A story is told of a man who was in charge of a reform school for“delinquent” boys — the worst of the worst.
Now there was this one boy in particular who was a stone-cold rebel. They had tried everything in the book to reform him to no avail. Neither hard treatment nor soft treatment worked on him. Punishment didn't seem to faze him either.
So one day, after he had got himself into some serious trouble, he brought him into his office, sat him down, looked intently at him as he sat there sunk on the chair, arms folded, with a smirk on his face and said to him:
"Tom, I want to adopt you. I want you to be my son. I want you to have my last name. I want you to leave this place and I want you to come and live with me. From now on, you'll be my personal responsibility and every time you get into trouble, it's my name you will be dragging through the mud. What do you say?"
This threw him off. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. He expected to be served the usual 'three course punishment' meal he had become so accustomed to and get it over with. This however caught him completely off guard.
Right then, he wiped the smirk off his face and sat up on the chair. After a few moments of silent deliberation, Tom raised his head, looked at him, and for the first time, he noticed tears were running down his face."Okay", he chokingly responded as he frantically tried to compose himself and get back into his default 'macho' character.
Now, if I were to tell you that from that day Tom stayed out of trouble, I would be lying. But if were to tell you that from that day he desired and wanted to stay out of trouble, I would be telling you the truth.
This is the same with God and us. Because of the cross of Jesus, He offers sonship to outright rebels who deserve nothing more than punishment and death.
Whereas other religions say change and God will accept you, Christianity says God accepts you, therefore change.
Trying to get your ducks in a row before you come to God is like trying to clean yourself before you take a bath.
It's like standing on a mud paddle and trying to clean your feet. It's a fool's errand because once you clean one foot, you have to put it right back in the mud paddle to clean the other.
With the God of the Bible, justification comes before sanctification.
In other words, He says you are alright before He can make you alright.
It's His act of mercy and goodness in adopting us as His children in our sinful rebellious state that transforms us and leads us to want to live transformed lives.
Now, herein lies a lesson for those who like to use the threat of hell to scare people into salvation.
It's a terrible tool for evangelism.
Love makes no threats.
The gospel is not "turn or burn" or "repent or go to hell".
There's no good news in that.
Fear is a terrible way to draw anyone to a loving Father.
The truth is you can draw more flies with honey than you can do with vinegar.
God's strategy is"honey" over "vinegar" any day and every day.
He draws us in with His goodness, not with threats.
The gospel is a loving God and Father offering life and sonship to outright rebels through His Son Jesus and once they have accepted His act of mercy and goodness, He goes on to say,"Now you are my children. I have given you My name. Leave behind your life of sin and live for Me...otherwise, going forward, it's My name you are tarnishing, if you don't."
As a believer, you need to realize that as a child of God, you are a carrier of God and a carrier of His name. So depending on how you live your life, you are either bringing glory or shame to His name.
There are so many believers today who, like the prodigal son, are casting aspersion on their heavenly Father's name.
They are giving the gospel a black eye.
They are part of those Paul describes in Romans 2:24 when he says, "No wonder the Scriptures say,“The Gentiles blaspheme the name of God because of you."
In other words, your travesty or misrepresentation of God by your careless living gives the unbelievers a bad picture of God, arms them against God and worse still, becomes a stumbling block to their salvation.
In truth, how you live your life as a believer may be the only Bible someone will ever read.
It is also the greatest indicator of what you believe.
Our faith is shown by what we do, not just by what we say (see Titus 1:16).
As a child of God, you need to always keep in mind that God has shown you His mercy and goodness in adopting you into His family and the least you can do in return is turn from your life of sin and live for Him.
His goodness should lead you to repentance (changed life).
God bless you.
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