Manipulating God

I think sometimes we believe that we can manipulate God, or so our actions seem to indicate. Well, if we don’t like something He has commanded we can get away with it if we reinterpret a few choice words in the bible; or if we can convince enough of our friends of our viewpoint. Or we think if we pray a prayer of forgiveness that our actions won’t hurt us. We get what we want and then we are reconciled to God with no real consequence. The truth is that each of our sins does have real consequences. Not only does each sin require the death of Jesus on a crucifix in order to reconcile us to God, each sin has a consequence for us personally. Every time we choose to willingly disobey God it sears our conscience and skews our view of morality. Each time we disobey God we willingly walk away from the only one who loves us unconditionally. And rather than growing in fellowship with Christ we drive our lives into more discord and folly. God does not change in all of this, however. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His will is accomplished through our sin or through our obedience. It’s only our lives that are the worse for the former. God will not be manipulated.

We can grow in knowledge, understanding, and faith when we look to fulfill God’s will in our lives. He works through the lives of His followers to produce fruit. But He will also bring about His will in spite of the evil that transpires in the world. Our understanding is so trivial amidst the backdrop of an eternal God who has infinite, unsearchable understanding. If we think God is limited in His capacity to accomplish anything we are foolish. God is to be feared, for He is all powerful and He will not be mocked. He turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt for simply looking back on Sodom and Gomorrah. He took the lives of Judah’s sons because they were immoral. He flooded the whole earth because there was only one righteous man who was seeking God. This is not a God who can be tricked. This is not a God who can be tamed. This is an all-powerful, mighty God whose wisdom and glory are to be praised. To lack a relationship with the God of all the earth is to miss out on the infinite beauty of His design. God did not have a flawed plan. He is not on the back-up plan. This has always been the plan. The view that God did not know that man would sin and had to alter his plan to save us is the same place where someone might arrive at the idea that they could trick God.

Here’s the rub. God is omniscient. He knows all your thoughts and deeds. You cannot do enough good to cover up the bad. You can’t manipulate God into thinking you are a better person than you are. He doesn’t love you because of who you are, He loves you because of who He is. He wants to bring you into relationship with Him so that you can understand that love, but He doesn’t need your help to do that. You have free will to walk away because He gave that to you. He won’t take that free will away because the intent of His design is unchanging and it allows for man to choose to sin. Don’t think for one minute that that means God is not in absolute control or does not have complete authority over all things. He has all the power, but He has chosen to extend us free will. Also beware believing that God does not see all sin as vile. There is no such thing as an acceptable sin. Just because God loves us despite our sin does not mean that He tolerates it. The ONLY reason we can be reconciled to God is that He sent His son to be the propitiation for our sin. We can’t manipulate Him into believing we are good. He knows all our sin, but it is cleansed by the blood of Jesus. You can’t manipulate God into giving you anything. He has already extended a free gift, and if you don’t accept it He won’t make you.

Accepting that gift isn’t as easy as saying a prayer and then walking away from the relationship either. You must be in fellowship with Christ to accept His saving grace. It doesn’t mean you will walk a perfectly sinless life, but it does mean that you will work to grow in relationship with Him. The bible is not something to be read for its highlights. We don’t get to pick and choose the parts we want to believe. If we want to walk in fellowship with Christ we’ve got to read it with an open heart and mind. Allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us and teach us as we study. Bringing our own worldview to the table is not helpful, it only hinders our interpretation of scripture as we try to prove our own viewpoints right. We can make any point we want, but if it’s not the view God holds it’s wrong. Therefore, even if we can convince ourselves that scripture will support a view, it does not change God’s view on that issue. We only hurt ourselves with such thinking. Therefore it is wise to take God at His word, being careful to neither add nor take away. This is the only way to live a life in pursuit of Christ. Otherwise we are looking to fulfill our own vain idols. So lest we risk becoming our own gods, let us not try to manipulate God, for He is unchangeable.