If God made peace with everything in heaven and on earth, why do we live in a cursed world?
I was asked this by a spirit this week- along with assortment of other questions such as:
“Why do some Christians die before a ripe old age?”
“Why do bad things happen to good people?”
“Can God speak light into non-believer’s light?”
“How has the reality in the Spirit helped me?
These questions were all good and made me think more deeply into the truths and wisdom of God.
So if God made peace with everything in heaven and on earth, why do we live in a cursed world?
The short deep answer: Choice.
We instinctively know it is wrong to lie, cheat, and kill just as we instinctively know there is a God. It is has been inserted inside our very fiber and make up by our Creator himself- God. (Romans 1:18)
We as his choice creation have been given a choice to do what is right or not do what is right. People have a choice to accept God and his peace or wage war against God and others. (Romans 11:30)
The best way to say this is: People have a choice to trust God and do what is right or... deny/ turn from Him and do what their sinful nature/ flesh craves. (Galatians 5:19-21)
Choices have consequences and the consequences don’t just affect themselves but others as well. (Proverbs 18:21, Galatians 6:7-9, James 3:18)
Let say you and your family and friends were all standing around in a closed in space in your bare feet and you or someone else dropped a platter of glasses onto the floor and they shattered into tiny pieces. You and your friends would get some tiny shards of glass in your bare feet from the incident. Sin can work the same way.
When you or someone else has a rough morning or day and you or they don’t brush it off by giving it to God but instead carry it around in frustration, anger, anxiety, fear and dread you or they are not just affecting yourself or themselves but others around you as well.
Governments go to war out of greed, power, wealth, pride, fear- causing men and women to go to war.
You light a match and stick it under some paper and kindle wood and it will make a fire.
You knowing this must see how we bring curses upon the earth by our choices and actions.
It is our lack of focus on God, which always brings our soul to suffer and sorrow to the Holy Spirit.
The Law of Sin
You sin and you will reap the consequences of that sin.
You say a harsh word -not out of love- what is reaped from that action?
Sin can be like a rock thrown into a lake. It will make ripples and sink into darkness.
The Choice
God has made peace with the world and just as you make peace with someone in your mind and heart doesn’t mean that person has made peace with you.
God didn’t make peace with us to lower his standards so we could continue to sin – His standards were never lowered but I would say lifted higher. Remember his own blood paid for our sins on the cross and without it none of us could come to Him freely.
Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” (Johns 14:6)
Remember God himself replaced the priesthood that was to illustrate the true sacrifice and priesthood. The Son (Jesus Christ) who glorifies God the Father is the priesthood. For Jesus Christ was not just the Holy sacrifice for our sins but is our High Priest. He intercedes on our behalf to the Father, without Jesus there is no forgiveness of our sins.
God through Jesus Christ made peace with everything in heaven and on earth so we could freely come to Him. So when we finally did come to God and surrender our lives to him we could become children of God. Understanding what Jesus has done, God put us in the care of his Son, Jesus Christ.
Then he said, "That is why I said that people can't come to me unless the Father gives them to me." John 6:65
“However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them.” John 6:37
“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father's hand.” Johns 10:28-29
You are only a child of God through Jesus Christ who is Lord and Savior.
Jesus is the narrow gate. "You can enter God's Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
So though we might experience the cursed actions of others, we don’t have to live as the rest of the cursed world does - for by the work of the Holy Spirit in us who gives us God's peace, we can not only live physically in world but be at peace with it. (Galatians 5:22-23)
Peace doesn't mean we have to agree with the cursed ways and understandings of this world but in not agreeing we (by our humble dependence and trust and peace in God) the Holy Spirit can enable us by His grace to give respect, peace, love, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control to those we disagree with.
Understand a Christian is called to be a vessel of light and peace for God.
"But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So don't get tired of doing what is good. Don't get discouraged and give up, for you will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time." (Galatians 6:9)
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