A God of Second Chances

Judge 3:1-4

"These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (He did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath. They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the LORD'S commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses."

God is a God of second chances (third, fourth, fifth... slow to anger, abounding in love). But here we see that Israel also failed to obey. Without God's grace through the Lord Jesus we are utterly incapable of hitting the mark of holiness. And so with the Holy Spirit as Christ in us, we are empowered to lay hold of our separateness from the world.

"Grace is not simply leniency when we have sinned. Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin. Grace is power, not just pardon." —John Piper

2 Corinthians 5:17

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"

~05.09.2013