Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Leniency (04/18/24)
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TITLE: Taking Leniency For Granted | Previous Challenge Entry
By Doug Laird
04/23/24 -
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People can have a hard time accepting the mercy and patience that God extends to those who break His laws.
That is, until they find themselves, being the one in need.
Peter once asked the Lord how many times should he forgive someone who has repeatedly offended him. Seven times?
Seven times seventy (490) was the Lord’s response (1).
This doesn’t mean that forgiveness could be withheld as of the 491st offense.
Jesus was speaking in hyperbole, meaning that Peter’s supply and willingness to forgive others should be as plentiful as the (inexhaustible) supply and willingness to forgive, that the Lord has for him (Peter).
The extent of time that God allows for us or others to repent (change our minds for the better) is not to be seen as a license to sin, but as an undeserved, God-given opportunity, to get our act together before the grace period expires and divine discipline (2) begins.
A wise person will not take God’s grace periods for granted, assuming that the discipline of God will always come in increasing levels (3), over an extended period of time.
There are times when the judgement of God can be relatively swift with irreversible consequences (4).
The justice of God demands that, in His timing, every sin that has ever been committed, is being committed now, or that will ever be committed, be accounted for and addressed.
By divine design, with the exception of the sin of disbelief (5), the Lord Jesus Christ, while on the cross, atoned (paid for) every sin that every human being ever committed, or will ever commit (6).
This exception was not a divine oversight, nor was there any incompleteness in the atoning work that was finished on the cross.
Accordingly, the ONE and ONLY sin that will result in a departed soul spending all of eternity future in what the Bible calls the lake of fire, is the sin of disbelief (8).
There will NEVER be ANY divine leniency shown for the sin of disbelief.
Disputing eternal security amounts to blasphemy.
Never-the-less, there IS divine discipline here on Earth for post salvation sin.
In some cases, it will contribute to, or be the means of, one’s earthly departure.
Divine discipline can range in anything from living with a guilty conscience, up to and including, physical death (9).
Just having the guilty conscience, that accompanies the loss of intimate fellowship with the Lord, will provide enough disciplinary pressure to motivate a back-sliding disciple to get back on track.
It may take increasing levels of discipline for those with a hardened heart to want to get their act together.
Such discipline is not to punish.
Its purpose is to get a backsliding believer back on track, OR as in the Acts 5 case of Ananias and Sapphira, to serve as a warning to others who might be involved in (or considering) the same type of sinful activity.
All of us can have a genuine appreciation for divine leniency expressed in God’s grace and mercy, that allows us time for reckoning, repentance, confession, and the forsaking of sin.
At the same time, we are foolish to think that there won’t be a divine response for the sin we commit, be it in time here on Earth, or in Eternity.
Even if one were to spend much of his or her time enjoying all the things that this world has to offer, it will prove to be a costly mistake, if in the process, he or she neglects the matters of the soul (10).
“Be not deceived. For God is not (to be) mocked; for whatever a person sows, this shall he also reap (in time and or in Eternity).” - Gal. 6: 7 NASB2020 (parentheses mine).
The divine response to the sin of disbelief is for all unbelievers to spend all of eternity future in the lake of fire (11).
The divine response to post salvation sin committed by born again believers is divine discipline here in Earth.
Although all born-again believers will forever experience the general environment of Heaven, many will do so without the additional (12) reward and (13) privileges that are reserved for those who chose to advance in discipleship, during their time here on Earth.
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(1) Matt. 18: 22 (2) Heb. 12: 6 (3) Lev. 26: 14ff/Deut. 28: 15ff (4) Acts 5 (5) John 3: 18 (6) 1John 2: 2 (7) John 19: 30 (8) Rom. 8:1/John 3:18/John 8: 24 (9) Acts 5 (10) John 3: 5/Matt. 16: 24, 26 (11) Rev. 20: 15 (12) 1Cor. 3: 14-15(13) Rev. 2/Rev. 3
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