God Never Stops Drawing Us to Himself
Tim Melton
Isaiah 59:2
Have you ever had something that was out of reach? No matter what you did you could not take hold of it. Maybe it was getting a job that would give your family financial security, or living in a different country with more opportunities, or being married or having a child, or being free from a chronic illness or escaping an addictive behavior. It did not matter what you did, the goal continued to be out of reach.
God belongs to this category as well. He is out of reach. Our sin has separated us from God and there is nothing that we can do to bridge the void (Isaiah 59:2). Scripture, time-and-again, reminds us of the hopelessness of mankind. We are strangers, foreigners, lost, blind, enemies of God, wicked, like Adam and Eve, barred from the presence of God. We have lost our way and cannot find our way home.
But praise be to God, that when there was no way that we could reach out to God, He, through Jesus Christ reached out to us. God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Jesus Christ took on the form of man and lived a sinless life. He willingly died on a Roman cross to pay for our sin. After three days He was raised from the dead proving that the penalty of sin had been paid in full.
Even with this divine step that God, through Christ, had taken towards us we still are bound by our sin and are not able to reach out to him. On our own, sin enslaves our hearts and our unbelief continues to turn us against God. Romans 3 reminds us that none of us are good. On our own, none of us will seek God. The gift has been offered, but we do not have the ability to receive it.
Once again God works to bring near that which is still out of reach.
The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and leads us into all truth (John 16:13). It is the Father in heaven who reveals to us the identity of Christ (In Matthew 16:16-17). Christ is the Author and Per ...
Tim Melton
Isaiah 59:2
Have you ever had something that was out of reach? No matter what you did you could not take hold of it. Maybe it was getting a job that would give your family financial security, or living in a different country with more opportunities, or being married or having a child, or being free from a chronic illness or escaping an addictive behavior. It did not matter what you did, the goal continued to be out of reach.
God belongs to this category as well. He is out of reach. Our sin has separated us from God and there is nothing that we can do to bridge the void (Isaiah 59:2). Scripture, time-and-again, reminds us of the hopelessness of mankind. We are strangers, foreigners, lost, blind, enemies of God, wicked, like Adam and Eve, barred from the presence of God. We have lost our way and cannot find our way home.
But praise be to God, that when there was no way that we could reach out to God, He, through Jesus Christ reached out to us. God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Jesus Christ took on the form of man and lived a sinless life. He willingly died on a Roman cross to pay for our sin. After three days He was raised from the dead proving that the penalty of sin had been paid in full.
Even with this divine step that God, through Christ, had taken towards us we still are bound by our sin and are not able to reach out to him. On our own, sin enslaves our hearts and our unbelief continues to turn us against God. Romans 3 reminds us that none of us are good. On our own, none of us will seek God. The gift has been offered, but we do not have the ability to receive it.
Once again God works to bring near that which is still out of reach.
The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and leads us into all truth (John 16:13). It is the Father in heaven who reveals to us the identity of Christ (In Matthew 16:16-17). Christ is the Author and Per ...
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