Mercy Without Repentance

I had gotten into a discussion with a friend recently on the subject of “cheap grace” which I will define here as “mercy without repentance” so I was continuing with my personal study for more understanding.

There are many people, I believe, who think that God Almighty will be gracious and allow them to enter into a “happily ever after” state of rest even though they live ugly, unrepentant lives and couldn’t care less about God’s plan in the here and now. I think they are in for a horrible shock.

I was reading Ezekiel 33 this morning struggling to understand a confusing passage and I wondered- why doesn’t God just clearly spell it out? He surely could have. Why are some things in the Bible still a mystery causing debate among Christians?

Suddenly I realized- What I do with the difficult passages of Scripture exposes my heart!
Do I ignore them? Exposed! Do I interpret them as cheap and easy salvation? I’m exposed!
Do I study hard and try to understand how to apply the principles to my life?
What do I do with them?
It suddenly occurred to me that God may have intentionally made the meaning of certain passages less clear and understandable. After all, He could’ve said “Thou shalt NOT… and clearly spelled it out but He didn’t. And He sees how we handle that.

He doesn’t want us to just keep a list of rules and laws. He wants us to love Him. He wants us to live for Him- please Him- honor Him in all we do. He created us for a love relationship. He doesn’t need my service or my money. He wants me to trust Him and obey what I understand and ideally to be growing- maturing- trying to understand more.

It was a sobering moment. He knows every thought I have. He sees my motive. He knows me better than I even know myself. What an amazing and personal God!