Since when was "taking a break from God," or "taking a break from religion" ever a viable option? I am going to argue this point from two perspectives that I believe truly need to be defined. First, let me pose a question; have we as people grown so callus to redemption that taking a break from God seems possible? Is mercy and grace viewed as more of an option rather than necessity these days? Is not a sense of urgency and judgment also a motivator behind our relationship with our Creator? Because the last time I checked, humanity was kind of headed towards hell and the only thing that ransomed our sinful selves from the fate was a blood sacrifice of an innocent lamb that died in our place. But please don't let me get ahead of myself. I need to lay this out as gently and politically correct as possible so that your hearts will be open to receive it... Or maybe I should just lay it out as bluntly as possible. So here it goes... Without Christ, we ARE condemned. There is NO salvation apart from Christ. OK I've vented. Now let me gently proceed.
There are two writers that I am profoundly fond of. Perhaps it is because these writers so vividly depict the Human/God relationship in the same sense that they depict our rightful places in sense of a hierarchy which is, us as creation and God as Creator. They depict us as small and as God as indefinably large. Even beyond the recesses that our mind can grasp. This is then paralleled with our very real necessity of God. These writers are John Piper and R.C. Sproul.
R.C Sproul in his book, "Saved from What?" Wrote a line that to this day still impacts the way I view my need for Christ. He wrote, "That we are shocked by the idea that we are saved from God reveals two crucial shortcomings in our understanding. We fail to understand who God is, and we fail to understand who we are. Our view of God is too low, and our view of mankind is too high." (27) Of course this sense of pride is not new to man, because it was pride itself that caused the fall of man in Genesis. Didn't man desire to be like God? What I want to point out from this quote however, is that by accepting salvation, we are not just accepting free access to the blessings of God but we are also allowing the sacrifice of Christ to cover us from the very real judgment of our sins. Taking a break from God, or taking a break from religion is willfully removing ourselves not only from the blessings of relationship, but also from the cover and safety of salvation. Those two aspects parallel each other. Neither are truly an option and it is for two reasons.
1. The underlying premise of redemption is that sin (our sin) was paid by a blood sacrifice and we are then brought back into covenant relationship with our God.
A concern for how the church views redemption has been pressed upon me. What is redemption? Do people truly understand the concepts of "mercy," "grace," and "propitiation?" Do we as a body of Christ truly understand the impact and ramifications of what took place on Calvary? If we understood the full impact of our sinful nature and the liberating power of Calvary then we would not so easily take a break from something that has set us free from God's judgment of our sin and sin itself.
2. There is no growth outside of God. There is only digression.
Do we fully grasp our natures as human beings? I think for many people, the truly evil people are outside themselves, distant and quite psycho. But the everyday evil is within us when we live outside the grace of God. What seems simple has eternal ramifications and consequences. There is no growth, there is no betterment, maturation, or spiritual relationship with God outside of the parameters that he set for us. There is no salvation and no winning or getting by outside of God.
I pray that these next three articles lay out a foundation by which you can rationally and prayerfully rethink how we have been relating to God but also how we are responding to God and His call in our lives. In this life there is no spiritual sabbatical and I pray that each and every one of us come to a place where we realize that taking a break from God is impossible.
Be blessed!
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