God Cannot Accept Us As We Are
Why doesn’t God accept us as we are? Why does the way to heaven have to be so narrow? And why are God’s standards so high? What is wrong with our sins if we are otherwise good people? Many times, people struggle with such questions. Many wonder why God can’t just accept that we are human and let us into heaven as we are.
These questions, sincere as they are, are ignorant of 3 key divine truths that, though hard for us to fully understand as human beings, are unchangeable.
1. God’s Holiness:
God is holy, and heaven, his home, is holy. Only what is holy can enter his presence.
2. God’s Justice:
Sin offends God’s holiness and cannot dwell in His presence. Sin is contrary to God’s nature and is a rebellion against God’s laws. He, therefore, cannot dwell with sin.
3. God’s Sovereignty:
God is the creator, and we are not. He created us for His glory. We cannot enter heaven by our own standards, but only by his.
An example the Holy Spirit placed in my heart
The Holy Spirit gave me this analogy as I was musing on this topic some time back. It’s not a very pleasant example, but bear with me. It will help to make sense of this.
A father and his rebellious son: will he accept his behavior?
Suppose a parent has many children living at home with him. He loves all his children, but unfortunately, one of the sons becomes extremely rebellious. He refuses to abide by his father’s rules and spends all day in the living room of his father’s house with his criminal friends, drinking alcohol, doing drugs, watching pornography, engaging in fornication, and other immoral behavior.
As if that is not enough, he and his friends steal his father’s goods from the house and sell them to buy more drugs. He and his friends eat all the food in the house, which his father has provided for his children, and leave all the dishes in the sink and the entire house in a filthy mess. He also steals his sibling’s money and stuff to fund his wicked lifestyle.
This son constantly lies and disrespects his father’s home and leaves the home exposed to thieves and robbers by the kind of people he brings around. He exposes his siblings to all manner of perversion, danger, and wickedness by the things he does.
The father has tried everything for years to get his son to change. He has taken him to rehabs and hospitals, asked trusted people to speak to and correct his son, bailed him out of police cells, and talked to his son, warning him about his lifestyle and the dangers to himself and others, but his son disrespects him, does not listen, and continues with his lifestyle.
Will the father accept this son’s behavior?
What will this father do? What would any responsible human father do in such a situation?
This father loves his son. But for the sake of his honor, his home, and the sake of the rest of his children, he will eventually give this son an ultimatum. He will say:
“I love you and have tried to help you, advise you, and show you the error of your ways, but I cannot continue to allow you to live in my house if you do not turn from your evil ways. This is my home, and I have standards for my home and name. You have dishonored and violated my name, honor, and home, and this cannot continue. You continue to inflict torment on your obedient brothers and sisters and expose them to evil, and you risk infecting them with your rebellion.
If you wish to continue to stay in this home, and this is my great desire, you have to stop with your evil lifestyle, repent, and change. But if you refuse, then unfortunately, you have to leave my home and live this lifestyle away from my presence. Home is always open for you when you change. But if you do not, unfortunately, you just cannot have any share in this family’s future or inheritance because you have squandered it. The choice is yours.”
Is this father wicked or evil for doing this? Hasn’t he given his son every chance to change and reform for years? Whose fault is it now that he has been kicked out and disinherited? It is fully the son’s fault and not the father’s.
God cannot accept our rebellion, but he has made a way out for us.
Just as it is with that human father, this is how it is with God, and even more so, because God is perfect. He knows how harmful sin is to ourselves, others, and his great name and holiness. He has prepared an eternal home for his children who choose to love him, obey him, and honor him—a home free from sin and its dangers. He will safeguard this.
God cannot accept us as we are, because what we are naturally cannot enter his holy presence. But he has provided a way for us to reform and be saved from our sins by sending his perfect Son, Jesus, to die for our sins and pay the ransom for us. If we accept his ransom and continue to obey him, he has promised us a home with him forever. But if we refuse all his attempts to reach us and save us, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
“If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land, But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword.” Isaiah 1:19-20
Have you made peace with God? He simply wants our acknowledgment that we are sinners. We are all sinners and were born in sin. This is why Jesus had to die for all our sins. If we acknowledge our rebellion against God, accept the ransom Jesus paid for us, and continue our relationship with him, we will be reconciled to our Father and have a place in his kingdom and home forever.
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Are you born again? Do you have eternal life?
Have you given your life to Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior? He loves us so much that he, our creator, left heaven and came to earth, dying for us on the cross, taking our sins upon him so that we may be forgiven and receive his righteousness. He conquered death by rising from the dead and made a way for us who were dead in sin to be reconciled back to the Father (God). What’s more, he has prepared a wonderful home for us in heaven, where those who love him and obey him will spend eternity with him. Learn more here about how to be born again and have eternal life after this brief life on earth.
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