When You Stand Before God

This discourse is not about being judged.  It is not about sinners going to hell.  It is presented as just a thought for consideration since no one knows what will take place when each one of us, appear before the throne of Almighty God someday.

Make no mistake about it ... sinner and saint alike will face our maker someday.  So let my mind's imaginations of what that day may be like ... now begin.

Since none of us are going to make it out of this world alive ... picture yourself standing in front of the God of this universe.  When you are ushered into His presence, will you be able to stand there or will you fall to your knees, overcome from seeing God in all His Holy Glory and unquestionable magnificence.  Are you now developing a mental image of your own choosing as you picture Him in your mind?  Do you see God the Father alone, or do you see Jesus as well?  

See yourself standing in front of Him in a newly resurrected glorified body.  No more pain.  No more worry.  Do you feel at peace like you have finally made it home?  Or is there something else stirring in your heart.  Becoming a little fearful perhaps?  I can't blame you there.  Hebrews 10:31 does say ... "It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."    

So ... there you are, looking up and facing God, if you can.  Imagine what His voice sounds like as He begins speaking to you.  Do you feel the love He has for you in His voice?  And then He asks you about ... your sin and what you have done about it.  You didn't want to hear that question.  Now you are remembering things from your past ... every act of sin that you committed during your lifetime flashes before you.  And then, here it comes again, that same old guilty feeling you felt so many times before.  

Do you know why you feel guilty?  Because you are guilty.  You did commit the sin didn't you?  The sin was committed.  It's your sin and you are guilty of your sin.  That is something you cannot change.  It happened.  It will always be part of your past history.  It's like speaking a hurtful word to someone.  Once they hear it come out of your mouth, you can't take it back.  It's out there forever.

Oh, but you might say to me ... that you can't agree with this mental drama I am describing to you.  Revelation 1:5 states that Jesus ... "washed us from our sins in His own blood," that He shed on the cross.  And if so ... how can we still be guilty? 

The Apostle Paul states in 2nd Corinthians 5:21 that God ... "hath made Jesus to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made righteous in Him."

Jesus was made sin when your sin was placed upon Him, when Christ was nailed to that wooden cross.  And it does say in Colossians 2:14 ... that the blood of Jesus, "blotted out the hand written ordinances that was against us."  But what does that mean?

Without the Law there would be no sin.  The Law determines sin.  When Jesus was nailed to the cross, the Law was nailed to His cross as well.  His blood ran down the cross and smeared and blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us on the pages of the Law ... meaning your sin will not be judged by the Law  any longer.  Therefore … judgment by the Law was ... "rendered entirely idle and useless."

The point I am trying to make is that your sin ... of which you are guilty ... was spiritually taken from you and placed upon Jesus, never to be held against you by God throughout eternity.

Psalms 103:10-12 states very plainly how God deals with us and our sin ... "He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.  For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.  As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."

Even though God has removed the sin, never to remember it again ... the sin was committed ... a fact that can never be changed.  Yes ... you are guilty of committing those sins.  But you will not be judged guilty because God judged His Son guilty after your sin was placed upon Jesus.         

In God's eyes, Jesus has made you, as though you never committed them.  It's as if your sin is expunged from your record.  God no longer holds you accountable for that sin.  It's simply God's grace and mercy.  

Many times the guilt of committed sin brings about another problem ... guilty feelings.  Whether you are guilty or not is God's problem and He has already taken care of it. 
 
But the guilty feelings produced from that sin sometimes linger and drag us down spiritually.  If God has forgiven you of sin through the blood of Jesus, then lift your head and say ... "It's done, it's over.  I'm going to leave what's in the past, in the past" ... and leave it in the past.

By doing so, when you someday do stand in the presence of Almighty God, and if He asks you about your sin ... just look over to the "Lamb of God" seated in the Mercy Seat on God's right hand and say ... "This is where You come in Jesus."

And Jesus will say to His Father ... "This one is mine ... not guilty!" 



Comments are welcome, and will be posted by moderator. 

What is this that thou hast done?

The one who asked the four questions I'm going to look at already knew the answers.  The first three were pretty simple.  It's the forth question that is still being answered even today.

Let me take you back to Genesis chapter 3 where the answer to my title question ... "What is this that thou hast done?" ... begins.

We find by looking back at history, what has always happened, and usually happens immediately when God puts any responsibility in the hands of man ... disobedience and failure.  So it was with Adam and the "helper" God gave him.  God only asks one thing of them, and even that could not be done.

The subtlety and schemes of the hidden enemy of our souls are now at work, for unknown to man, he even beguiles the serpent to do his bidding with a lie to the woman.  The first effect is the distrust of God which he inspires.  Satan is suggesting to the woman that God keeps the best gift from them out of envy ... lest man should be like God.

Man trusts and believes Satan instead of God to gratify their desire for the forbidden fruit.  Not trusting God, man uses his own will to seek fulfillment, just as men still do today.  So nothing has really changed since the beginning has it.

The first question ... "Adam, where are you?" ... brings with it, the terror and fear of God.  So they go into hiding, as if one can hide from God.  Being honest with God when He calls, Adam says ... "I was afraid because I was naked and hid myself."

Which brings me to God's amazing second question ... "Who told you that you were naked?"  Now what?  Adam, knowing no one told them they were naked, didn't know what to say.  Adam must have thought ... He knows.  He knows it all.  Then he hears the Lord ask with what must have been an inquisitive sound in His voice, this third question ... "Have you eaten of the tree I commanded you not to eat of?"

Self preservation.  It started way back in the beginning with Adam.  Blame someone else.  Cast the blame upon the only other one there ... the woman.  She gave it to me.  If that doesn't work, cast blame even upon God ... "the woman you gave to me."

Why does man always flee from the face of God when we sin?  We know we can't hide.  We should run to the Lord and to His mercy.  But many times we don't.  We are ashamed.  We are openly naked before Him and we know it.  The knowledge of good and evil through disobedience makes us afraid of God, so we try to cover it up.

It's not just God that we can't face in the natural.  It's the Holiness of God that we are afraid of, because we are not.  It's His Holiness that separates us from Him. 

Then turning to the woman, God says to her ... "What is this that thou hast done?"

What is the answer to God's question to the woman?  What did she do?  The simplest answer must be ... she brought sin and everything associated with it, including death into the natural earth which forever changed man's heart and soul.  And Eve was to become the mother of all living.   

Because the first man and woman would be exiled from the garden, they no longer would have access to the tree of life ... death would come to them.  But for the moment their life was still there.  So God would have to deal with their nakedness. 

The scriptures allude to and portray a picture of God Himself using His hands to shape the clay Adam was made from, and here in this setting ... God's hands bringing death for the first time to one of His own creatures to make coats of skins into garments to cover their sin and shame, represented by their nakedness. 

Through a real death brought into the world by sin, man was no longer naked.  Through the death of an animal, God made Adam and Eve a covering, a robe of sorts.

May I speculate and suggest that a lamb would have been the logical choice for God to have slain and used as a covering for Adam and Eve's nakedness.  A lamb would become God's choice for a sacrifice during the period and dispensation of the Mosaic Law as well. 

And then there is Jesus ... the true Lamb of God.  It's through Jesus that God has also made a covering for our nakedness, called ... the robe of righteousness ... which we obtained through the death of Jesus on the cross. 

The world may mock at such a thought.  Let them scoff and ridicule our faith in Jesus ... but we know better.  Without that garment ... washed white by the blood of Jesus ... well, their end will not be pleasant.  

God is merciful ... but He's also Holy and just.  I'll leave it at that.

I was intrigued by the question presented only to the woman ...
 
"What is this that thou hast done?"

She brought sin and death into the world.  But if I had been there ... would I have done the same thing? 

Sadly ... I would say, most likely.

And the results would be the same as hers.


(Comments are welcome, and will be posted by moderator.)