A lot of people act like the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament is simply not the same being. Although they may call Him God, they live as if He’s changed His mind. This is evident in the way we love a grace-heavy approach to all kinds of situations. I am guilty of it, and I’m sure you have been too. We emphasize the grace aspect of God’s character and skip over the hard truth.
Here in Jeremiah 7, we get to explore a modern-day attitude in an ancient era. The people just don’t believe in God’s truth. They refuse to believe that He will follow through with what He’s said. I deal with this a lot with my 4-year old. She will test every boundary and scratch and claw for control. At times, she will express to me that she is unhappy with how I held true to my word with a certain consequence or punishment. We read here that the people express the same thing to God.
“Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’
Jeremiah 7:4 NASB
This is a very difficult but critical teaching. The people believed that because they were God’s chosen and because He had cared for them and protected them over the years, He would never allow anything bad to happen to them. They thought their temple was invincible. The difficult part of this teaching is that it is undoubtedly true that God loves us. There is absolute proof of his grace in the person of Jesus Christ. Grace trumps sin. This is all true.
In my understanding of Scripture, there is a critical difference between forgiveness and holiness and this is where I believe people get confused. God’s desire is to forgive us but He also desires for us to be holy. We can’t have one without the other. We can’t sacrifice one for the other. Just because we are covered in forgiveness does not mean we are necessarily pursuing holiness. In fact, to take advantage of grace in that way really illustrates a fundamental misunderstanding in regard to how Jesus lived His entire life. Jesus lived grace and truth.
The problem we get ourselves into today is that we can easily fall into the same attitude as the Israelites. “Since God loves me and forgives me, He won’t REALLY allow difficult situations to occur in my life.” This is the beginning of compromise which leads to a slippery slope. God loved His people enough to discipline them. That’s the bottom line. Without an expectation and standard of truth, there is no need for grace. God will discipline those He loves. We must look forward to it and expect it.
Lord, don’t let us off the hook. Give us a desire to pursue holiness and intensify Your Holy Spirit in our lives. Help us to resist minimizing your truth in our lives and give us a healthy fear of Your Presence!