Without our freedom to really reject God, love couldn’t exist. In order for mercy, forgiveness, and love to be real, not only must we be able to need them, but the natural consequences of our disobedience must be real. It would be a cruel God who told us “the wages of sin is death” and then at the judgment, said, “Oh, that was just a joke.” It would be a cruel God who forced someone who had hated and rejected Him all his life to endure eternity in His presence. It would be a cruel God who declared our decisions meaningless. It is a loving God who treats us with enough respect to give us what we earn, and yet provides a means for us to escape that wage. I thank God for my sin, and for its forgiveness.


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