Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Enemies, Reconciliation, Repentance, Romans
Recently I was reading (or rather listening to someone read) chapter 5 from the book of Romans. Romans 5:10 has always stood out to me as it says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” I think the reason this verse sticks out to me is that it labels me as an enemy of God. Now don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying that I am perfect, or that I am any better or worse than the next person is. Nevertheless, in the grand scheme of things I can never a recall a time in my life where I declared war against God. In Matthew 12:30, Jesus states, “He who is not with Me is against Me.” But even then, I’ve never felt I wasn’t with him. I have some atheist friends who would respond, “Love your neighbors, and feed the poor, fight injustice. Yeah Jesus, I am with you.” This whole enemy of God thing has remained a mystery to me for a while.
I would bet that if you polled most people, a majority would not claim allegiance against God or Jesus. Nonetheless, God’s word tells me that we were all God’s enemies. With that said, I cannot simply brush the matter off. It wasn’t until I recently studied Psalm 7 that I have started to get an understanding of how anyone makes him or herself an enemy of God…
In Psalm 7, the psalmist David is asking for God to judge his (David’s enemies). David is clearly in a time of trial and he wants justice to be done. However, by the time he gets to verse 12, the focus of the adversaries has been broadened. Verse 12 tells us that, “If a man does not repent, He will sharpen his sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready.” The picture is of someone preparing himself for war. Verse 13 describes the person preparing “deadly weapons” and 14 describes him becoming the creator of wickedness, mischief and falsehood. What does this person do to begin this path of iniquity? He refuses to repent.
So we have a guy who refuses to repent (literally: turn from sin) and the next thing you know, he is creating weapons of war for the purpose of wrongdoing. It seems like a big jump, but I would assert that the weapons are merely a byproduct of the unrepentance. Perhaps the psalm is saying that the person doesn’t even know they are doing this. In fact, I feel confident that they prepare for war unknowingly because verse 15 tells us that the unrepentant person, “has dug a pit and hollowed it out, And has fallen into the hole which he made.” No one would do that sort of thing on purpose. Therefore, Psalm 7 asserts that if we refuse to admit that we sin, we are creating an arsenal of corruption.
C.S. Lewis had a very strong opinion on how this sort of transformation works. In his, Weight of Glory, he wrote, “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship –or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.” Lewis has the idea that we are either equipping ourselves to be for God or against Him. The scariest part is that people are seemingly poisoning themselves with what seems harmless, trivial, and mundane. I want to emphasize this point strongly: I am not saying that people need to start doing what is right in order to be saved from a terrible future. I am saying that if we do not recognize sin for what it is, then we head down a road to terrible destination.
The psalm tells us that it is the unrepentant person who prepares for battle with weapons of wickedness. But we need to understand that repentance is not an issue of doing what is right instead of what is wrong. Repentance is admitting our own wrongs and accepting that God’s way is right. If repentance was a turn that resulted in only right action from that moment on, then I would be happy to tell you that there are many repentant and thus perfect people walking around. In addition, if repentance resulted in only doing what is right, then what would we say for those who accept Christ on their deathbed? Their opportunity for right action is over and only eternity awaits them. For example in Luke 23, the criminal on the cross next to Jesus shows repentance in saying, “And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong. (Verse 41)” In response this heart change, Jesus assures the criminal that he will see heaven. Repentance is a heart issue, not a better test score.
In closing, I’d like to tackle the idea that how we become enemies of God. Imagine if you will, an election in which the candidate from one party claims that he is for better education and less war. What if that candidate’s opponent decided that in order to differentiate himself he would stand on a more war and less education platform? In order to show how different he is from the candidate, he will just do exactly the opposite of him. It’s a ridiculous strategy and one that is not present in any election that I have ever seen. But according to scripture, it is exactly what we have done in opposition to God. In Psalm 119:104, the psalmist shares God sentiment to “hate every false way.” However, Paul quotes in Romans, Psalm 14:1 telling us that, “There is no one who does good.” God has shown His will and has used the Law of the Old Testament to show that we are all guilty and have all made ourselves His enemies.
Are you overwhelmed, saddened, depressed? Well you are in good company. Even the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7:24, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” The answer is of course Jesus Christ. Jesus spoke of coming for the sick, but even the sick must admit they need a doctor before any treatment can take place. One of my favorite hymn writers, Joseph Hart, wrote in his hymn, Come Ye Sinners:
“Let not conscience make you linger,
Not of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.”
The only antidote to being God’s enemy is repentance. It is looking in your hands, seeing the weapons you have created and handing them to the one whom was pierced by your iniquity, but loves you nonetheless.
