Isaiah Roman

Acceptance and Rejection

There is a line in the lyrics of a recent popular song “I was born to reject rejection.”  The truth of the sentiment expressed in that statement is simple.  Everyone is!  Everyone wants to be preferred by someone above all others.  That is natural ; it is human nature.  It is unnatural to carry that desire to the point of hurting or destroying one’s competition for an object of love whether it be live or inanimate.

God is the Author of creation.  He alone has the power and wisdom to create good.  His divine nature will not permit Him to create anything else.  You will note the absence of the word evil in respect to God; He cannot create that because He will not!  Evil is the antithesis of divine nature.  To Him it is anathema!  He is love; but, He is just!

The concept that is alien to the finite mind is the infiniteness and completeness of God.  God is quite content and complete in Himself.  He needs nothing else.  His desire and final decree to create is for the creature not Himself.  It is only after one receives a revelation of God (for that is the only way the finite can know the infinite) humankind realizes true love.

For the infinite to reveal more than the finite can readily absorb would destroy it.  It is impossible for the finite mind to ingest, digest and collate the wisdom of the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God at one time.

Finite and infinite are only terms a person may come to know from a dictionary; but when it comes to expanding upon them to explain them to someone else or understand them fully himself it is an impossible task.  Yet, strangely enough the finite mind that accepts sincerely the full deity of God without understanding will be lead to a level of understanding that will end in complete understanding when God and man finally come face to face at the point of contact which is death.

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (I Corinthians 13:12).

When by faith a person asks God to reveal Himself He will; but, He will do it in His time and in His perfect wisdom.  When an individual attempts to short cut or usurp that prerogative; spiritual and/or mental disorder will result.

God will not do anything outside His perfect wisdom and knowledge of the creature and His unconditional, perfect love toward the creature.

This was a long way around the barn to get to the door which in scripture is revealed in this short verse,   “…the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken” (Isaiah 28:13).

The living God draws the soul, as a fowler a bird, with a desire to know truth.  The fowler places seeds for birds to lead them into his snare.  Here the human analogy breaks down; God saves the soul that perseveres in seeking Him, redeems and preserves it, not to consume it upon His lusts; but, to enjoy divine fellowship for all eternity.  That is eternal acceptance without rejection.

Every person born lives to find a source of love that will accept and not reject him with all his warts and blemishes.  Whether physical, spiritual or emotional everyone has them.   (Having been born into a corrupted world everyone in it has become corrupted by disobedience). Love of that kind can not come from an imperfect source but must be deliberately given out of a heart that is pure.  God alone is able to give that kind of love.  He is pure spirit but he is also love and just.

God is truth and the Author of righteousness.  He neither can nor will not accept injustice therefore He has devised a way to perform that.  Since He is omniscient (all knowing, all seeing, He sees all time at one glance) He is the epitome of righteousness. He is of such purity that He cannot look upon unrighteousness without destroying it.  Human artists have been known to destroy a work that to them was not perfect.  How much more a righteous God.

Mankind with his jealousies and envying can not accept that which is not pleasing to him without action from an outside source.  God has provided help that will overcome the human condition.

“I will pray the Father, and he shall give you [a] Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever (John 14:16).  “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26).  “I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you (John 16:7).  There must be the death of a testator before a testament can be in force.  Jesus Christ is that testator for The New Testament or Covenant.

The soul that will not seek the living God in this present life, receive and welcome His  Holy Spirit and submit in subjection to Him will not enjoy that fellowship either now or in eternity to follow.

It is the nature of human beings to become accustomed to what is familiar to them.  As an aside it is almost marvelous the pain and suffering human beings will learn to accommodate or come to accept our of fear of that which may or may not follow.  Fear is an irrational emotion, but an effective instrument.  It renders its victim incapable of responding rationally to facts and conditions he has already proven.  Simply stated fear of the unknown is Satan’s instrument to keep mankind in bondage to slavery.  Mankind will endure the familiar interminably for fear of the unknown.

The enemy of God, Satan plays on that fear to control humankind.  Satan receives his power from the disobedience of mankind.  When he has what he desires from mankind he will destroy him.  That is ultimate rejection.  Satan in the form of a serpent said to Adam and Eve, “hath God said?”   Satan followed this quickly and rather stealthily with a suggestion, “For God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil“ (Genesis 3: 5).  And the rest is history!

(To add a parenthetic thought for clarity, those that do not accept God, whether in willing acceptance of Satan or not, either by default or choice reject God.  The results are the same either way.)

God leads gently but surely toward infinity, unconditional love and the sheer joy of it.  He directs a clear path to the end He has prepared for those that return that love in kind to Him.  He sent his “beloved Son” to show the way.  He offers no worldly frills or enticements to sweeten the journey.   He only commits Himself to immutable promises to those that “diligently seek Him.”

“Enter in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7: 13-14).

The journey of life ends opposite to the way it begins.  The narrow way with the “strait” gate is like a “goat path” through rough and uninviting ground, a person is forced to go carefully but surely; the broad way with the wide gate is as an eight lane super highway with limited access, it is seemingly possible to go “full speed ahead.”

Jesus said to those that believed Him, “If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed; And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8: 31-32).  “If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).  (The certain sign of a false messiah is a severe loss of freedom at the creature’s expense and at the false messiah’s gain).

God does not force his will on  humankind; He will use suasion through grace by the Holy Spirit; but, no one is forced to take one or the other way; each chooses by exercising his or her will. The superhighway leads to eternal death and destruction; the “goat path” broadens out into a super highway of eternal life into the presence of God.

He that starts on the freeway ends on the goat path; he that enters the strait gate ends on the superhighway leading directly into the everlasting eternal arms of God.