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God, The Perfectionist

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God is loving, we are told, and thus accepts us as we are.  The idea that God will judge people for their sins is now so unpopular that few are willing to state it publicly, and many pastors have sadly bowed to the pressure to present a palatable God, a doting “Grandpa” who silently approves of His children regardless of their conduct.

If you have been caught up in this heresy, I warn you to retreat to truth.  God not only has a much higher standard of righteousness than we do, His standard is absolute perfection!

Many years ago, I spoke with a friend, a biblical counselor, regarding the problem of perfectionism.  We have all dealt with perfectionists.  They can be demanding at times!  Maybe you are one!  My friend noted sternly that only God has the right to be a perfectionist for He alone is perfect!

Most of us are not perfectionists, but therein lies a different problem.  Because we do not demand perfection from others (how could we as often as we fail?), we assume that God does not demand perfection from us.  But He does!  Matthew 5:48 reads, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (KJV). No, He does not expect perfection immediately, but do not confuse His patience with tolerance.   At some point, we will be brought individually to account for every time we fail to match His perfect righteousness and holiness.   That ought to be very troubling to us!

God’s perfection is related to, among other things, His holiness, righteousness, and justice.  In all of His eternal existence God has never varied from absolute perfection.  He has never erred in even the smallest way.  And being Creator and Steward of the universe, He takes responsibility for everything that happens within its boundaries, which means that we all must live by His rules.

Our failure to match God’s perfections has an important moral element.  It is not just that we are not as strong or intelligent as God is, we adamantly refuse to do His will!  Every human act is tainted by self-will rather than God service.  Scriptures declare that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,” (Jer. 17:9, NKJV).  The sad tale of mankind’s history is sufficient proof of this!  Everything we do is unsatisfactory to God!

Some philosophers have reasoned that God is so great that He is indifferent to what we do.  We neither add to Him nor take away from Him and thus we need not concern ourselves with the issue of our sinfulness.  It does seem unreasonable (to us) that God would care about what insignificant beings like us do.  However, it is due to His infiniteness that these things do matter.  Acts large or small to us are identical in scale to Him.  His infiniteness extends both directions on the linear scale.

God is not just infinitely greater than we humans. As Creator and Sustainer of the universe, He has the moral responsibility to separate from and condemn all who fall short of His holy perfections.  He commands, “Be holy for I am holy!”  Lest I be misunderstood, God cannot wink at human moral failure, which Scripture labels as sin.  It is in His eternal constitution to repudiate everything that fails to conform to His holiness.  He cannot soften His wrath against it.

In the same way that a company is responsible for the conduct of its employees, God is ultimately responsible for what transpires on planet Earth.  Ironically, while He hates wickedness, and has gone to great lengths to expose and oppose it, He is often blamed for the evils that sinners perpetrate day-after-day contrary to His will and word!  Because of His grace He is willing to “take the blame” for the moment but understand that such an injustice must and will be corrected.  He is blameless!

As Creator He is owed love, allegiance, and submission, yet people have thumbed their noses at Him and rejected His authority and His call on their lives.  Mankind’s failure is not only a matter of quantity, it is a failure of quality.  It is not that He expects us to accomplish ABC and we are only able to do A and B.  Rather, we spurn His commands and do the opposite.  He created us to bring glory to Him, but we shame Him instead.

Even we, having created a work of art, literature, or some other accomplishment, expect to get the credit for it.  Millions of lawsuits attest to the fact that we do not accept others getting or taking credit for our work!  But in our relationship with God, we do worse!  We not only fail to give Him the credit (glory) due Him for who He is and what He does, we seek to take His glory to ourselves!  We stand in awe of a DaVinci painting, or listen in rapture to a Beethoven symphony, but curse Christ, the God who with a word created the beauty of a sunset, a daffodil, and the glorious galaxies and seek to take credit for talents and abilities He “loaned” to us!

Glorifying God is not just crediting Him for who He is and what He does.  It is matching His moral perfections.  He is personally flawless and demands the same from His creation for which He is responsible.  He can tolerate no flaws in His universe.  Our every sin is a blight on His name and reputation and must be corrected.  He will not forever take the blame for our conduct, nor will He allow others to claim credit for His gracious acts.  Ultimately, He will set the record straight.

If there were aliens from other galaxies (and there are not), but if there were and they visited planet Earth, they might well ask, “Who is responsible for this horrific mess?”  A casual observer may blame God, but that conclusion would not stand.  Every broken heart, every dark blot on creation derives from the failure of created beings, not the Creator.  You and I cannot escape our accountability.  We must come to terms with God.

If you love God, you are offended by that which offends God, and you want His good name cleared.  You look with great expectation to the day when He will set the record straight and the guilty parties will be punished.  If you do not love God, I warn you that the days of evading your responsibility will have an end.

Judgement day is coming!  You may believe you can avoid God forever, but the Bible states that there will be a day when “every knee shall bow. . . and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,” (Phil. 2:10-11, NKJV).  This includes every soul in Heaven, Earth, and Hell.  And the standard by which each will be measured will not be one of their own devising, but rather the perfections of Jesus Christ!

In moments of quietness, when you have found yourself examining your own heart, you know that God’s word is true: you stand guilty.  We all stand guilty, not of mere incompetence, but of rebellion!  This fact is born out not only in our consciences, but in the dark and bloody history of humanity.  Rejecting this truth would be understandable if there were no escape from the resultant condemnation.  Denial is a common coping mechanism for those who have no hope.

But there is hope!  Wonderful hope!  And it only requires our acknowledgement of the truth, turning from sin (confession) and an acceptance of God’s forgiveness purchased by Christ on the cross!  And His forgiveness does more than simply wash away our sin.  It changes us!  First Corinthians 15:51 says that “we shall be changed,” and texts like Psalm 17:15 and I John 3:2 declare what that change entails: “We shall be like Him!”  We will be rendered perfect just as He is perfect!

Which brings us to the other side to this coin.  Because God is perfect, He will and must keep His word!  He said he would judge sinners, so He will.  But He also, as early as Genesis 3:16, promised to provide a Savior, and He has done just that!  While His perfections doom all who fall short of them, His perfections also provide grace to all who come under the shadow of His wings!

How can you say no?



Morality Is Indispensable for Liberty

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Written by Becky Akers

Those stodgy Founding Fathers! Not only did they study hard, work harder, and marry one woman for life, they also insisted on – get this – morality. As in obeying the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, and the basic moral teachings of the Bible in general. So strongly did they venerate morality that they frequently observed its unbreakable link with liberty. They believed that moral people alone remain politically free.

John Adams, for example, claimed, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

“While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued.”His cousin Sam agreed. “Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness.” Indeed, he feared, “A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.”

Singing the same song was Charles Carroll, one of the Declaration’s signers:  “Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time…”

And George Washington considered morality so necessary to freedom that he spoke at length of their connection in the Farewell Address that capped his career: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. … And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.”

Clearly, the generation that overthrew the world’s most powerful – and corrupt – empire to establish a new, freer country considered Biblical morality essential to their endeavor. But why? Exactly how do strong ethics enhance liberty?

Washington mentioned one obvious reason in his Farewell: “Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice?” By extension, those in elected or appointed positions might not respect their oaths of office, either.

Reflexive Thievery

If these were the only times morality protected freedom, we might dismiss the Founders’ veneration of the former as overblown. After all, few of us will find ourselves in either political office or court … wait. I forgot that every American commits three felonies per day.

But even with the police-state criminalizing most of our behavior, lying under oath isn’t nearly as widespread as another sin that enslaves formerly free people. By far the worst threat to liberty springs from the reflexive thievery, a.k.a. socialism, permeating modern culture and politics.

The idea that my property belongs to me alone has become as quaint as “Thou shalt not steal.”That admirer of America, Alexis de Tocqueville, shrewdly analyzed socialism in his classic rebuke of it in 1848: along with “an incessant, vigorous and extreme appeal to the material passions of man” (i.e., greed) and “a profound opposition to personal liberty and scorn for individual reason, a complete contempt for the individual,” socialism is “always … an attack, either direct or indirect, on the principle of private property.”

Americans today have so completely converted to socialism that mighty few folks even recognize, let alone condemn, that “attack … on the principle of private property.” Rather, they reason, “I need or want it, and you have it, so you must give it to me.” The idea that my property belongs to me alone, and that no one else has any right to swipe even a penny of it, to restrict my use of it, or to dictate how I employ it has become as quaint as “Thou shalt not steal.”

In fact, Americans have redefined “steal.” It now means, “Acquiring property from another person yourself rather than waiting for government to acquire it on your behalf.” So long as the recipient doesn’t wind up in jail, he will eagerly accept anything politicians “redistribute” to him from his family and friends.

Even folks who would never dream of robbing a man at gunpoint of a third of his income, good Christians who attend church and read their Bibles, see nothing wrong with plundering their neighbors via government. Especially when they favor the loot’s alleged recipients (soup kitchens and other “faith-based” programs, foreign aid to Israel, etc). Few worry any longer whether an act is moral; instead, they assume that if it’s legal, it must be OK.

Policies of Plunder

The predatory and “graduated” tax code that allegedly takes “from each according to his ability” to finance Obamacare, food stamps, Section 8 housing, unemployment, Social Security, etc., is obvious socialism. But many, far more insidious instances abound. And in all of them, American morality is not only dead but so deeply buried that these examples disturb hardly any consciences.

Too many Americans applaud plaintiffs who sue innocent entities as shrewd rather than larcenous.A legal doctrine called “joint-and-several liability … states that damages can be obtained from co-defendants based on who is capable of paying, rather than who was found to be more negligent.” Looking for “deep pockets” so that small inconveniences or even injuries can be parlayed into megabucks often means the wealthiest person or corporation near an accident is held responsible, even if he bears little or no blame. Too many Americans applaud plaintiffs who sue innocent entities as shrewd rather than larcenous.

Since World War II, New York City has compelled landlords to subsidize tenants’ rent through its execrable rent-control laws. This legislation decrees how much rent landlords may charge, the amount – if any – by which they may annually raise it (despite whatever increases in real-estate taxes or in the cost of water and sewage the City has imposed that year), and how long the tenant may inhabit his apartment—even if the building’s owner prefers another renter or wishes to sell or renovate his property. This corruption pits landlords against tenants so thoroughly that occasionally the former plots to murder the latter in the hope of regaining his rights. And though rent-control authorizes tenants to cheat landlords, it bites the swindlers, too, by ensuring that New York’s supply of housing remains dilapidated, scarce, and stunningly expensive.

Once accustomed to living off their landlords – or the taxpayers, via Social Security, Medicare, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, etc., ad nauseam – voters elect socialists to continue their gravy train. They happily sell our liberty for lower rent and free food. Shameless in their thievery, they prove the Founders’ maxim that only a moral people remains free.

Becky Akers is a free-lance writer and historian who has published two novels of the American Revolution, Halestorm and Abducting Arnold.

This article was originally posted at FEE.org