What are polar opposites? In my book, it means things that are the anti-thesis of each other. Things that cannot exist together by definition of what they are. A good example is light and darkness. By definition, there is no light in darkness and vice versa. Another example is God and sin. The definition of sin is everything which detracts from God's perfect love and will for us, so there is no sin in God, and there cannot be anything Godly in sin.This actually helps me understand why God is so hard on sin, and why there is a hell. By definition God abhores sin, just as nature abhores a vacuum (where there is a vacuum, there is no air, and vice versa). Because of that, sin seperates us from God. In spite of His awesome power, God cannot help that, because that is the very definition of sin - the decision to exercise the free will God has given us to choose to not to respond to His perfect love and will for us. Just like I could not help the fact that some of the gals I fancied in my younger life did not quite accept my affections. :) So sin seperates us from God, and each sin we commit pulls us further away from Him. He cannot say "never mind, all is forgiven" without giving up who He is. And frankly, I would not be impressed with a God who is not consistent with who He is - can you imagine the chaos with an unpredictable God who changes His mind? The only way God can get rid of sin and bring us back to Him is to pay the price for sin, all sin. The rest is, literally, history (get it? His Story). :) He stepped out of eternity and into time, suffered physical, mental and spiritual abuse, and He died to pay the full price for sin. I could even say that He did that just for you, because He has no control over who will accept His sacrifice (grace) and come back to him. So technically, He would have done the same if the only person in the world who accepts His grace is you. WOW! Praise God!
So why is there hell? My theory is that hell is simply "where God isn't". At some point (let's call it judgement day), God will have to seperate those who accept Him from those who don't. He will respect the decision of those who choose not to be with Him. I'm not sure if there will be eternally burning fires and other horrors in hell, but I'm willing to bet that life without God for eternity is pretty "hellish". It scares me to think that my parents still do not accept His grace. It REALLY scares me. :(
On a lighter note, I ran naked in Tokyo today. ;) Did not to bring my HRM, not even a digital watch (stopwatch). The weather was great - 72 °F / 22 °C - what a difference from the hot humid weather in Singapore! :) Ran for 30mins and thanks to the weather I did not even feel tired for more than half the way. Praise God!
Until next time, train safe and God Speed!
5 comments:
Kewl,
Horray for Jesus.
...we were studying Romans 5 in my small group. There Paul was claiming how rarely anyone will die for a righteous man and how God send his Son to die for us, the sinners. How amazing is that.
I am not sure if i got this right.but in the OT, they don't have salvation. To them, when they die, they die.
I love that definition, hell is where God isn't. That's a very good discription.
Okay, running naked in Tokyo freaked me out for a second :)
Good post. I have often commented that my idea of hell would be this:
Go to Heaven, see it AND God. Then be told that you can't stay, and will never again be in the presence of His wonderful love. Seeing that, and then being cast out of it would be hell. Satan would have little need to do anything but sit and laugh. Because his greatest pleasure is in knowing that he won't be alone in his exile.
Thanks for reminding us of how real sin is, and I liked the part about God dying for our sin. We sometimes lose sight of that fact that Jesus and God are one in the same.
As I read that you agree there is a hell, I was thinking, "I do, too, but I don't think it's fire, I think it's just total absence form God." Then I read farther and found, that's what you think, too. And like Iron Pol said, after you see God and see heaven, to be turned away knowing you can never have that....
Just a little note - what do you tell people about the verse in 2 Cor. 5:21 where it says, Him who did not know sin He was made sin on our behalf... Can you believe that Jesus was made sin on our behalf? When and how was this done?
Some people feel they do not sin and live a good life. What do you tell them?
We as fallen human beings have no choice but to sin because sin is in our being. It is our nature, our constitution, our make up. But, Jesus dealt with sins, sin, the flesh, Satan, and the world on the cross. On one hand sin is no more because Jesus dealt with all the negative things on the cross yet we still sin. A little dilemma.
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