May 29, 2010
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OPM - Other People's Money, and Other People's Mercy
Our government seems to be relying more and more on Other People's Money these days... in the continued welfare programs for unemployed people, in moving toward a more socialized healthcare system, in borrowing money from China and other countries to sustain our deficit, etc.
At some point, there usually comes a time when it is generally realized that borrowing other people's money won't work any more. "Why don't you spend the money from your own pocket to help the poor, rather than taking money from someone else's pocket?"... the sentiment is eventually inevitable.
However, this post is not primarily about fiscal policy, but about an analogy between the eventual breakdown of such "OPM" expectations and the salvation of our friends who do not believe in Jesus. First a bit of background, then a thought at the end making the link.
As many of you readers know, the Bible indicates that all humans have an inborn bent toward sinning (inherited from Adam and Eve) which causes us to commit actual sins... thousands of them every day... acts of arrogant evil and corruption in blatant disobedience to God. Even people who do not read the Bible still have some knowledge of what is right and wrong... and still often choose to do what's wrong anyway.
As the Bible explains, the One True God who created the world happens to be both Just and Loving. His Justice does not allow him to turn a blind eye to our sins. Instead, "the person who sins will die" (Ezekiel 18:20); "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). But His Love caused Him to decide to essentially pay the debt Himself that we owed... God the Son in cooperation with God the Father volunteered to be "pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).
It so happens that not everyone will receive this salvation, however... only those who "believe"; those whose hearts God "opens" (Acts 16:14) to accept God's free gift of salvation and put their allegiance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, according to Jesus this will be a minority of humanity: "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).
It so happens that I have received this free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, and so I will some day be in heaven forever with God in indescribable joy and bliss, though I fully deserve instead to be forever in hell. But it also so happens that a large percentage of my friends, neighbors, coworkers, and other acquaintances do not believe in Jesus and so are on their way toward eternal hell and what the Bible calls "the second death". So I am often burdened to pray for my friends, that God would have mercy on them and open their eyes to see the truth.
And so, I often beg for "Other Person's Mercy", specifically, that God would have mercy on my friends, changing their minds to see the evil of their own souls and their need for Jesus Christ. I so desire it.... I so want my friends to experience eternal life rather than eternal death. I want this so badly that sometimes I almost get upset with God for His delay in answering these prayers, and my fear that maybe He will say "no" and my friends will end up in Hell.
Recently then, I was reminded how it is completely God's prerogative to show His own mercy to whomever He deems would be best to enter Life, since He is "paying the bill" of their ransom, so to speak. I can ask, but that's all I can do. It's not my place to dole out His mercy and His suffering and His 100%-commitment-'chesed'-covenant-love to various humans that I meet during my seventy-whatever year trek on earth with my 3-pound puny little brain. If He decides not to select any of my unbelieving friends for salvation, I can trust the all-knowing, eternal, infinitely loving and infinitely wise God to choose what is best.
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