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Exchanged Glory V: God Meant it for Good
<page 223>The Bible doesn’t teach us that we will fully respond to God apart from His discipline.
In order to better explain God’s rule of the universe, I need to expand on the analogy of fathers and children from the previous chapter. A wise human father knows that human beings are designed to learn from consequences, so there will be times when his children are better off making painful mistakes than they would be if he were to unnecessarily protect them. Our failures often teach us powerful lessons that shape our future for good, and learning to benefit from them is an important part of becoming mature.
At the same time, a good human father does his best to protect his children from serious damage. There are some mistakes, like participating in violent crime, that are so dangerous he will intervene and do whatever he can to stop them. He attempts to set firm boundaries to keep them from falling into these sorts of errors.
Those boundaries cannot and should not keep them from every little misstep, however. If he attempts to implement too many boundaries, his children are likely to feel smothered and may turn to rebellion simply to escape the father’s overbearing influence. The father tries to balance freedom and protection, seeking to keep his children from long term harm while giving them room to grow.
The father also knows that his children will be sinned against. He will try to keep them from the worst of this, but he can’t keep them from everyone who might hurt them. Attempting to do so would rob them of the chance to learn the lessons they need for life in the real world. So he teaches them to stay away from those who are likely to cause serious damage, walks with them through bumps and bruises, and steps in with extra help if necessary.
Just as our natural immune system grows through limited contact with disease, so our spiritual immune system grows through limited contact with evil. There is a strength that can only be developed in children when they learn to rely on God as they face sin and death in the world.
The analogy to God should be clear. He creates plans for us that take into account the reality of who we are and where we live. We will sin, and we will be sinned against. He gives us room to grow while He weaves it all together into something wonderful for us and the world around us.
When one of my daughters went to public school after attending a Christian school for many years, she suddenly found herself in what I suspect felt like her dream world. She had more friends than ever before, her schoolwork was challenging, and she was able to excel at sports. In the excitement of it all, I could see that her heart was slowly turning from Jesus. I warned her about this, but she dismissed me.
I got down on my knees before God and said, “Father, we’ve got a problem. What should we do about this?” Within a few days, some of my daughter’s “friends” spread gossip about her and <page 224>embarrassed her in front of her classmates. She came home in pain, and I did my best to comfort her.
She was discovering that the world was not all it appeared to be, and the Holy Spirit was helping her to come to grips with this reality. I decided not to say anything about the misguided trust she had placed in her friends. I could tell that God’s message was coming through loud and clear
Was this course of events God’s Perfect Plan? Of course not! People sinned. But was it His Real Life Plan? It is hard to argue with the outcome. When I consider my daughter’s strengths and weaknesses, the whole set of circumstances seemed to be perfectly arranged for her. God indeed worked everything, including her sins and those of her friends, for her good.
We all need experiences like this. Our hearts are prone to go astray.
Who can say, "I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin"?
Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.
For we all stumble in many ways.
God doesn’t condemn us for our weaknesses. Instead He helps us through them by disciplining us.
So don't feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?
“My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either. It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects.”
God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? …it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.
(Hebrews 12:5-8; 11, The Message)
The Bible doesn’t teach us that we will fully respond to God apart from His discipline. There will always be situations in which He will allow trouble, even the trouble of our sins or someone else’s, in order to help us grow. We should try to obey as much as we can, but He is realistic. He knows that we will be unable to fully learn what we need without painful help. He would be an irresponsible parent if He didn’t anticipate this and respond.
We find a marvelous example of this sort of discipline in Simon Peter’s life.
<page 225> "Simon, stay on your toes. Satan has tried his best to separate all of you from me, like chaff from wheat. Simon, I've prayed for you in particular that you not give in or give out. When you have come through the time of testing, turn to your companions and give them a fresh start."
Peter said, "Master, I'm ready for anything with you. I'd go to jail for you. I'd die for you!"
Jesus said, "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Peter, but before the rooster crows you will have three times denied that you know me."
(Luke 22:31-34, The Message)
We know what happened next. Jesus was taken to be crucified, and Peter denied Jesus three times.
Even well-meaning followers of Christ can get themselves into a state in which God decides that the best way to minister to them is to allow them to fall into sin. Notice that Peter was extremely sincere and dedicated ("Master, I'm ready for anything with you. I'd go to jail for you. I'd die for you!"). This wasn’t enough, however; he also needed to be humble.
Peter’s pride was blinding him to his need for supernatural strength, so God allowed him to see what would happen if he tried to stand on his own. As a result, Peter’s weakness was exposed, he came through the time of testing, and he turned to his companions and gave them a fresh start. Given Peter’s heart, which was partially blinded by sin, this was the best way to reach Him.
It would be nice if we never needed to go through situations like that, but we have to face reality – in spite of our best efforts, we sometimes get ourselves locked into a deceived state of mind. God knows this, and He also knows how to counter its effects. He puts in place a Real Life Plan that exposes the condition of our hearts so we can repent.
Some might object that God only decides to use a sin after it is committed. He would never plan for it ahead of time. We need to ask whether this was true in Peter’s case:
And Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away, because it is written, 'I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.'”
Jesus quoted from Zechariah 13:7, which predicted that Peter and the rest of the apostles would fall away more than five-hundred years before they did. That lets us know that it was part of God’s plan long before it happened. He had plenty of time and ability to cause a different outcome, but He chose not to.
This didn’t excuse Peter and the other apostles, of course. They made choices and were responsible for their actions. But it shows that God saw their weakness long before it came to be and put in place a Real Life Plan to overcome it. He thought through the different possibilities and decided it was best to allow the apostles to sin and then restore them. Then He told Zechariah to write it down so we would all know Who was in control.
I need to quickly reemphasize that God’s Real Life Plan doesn’t give any of us an excuse to sin. It grieves me to think that anyone would conclude that it does, but people sometimes make this sort of error. It happened when Paul preached:
<page 226>It's simply perverse to say, "If my lies serve to show off God's truth all the more gloriously, why blame me? I'm doing God a favor." Some people are actually trying to put such words in our mouths, claiming that we go around saying, "The more evil we do, the more good God does, so let's just do it!" That's pure slander, as I'm sure you'll agree.
(Romans 3:7-8, The Message)
It is only in having a repentant heart before God that His goodness works out for our good. His promise in Romans 8:28-29 is for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. We have to walk in humility and repentance to receive the promise; that is how our weaknesses are turned into strength.
Willful sins, on the other hand, lead to serious problems. If we continue to resist, we may become broken in ways that are extremely painful and can affect us for a lifetime.
A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.
(Proverbs 29:1, NAS)
This is not to say that God will not use even willful sins for our good. …We won’t be able to receive that benefit, however, until we humble ourselves before Him – and doing so quickly will keep us from dealing with the limited yet significant consequences of being broken beyond remedy. (For example, it could keep us from the lifelong effects of a divorce, financial ruin, or public disgrace.) The best approach is to commit our hearts to following Him. In that way, we will receive the benefits of His discipline continually.
I need to make one more point about Peter and the other apostles before I finish. Jesus gave them a chance to avoid their painful mistake.
When He came to the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, …When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, "Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation." (emphasis added)
(Luke 22:40-41; 45-46, The Message)
If the apostles had followed Jesus’ example and fervently prayed instead of drifting into sleep, they could have stood firm.[96] We learn from this that God sometimes lets us see when He is about to allow us to stumble so that we can take the necessary steps to find His way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13). He warns us, so we have a chance to do the spiritual preparation necessary in order to stand.[97] This principle is included in the Lord’s Prayer:
<page 227>And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil…
The logic behind this verse is that our hearts can enter states where we become deceived about our motives and abilities. At those times, God may lead us into temptation that brings failure in order to expose our true condition. Our disobedience will show that we are not walking with Him as we thought we were, and we will have the opportunity to repent. We should pray that we won’t reach that condition.
I know many are uncomfortable with the idea that God would ever lead us into temptation. James warned:
Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.
Matthew 6:13 doesn’t contradict James 1:13. God does not tempt us Himself, but He does lead us into temptation by allowing the devil to tempt us. He permits circumstances to progress to the point where we slip into some sin. Our evil is exposed, we are humbled, and this makes us more open to His path of deliverance.
The Lord’s prayer teaches us to pray that He will accomplish the same deliverance in a less painful way. It calls us to humility, prayer, and healing rather than presumption, stumbling, and repentance. We go to the throne of grace for mercy and help before the trial so we do not have to learn the hard way by succumbing to the trial.
Even when we do slip, however, this doesn’t destroy God’s Real Life Plan for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. It simply takes us on a detour in which He fixes a flaw. If we quickly turn to Him, He will show us how to walk in His strength and move forward.
The devil means it for evil, and we might too, but God means it for good.
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