Especially For The Rebel

“Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, [for] the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell [among them].” (Ps 68:18 AV)

For the rebellious, also!  That would be me!  What a great truth.  Jesus Christ brought the gift of His blood to the mercy seat so that we might have the gift of salvation.  He did so for the express reason that the rebellious against God might dwell with God.  WOW!  Just last night, I was contemplating this very truth.  The thought entered my mind of the futility of the existence of man compared to our Almighty God desiring our existence.  It was a tremendous exercise in the motive of our God.  Why would He tolerate such beings?  Why would He allow us to make choices contrary to His pleasure?  Why would He set all this in motion knowing that the very beings He creates will rebel against Him?  Why?  God is a merciful God, full of pity.  He desired to create beings to whom He might show forth that mercy and pity.  The object of that mercy and pity was and is, me.

Let’s face it.  Rebellion is not exactly an endearing quality.  The rebel doesn’t have many friends.  This was true in my class.  This was true in our family.  This is true in the church.  Good people tend to avoid the rebel.  Our class rebel was Mike.  Mike did anything he could to anger our teachers.  It was because of Mike that our class lost many opportunities of kindness from our teachers.  If there was a wrong way to do something, Mike would find it.  He would disrupt our classtime.  He would do disgusting things in the presence of everyone.  He was routinely at the chastening end of instruction.  Bound to his rebellious ways, Mike flunked out of our class.  Then flunked out of the next class.  By the time he was old enough to legally drop out of school, he was two grades behind.  Looking at Mike, most of us only saw the behavior.  We didn’t stop and consider why Mike was the way he was.  We knew nothing of his home life.  We knew nothing of the baggage he brought with him every day to school.  It wasn’t until myself and my father took an interest in him and got him involved in Boy Scouts that we learned of his situation.  His rebellious turned off most.  But it was my father’s concern for this young man that stopped a cycle of bad behavior that could have ended much worse.

Why God puts up with us I will never fully understand.  What we do know is that God created us so that He could be kind to us.  He created us so that He could know us and we could know Him.  Jesus gave the ultimate gift of His life so that our sin account could be totally erased.  He brought gifts to and for men.  He brought the gift of His atoning blood to the Father who sat on His throne as judge.  The Judge saw the blood sacrifice of His Son and accepted the terms of life for sin.  All the rebel needs to do is repent of his or her sin and trust in what Jesus Christ did for them.  It is that simple.  But never let it escape the heart that even while we were rebels, God desired to live among us.