Editing

When we repent from our sins, when we turn away from the way the world acts and the way that we have joined the world in their attitudes and actions, and we turn toward God… does God change? Is God now suddenly pleased, when just moments before we turned, or repented, he was furious, even wrathful? One of the regular things we say about God’s nature is that he is “unchanging.” This would suggest that God doesn’t change in response to our repentance, but that he remains as he always was… loving. Picture the image of the father in Jesus’ parable, the story we call “The Prodigal Son.” The father is never depicted as angry or resentful toward the younger son who treats him as good as dead and asks for his inheritance early and leaves the home. The father isn’t depicted as angry toward the older son who rejects the father’s compassionate and joyful reception of the younger son when he returns. Now, think on how we can expect that someone should demonstrate that they are REALLY sorry for what they did that hurt us. It’s a kind of “make me believe you’re sorry” mindset. But, God isn’t like us. We’re told that God erases our sins from existence. We’ve heard about “redacted” documents that have thick black lines covering information that shouldn’t be seen. But, if God had a record of our lives, there would be no black lines. When we are forgiven by our loving God, those sentences are no longer even in our story. Blessings, Geoff