7.17.24
This week we are looking at how sin operates in our lives. And we are viewing this through the story of the prophet Jonah.
The first thing we saw is that the heart of sin is actually running from God. Running from his call or design for our lives. And as a result, sin is seeking to build an identity of our own making, rather than submitting to the call of God upon our lives.
Today we see that sin is even more than trying to create an identity apart from God. But we see the frightening reality that this is something we can do underneath all sorts of morality and religiosity. We can serve God and seek to obey him in our lives, and still be using that very morality as an identity apart from him.
We all understand the parts of our hearts that want nothing to do with the charity of other people. We long to be strong and independent all on our own. And this is all the more true in our relationship with God. And as a result, we can easily use our morality and obedience as weapons against God. Because the more we can obey, the less grace and charity we will need. The better our lives are, the more “rights” we feel that we have for God to give us the things we really want. The better we are, the more owed we feel.
When our story tells us that Jonah was running from God, he clearly was unable to run from his presence. God is everywhere - even in this storm - even in this great fish. But what “running from God” means is to run from his “face”. Running from community with him - intimacy with him - dependence upon him. In other words, running from God means to not have him as the center of your life. And while we can center our lives around all sorts of “bad” things, Jonah shows us that we can also center our lives around “good things”, like morality and religiosity. And those things are equally (if not worse) in opposition to the centrality of God in our hearts.
Jonah shows us here that we can have a religious heart that gets its identity from our own morality and goodness. Or we can get our identity from the life and death of Jesus for us. One uses Jesus as an example to follow, trying to earn Gods favor. While the other rests as a beggar in the mercy and grace of Jesus living and dying for us.