To many, life is pointless, and the God of the Bible is a cruel jokester. Why? There is so much sorrow, and pain in this world that we each have to endure. Sometimes it is deeply troubling, and very confusing.
Before He created us, Yahweh knew that we would have to suffer, and go through all the trials and tribulations of earthly life. God could have created the earth, and us, in a completely different way, which did not require that we endure all these painful experiences.
Since God could have done things differently, but He chose not to, and we know His loving nature, we can surmise that there is a purpose for the suffering, and, in the end, we will benefit from it.
When Yahweh came to the earth, in the form of a man, the man, Yeshua (Jesus), He suffered many things. The man, Jesus, learned obedience through the things that He suffered. (Hebrews 5:8)
God in Christ subjected Himself to the same sufferings that He subjected us to, so that He, in His human form could be perfected. If the God-man, Jesus needed to go through all these things in order to learn obedience (be perfected), then you and I must also.
The man, Jesus, is our big brother, and if we wish to be glorified with Him, and inherit all things with Him, we must also suffer with Him. (Romans 8:17)
So yes, there is a purpose behind our suffering, and God is not a cruel jokester. Yahweh is preparing us for the glory that awaits us, and for the day that we will inherit the whole universe. See, if God were to bless someone with vast riches, before they were able to handle those riches, His blessing would destroy them, and many others. God is using our suffering to change us, so that He can bless us with things that we can’t even imagine! (1 Corinthians 2:9)
The Law
Yahweh created us as free-will creatures. Free-will creatures have within themselves the propensity to rebel, and attempt self-rule. If this propensity did not exist within us, then we would not be free-will creatures. Lucifer is a free-will creature, whom Yahweh blessed with unimaginable blessings, and even though Yahweh gave him the ability to handle these blessings, he chose not to, and rebelled. Perhaps, this is why there is no remedy for Satan.
After Lucifer fell, and became Satan (The Adversary), Yahweh created man. Yahweh placed these new free-will beings in a garden of pleasures, where they had everything they needed to prosper. Yahweh walked and talked with these free-will beings, and they were happy, and complete. And then, the law came.
Yahweh laid down the law. Yahweh told them that they could not eat the fruit that was on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or they would die. The law squeezed Adam and Eve, and what was in them came out for all to see. The Serpent (the adversary) used the law to draw Eve into sin, and the law brought out Adam’s propensity for self-rule, and he freely chose to rebel against Yahweh.
Yahweh came looking for His rebellious, lost children, and extended grace unto them, by killing an innocent animal in their place, and using its fur to clothe them, so that they would not be ashamed to fellowship with Him.
Man was created a little lower than the angels. Yahweh did not create man with the same level of perfection, power, and blessings that the angels enjoyed. Apparently, Yahweh can’t restore the angels, who rebelled against Him, because they were perfect in wisdom and power, and therefore had the absolute ability to obey, but chose to defy Him. (Hebrews 2:7; Ezekiel 28:13-19; Jude 1:6)
Yahweh didn’t create us in perfection, so that when we rebelled there would be a path that we could choose that would lead to perfection. And this path to perfection comes with many trials, tribulations and sorrows, which refine us, and teach us obedience, so that we can stand in our perfection, and not fall as the angels fell.
As we imperfect free-will creatures walk the path back to God, and personal perfection as free-will creatures, our sufferings are fitting us for the glory that awaits us. Yahweh is perfecting us through these unpleasant experiences, in order to ensure that we will never rebel against Him, once we have reached our perfected state. This is the only way it could be done, and hold our free-will state in tact.
Grace
Grace is not only a “legal state” we enter into, in which Yahweh clears us of all wrong doing, and promises not to count our sins against us, it is also Yeshua’s active, personal participation, in our daily lives. (Colossians 2:14; Romans 4:7-8; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Hebrews 4:16)
Paul said that he could do all things through Christ, who strengthens him. (Philippians 4:13) Did Paul mean that he could apply nuclear physics to solve the problem of defining matter in the ancient world? No, Paul meant that Yeshua would give him the grace he needed to make it through the trials, tribulations and sufferings that he had to go through. In all these things, Paul said that he was happy to go through them, because, Yeshua’s grace was sufficient. (2 Cor 12:10)
Yeshua’s daily intervention in our lives, via grace, will heal our wounds, change us, grow us up, and empower us to go through the trials, tribulations, and sufferings that we must go through in order to be perfected. So why do most of us resist Yeshua’s grace?
Yeshua’s grace empowers us to live, change, and grow. Yeshua sends His grace to us each day so that we can have joy, peace, and growth. Yeshua’s grace is the only thing that can really and truly change you and cause you to leave destructive compulsions, obsessions, and addictions in the past, without going to endless meetings.
Yeshua’s daily grace is the most precious and costly gift that He can possibly give us. Sadly, most of us resist Yeshua’s grace, and do not embrace it, so we have to live the Christian life in our own power. This drains us, and leaves us defeated, weak and confused.
How do we resist the grace of God? Well, by acting on our religious training, and putting ourselves under the law for righteousness!
The Law Kills
Religion says that we have to do this, or that, in order to be right with God, and receive His blessings. Religion says that if we are struggling with a habitual sin, God is upset with us, and withholding His blessings from us, until we get right. Religious leaders try to cut us off from grace, so that we have to depend on them, and their institutions for growth, and blessings. This is dead wrong!
I remember when the light came on for me. I had just sinned a habitual sin that I was struggling with, and fighting against. Man, I was driving down the road feeling bad, I mean really, really bad. I was beating myself up. Asking myself how I could do such a thing again, and again, and again. It was horrible, and this was the 10,000th time I had suffered through these torturous feelings, and self-beatings.
I cried out to God, and asked Him why He wouldn’t help me change. Then, I heard a soft inner voice say, “I can’t help you, because you will not let me.” I asked God what He meant, and He said that I was putting myself under the law for righteousness, and cutting myself off from His grace. This hit me so hard that I thought I was going to have to pull over, and recompose myself on the side of the road.
Religion, and the law was cutting me off from Yeshua’s grace, and slowly killing me! The law provides a platform for the sin within us to stand upon, and it thereby stirs up the diseased emotions in us, which holds us in our sins. Grace connects us with the life of God, and stills our diseased emotions so that we can rise above them, and overcome our sins. Grace is the power to overcome sin!
What Paul said in Galatians 2:21 finally made sense to me. I was just like the foolish Galatians, who had let religion trick them into putting themselves under the law, even though Christ had freed them from it. The Galatians fell from grace, because they trusted religion and the law. Grace was’t helping them, and Jesus’ death for them was in vain. And I was in the same boat with them. Wow! Strong words.
Healed by Grace
When I realized what was going on, I changed my view on things. I then, fully embraced the Love of God. I realized that I needed grace everyday, in order to overcome sin. I realized that God loved me, and He wasn’t upset with me for struggling with sin. I realized that God wasn’t holding back on His blessings, until I overcame my sin. I realized that I didn’t have to do anything to be blessed.
God blessed me with everything He has to give me. God has wiped away my old sin record, and promised not to start a new one on me. Yeshua is praying for me everyday, and releasing God’s love unto me, in order to help me overcome sin, and live an abundant life. I now receive it, and refuse to let my attitude about sin block it.
I am being healed by grace, and I refuse to let anything block it again. Do I still sin? Of course I do! I, however, do not let the law condemn me, and I don’t beat myself up anymore. I know that Yeshua has made me righteous, so I now see myself as righteous, even if I sin.
It is your choice. You can let religion and the law cut you off from grace, and beat you up, and kill you. Or you can embrace grace.
Make no mistake. Grace heals: The law kills.
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