Pondering God’s forgiveness got me thinking about tankless water heaters. Hang with me on this. Tankless water heaters offer instant, on-demand hot water where and when it is needed. As appliances they are marvels of efficiency. Many believers, I fear, think God’s gracious forgiveness works the same way: it’s on-demand, and newly heated for each application. The problem this image creates is that we feel we are imposing on God’s patience and goodness when we confess our sin. We don’t want to bother him with yet another call for his grace, so we delay, waiting for a more legitimate use of his forgiving warmth. This causes us to try to manage our sin and call upon God’s grace only when we really, really need it. Instead, we ought to think of God’s forgiveness as a standing reservoir of pre-heated grace, purchased by Jesus Christ through his work on the cross, ready to flow into our lives. We call for this grace when we feel convicted of sin, not worrying that He is inconvenienced or surprised, or that some new work needs to be initiated. He has already stored up all the grace, forgiveness and restoration we will ever need, and graciously waits for us to agree with Him that it is needed here and now.
Roger
1 comment:
This sermon msg Sunday rattled my thinking and caused me to rethink so many wrong things i had projected onto God regarding forgiveness. it is changing me, and i am so thankful that He loves me and forgives me, and then helps me. thanks for sharing it again here. i had just talked about this with my counselor today (the sermon)!
Post a Comment