In this thought-provoking episode, we delve into the powerful message of the Gospel and the common misconceptions that exist about self-exclusion and faith. Exploring the transformative idea that God does not exclude us – rather, we exclude ourselves – we journey through the importance of understanding belief as inclusive and not conditional. Join us as we unravel the paradox of feeling unworthy and the liberating truth that it is faith and trust in God’s mercy that truly matters.
As I said last time, Paul was absolutely rejuvenated by the idea, by the truth, that the message of Christ, who was the Messiah of Israel, was to go to all the world. He was moved by that, by the message that Jesus gave him when Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus. And he was moved by the fact that learning that the Holy Spirit had come upon all groups of people from many different nations in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. And then, of course, he read the Scriptures, and he must have reinvestigated what the purpose of Israel was. And, of course, it was that God was to reveal his name through Israel for the purpose of revealing it to the whole world. Once he saw that, he was on fire. And that’s why he says, Now I want to talk to you about everyone. Because you understand, don’t you, that there is a paradox, well, an irony, I should use the word really. There is an irony in this kind of idea that everyone is included. Because people think, or tend to think, that it is God who is excluding them, that they’re not righteous enough, that they haven’t repented enough, that they’re not earnest or sincere enough, and that they have fallen too many times and are too worldly to be accepted by God. So most people, or many people, simply believe that God excludes them because they’re too unholy and all the other reasons I just gave. But do you realize, and this is the irony, that it’s the very opposite of that? That is to say, that it is not God who excludes us, but that it is we who exclude God. Well, more accurately, we exclude ourselves. You see, we are full of guilt. We’re full of shame. We’re full of fear. We don’t realize that on the surface of our consciousness because it’s so embedded in us over the years. And so the tendency has been to feel that God can’t accept me. I’m not good enough for him. I tried to be a Christian once, but it didn’t work out, and I fell off the wagon. And on and on we go, excluding ourselves. Now, you understand that that dynamic is not new, right? It’s very similar to people who have been wounded in this world by abuse, let’s say, as a child, or wounded in that they have some physical deformity and feel excluded by others. And so, in order to avoid being excluded by others, they exclude themselves. Many, many people exclude themselves in order to reduce the pain of being excluded by others. And so there are isolationists and introverts and other dynamics that enable us to keep away from those who could potentially harm us, even though they have no intention of harming us, but we think it and we fear it and we feel it. And so I want to say to you, why are you listening to this broadcast? Well, you may be listening to this broadcast because you have excluded yourself from going to church. But you don’t want to exclude yourself altogether from God, and so you listen to the broadcast instead. I’m glad you listen to the broadcast. By all means, listen to it. Gain a blessing from it every day, by all means. But don’t let yourself be excluded from the people of God. This verse gives us courage. I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone. And I know what you’re going to say next, which is part of your self-exclusion, which is, ah, yes, Colin, but it says everyone who believes. And I don’t believe. or can’t somehow manage to believe well enough, or consistently enough, or sincerely enough, or earnestly enough, or honestly enough. Look, let me tell you that the word here, believe, does not mean that the salvation comes to everyone individually. except as long as you believe. It is not, in other words, a qualifying phrase, who believe. It’s an inclusive phrase. It’s spoken by God, that is, to everyone who believes, in order for us to understand that we’re all included because God gives the gift of belief, of trust. We’re all included. The reason, and you will find this throughout the book, the reason Paul tells us that it is by faith is not to exclude those who will not believe, so that it’s an exclusive club of believers that are saved. Rather, the word belief is inclusive. It is by faith, so that it includes everybody, because if it were by law, it would not include everybody, but only those who had the capacity and ability to keep it. And so, when you look at the word belief, you want to look at the idea that God is including you. Now, how does this work exactly? Let’s say you have an addiction or a habit or a state of mind that tends to draw you away from God, or you think of it as drawing you away from God. You have either this habit or God, either this addiction or God, either this mental state of depression or anxiety or worry or God. Well, what does your mind do? When you get into that habit or addiction, you shut God off. I’ve jumped one step too far ahead. When you get into that addiction, you feel guilty. right? And when you feel guilty, you feel that God is frowning at you and disapproving of you and wanting to poke his finger at you and say, listen, you’d better not do that else you’ll be lost or I’ll exclude you from my kingdom and all kinds of spiritual threats that you feel. And so when you get that temptation or that desire for your addiction or your habit, then you feel this guilt. And therefore, what do you do? Exactly what you do in human relationships. You exclude yourself. Now, why do you exclude yourself? Because you’re afraid that God is excluding you. that he’s putting a damper on everything you’re doing, he doesn’t approve of your struggle, he is ready to condemn you because you feel guilty, and the pain of that thought is so strong that you exclude him by excluding yourself. In other words, you’re saying, well, I know I’m not good enough for your kingdom, so let’s forget it, Lord. I’ll go my own way. So when you do that, you go into a darkness or depression or an anxiety or further addiction or your habit in order to comfort yourself. So are you aware that when you doubt that you are included, you are actually taking action to be excluded? That is, let me repeat it, when you doubt that God can include you, you actually take action to exclude yourself so that you won’t feel the pain of his rejection, his perceived rejection, because he is not actually rejecting you. And so what do we do? Well, with faith, whether we are inclined towards our addiction or our habit or not, or our state of mind of depression, anger, anxiety, worry, whether we are in that state of mind or not, we lift up our heart. And we say, Lord God, I am going to include myself in your love and your mercy. I am going to believe that you have mercy to me, towards me, because you have said that this gospel is for everyone, and I believe it right now. You see, everyone who believes. Now this sounds bold, and it is, but it also sounds arrogant at first, because in the midst of sin or wrongdoing or desire for it, or these states of mind that seem to not be in harmony with God, you would feel guilty or blasphemous if you insisted on including yourself. You would say, I can’t do that. That’s brashness. That’s arrogance. I need to be humble. Listen, humility is not passive. Humility is bold in that it is believing in God’s grace and not your might, believing in God’s kindness and not your ability. And so you say, Lord, I want to exclude myself. I want to shut myself out of your blessings because I don’t feel I’m worthy. But I’m realizing now that I exclude myself from your blessings because I’m afraid that you exclude me. And that’s too painful to think about. The idea that you would reject me or send me to hell, I can’t bear the thought of that. So rather than allow you to exclude me, Lord, I’m going to exclude myself and forget all about you so I don’t have to worry about it. Do you see what’s happening here? We so regularly charge God with the complaint that we have towards ourselves. We so often impose upon God what we really are imposing upon ourselves. It’s his fault when, in fact, we are responsible. But I don’t mean that in a way to condemn you. I mean that in a way to encourage you to have faith. Paul has said, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. To believe is to trust. To believe is to lean your weight upon him. It doesn’t say, to everyone who believes, as long as he gets the sin out of his life. To everyone who believes, as long as he’s sincere enough. To everyone who believes as long as the belief is repentant, it doesn’t say that. Don’t put into this word belief all kinds of qualities that you have not yet attained. To believe is simply to trust when you have no basis for it in yourself. God does not have mercy on you because you’re worthy or because you’re good or because you have pleaded with him long enough. He has mercy on you because he’s merciful. He has mercy on you because he loves. He has mercy on you because he wants to be kind to you. Now that may seem just too hard to take because you haven’t experienced much kindness in your life, perhaps. But God wants to give it to you. And so you say, Father, I realize now that I have thought that you were excluding me. when I, in fact, was excluding myself because I feared that you would exclude me and that’s too painful to think about, so I excluded myself first so that I wouldn’t feel the hurt of you excluding me. Father, forgive me. I’m going to include myself in your grace. I’m going to include myself in your mercy. I’m going to believe that you have mercy upon me and receive me as one of the everyone, because that’s what I am. Thank you for joining me today, everyone, today. Colin Cook here, and you’ve been listening to my program, How It Happens, which you can listen to on your smartphone any time of the day or night. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com, and key in How It Happens with Colin Cook when you get there. We’re in for a wonderful journey through the Book of Romans. to discover grace and how our faith works in trusting God. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
