In today’s world, many people would rather think that God overlooks sin. They don’t want to believe that He will judge us for our disobedience to His laws and commandments. This daily devotional looks at times of ignorance God overlooked and why that won’t continue forever.
Nuggets
- We think we can explain things based on human knowledge, but we can’t.
- The Plan of Salvation cannot be accessed if we don’t repent.
- It is important that we repent — that we truly turn away from sin and turn to God.
- One day, judgment day will be upon us.
Why Does God Overlook Sin?
“The times of ignorance God overlooked …” (Acts 17: 30 ESV)
We’ve said that prophecy usually foresees what will happen in the current situation and what will happen in the future. I believe this section of the verse can be expanded beyond what Paul was addressing at the moment.
Paul was telling his readers that the current times of idol worship was a time of ignorance of God.
Thomas made a great point. He talked about how wise the world was in the first century. Well, they thought they were.
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It isn’t much different from today’s world, is it? People think science can explain things (i.e., explain away God). It can’t. Even the most knowledgeable person is still not as knowledgeable as God.
We think we can explain things based on human knowledge. We can’t.
Vincent talked about God letting things run their course. Don’t we see that sometimes? We ask why God doesn’t step in and correct something we believe is counter to His ways.
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Case in point. Dealing with the sin in this world — which is the expanded application of this passage.
There are many people today who are ignorant of God and His Plan of Salvation. I know. People don’t like to be called ignorant.
This passage is talking about a lack of knowledge, not a lack of sophistication. They don’t know God in that they do not have a personal relationship with Him.
There is a time in our lives when we don’t know God. When we are born, we are separated from Him because of the original sin.
Glossary
God put the steps in place so that we could be restored to Him. The steps are there, but He is not a dictator forcing us to believe in Him.
We have free will to submit to God or not. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
No, many do not choose to submit to God, and yet, God is not rectifying that. It makes it appear that He is condoning sin.
God is not — or at least not permanently.
Let’s back up again. Adam and Eve committed the original sin. God did not immediately put the Plan of Salvation into effect. It took a whole bunch of years before Jesus was born, died, and resurrected.
Some could argue that God was ignoring sin between commission and conception. He wasn’t.
God was waiting for the right time — the fullness of time — to implement the plan. But look at the Old Testament. Jesus is there.
We’ve got the “… Let us make man in our image …” (Gen. 1: 26 ESV). We’ve got the prophecies.
The promise of a Savior was there for Old Testament people to believe.
The law did not provide a way for redemption. The Plan of Salvation did.
Why Does God Not Overlook Sin Anymore?
“… but now He commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17: 30 ESV)
That Plan of Salvation cannot be accessed if we don’t repent. Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God, expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to changing ourselves through obedience so that we no longer do the wrong things.
Repentance involves a turning away from the ignorance of God. But it is more than just knowing about Him.
We all are sinful because we are all separated from God until we ABCD. Many of us think we have a boatload of sins for which we need forgiven.
Yeah, we probably do. But without the forgiveness of the separation, the forgiveness for the actions/inactions is a moot point.
Many people know of God but haven’t confessed Him as Sovereign Lord. Some may even have asked God to forgive them of their sins.
But they haven’t handed their lives over to live as God commands. “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance” (I Pet. 1: 14 ESV).
Repentance is a change of heart. We have to get it to the heart level so that we become obedient to God.
We have to make conscious decisions daily to live the way God has called us to live. We can’t remain in a life of sin, such as we lived before conversion.
We have to turn around and live for God.
Paul is a perfect example of someone being forgiven of his sins. “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief” (I Tim. 1: 13 NIV).
Don’t look at this and think Paul’s sins were automatically forgiven. We aren’t given an automatic, all-encompassing pardon.
We are individually forgiven of our sins when we ABCD. We have to acknowledge we are separated from God.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
It isn’t about what we have done or haven’t done. Thomas wrote, “To repent; which means something more than contrition or change of opinion, or renunciation of a habit; it means a change in the ruling disposition of life.” It is about being restored into God’s presence.
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You see, before Jesus came there was no way to become reconciled with God. By completing the Plan of Salvation, that way was made.
However, that also set up the possibility of judgment. If we now have the way of reconciliation, what happens to those who choose not to be reconciled?
God no longer had to overlook sin.
Manton said that God is not indulging us in our sins. He is waiting on His timing.
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Instead, God is calling us to repentance. “… but now He commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17: 30 ESV). He is calling us.
Jones reminded us that we have to truly repent. He wrote, “a deep sense of unworthiness [is needed] to receive the Divine forgiveness.
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How Will God Judge Us?
“because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed …” (Acts 17: 31 ESV)
It is important that we repent — that we truly turn away from sin and turn to God. One day, judgment day will be upon us.
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
This verse reiterates that the day of judgment is unknown. It is known by God, just not by us.
Beaumont reminded us that day is a term of measurement. It has a beginning and an end in our frame of reference.
However, God has a totally different definition of day. “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (II Pet. 3: 8 ESV).
Even though we can’t mark judgment day on our calendars, we need to start preparing now. We have to make sure that we are no longer spiritually dead. Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
We’ve got to evaluate our lives and ask the Lord how He wants us to work at getting those sins out of our lives.
We will be judged our Lord Jesus Christ. All of us. It will come.
Beaumont addressed our reception of acknowledging Jesus as judge. He wrote, “The sinner cannot object, because the Man Christ Jesus died to save him; and if He condemns him, he must, indeed, deserve to be condemned. The saint cannot object to that, because he has actually obtained his fellowship with Christ on earth; and, therefore, he sees in the Person of the Judge, his Brother, his Friend, his Redeemer.”
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I scratched my head a little bit on the choice of wording in the verse. “… He will judge the world in righteousness …” (Acts 17: 31). In righteousness? Through righteousness?
Let me process. Jesus is the One Who Will judge us. That is because He is the only One Who has been found worthy enough to do that.
Wait a minute. Why isn’t God judging us? He is worthy enough. Why doesn’t He just do it Himself?
Jesus is judging us because it is part of His reward for completing the Plan of Salvation. “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son” (Jn. 5: 22 ESV). Jesus is judging us because He is the only one in Heaven found worthy enough to open the seals.
I think the reason I am having trouble with in righteousness was pointed out by Goodman. He wrote, “Nowhere in all the Scripture doth righteousness signify rigour.”
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If the judgment is going to have rigor, it is going to be thorough and accurate. There won’t be any playing favorites. No one is going to get a free pass.
This judgment is when Jesus is going to separate the sheep from the goats.
Glossary
Right now, God is judging the world with patience. He is allowing us to come to Him and ask forgiveness.
One day, that patience will be over. The wrath of God will be upon us. We are going to find out if our names are written in the Book of Life. We will be judged in righteousness.
Assurance of a Resurrection
“… and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17: 31 ESV)
Okay, so Jesus was raised from the dead. That is all fine and dandy. But what is verse 31 really telling us?
I think we have to put the verse back together. “because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17: 31 ESV).
We can be assured that there will be a judgment day because of the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. Just think of how the Jewish leaders and the Romans tried to make sure He stayed in the grave. He didn’t.
Making the Connections
Barnes made a great point on repentance. He wrote, “You cannot find a person who at some time has not exercised repentance; and in the emotions of a child, when he feels sorrow that he has done wrong, and who resolves to make confession of it and to do so no more, you have the elements of all that God requires of man as a condition of salvation.”
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God made us in His image. We have a conscious. We have the ability to ask for forgiveness of sins.
There is only one sin that God won’t forgive. We can be murderers, thieves, or liars — and God will forgive us when we repent. The only sin she can’t and won’t forgive is unbelief.
Glossary
So, flip that around to the positive. God will forgive all sins — even unbelief — if we genuinely repent.
What if God wouldn’t judge us for our sins? That would mean His laws and commandments are worthless. That means everyone would have the right to murder someone else. Everyone would have the right to steal something.
We can’t say that it is okay to break one of God’s laws but not break another.
If our keeping the laws were not important, then why would God be concerned about us at all? Why would He have kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden if everything was okay?
It isn’t okay to break God’s laws and commandments. We will be judged one day as to our keeping them in order to draw closer to Him.
How Do We Apply This?
- We have to genuinely ABCD.
- We have to make sure we evaluate ourselves to make sure our relationships with God are on the right track.
- We have to consistently and humbly seek God.
- We have to submit to God’s authority.
- We have to discern what is truly sin in our lives.
- We have to mortify our sins.
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We no longer have the excuse of being ignorant. We know about the Plan of Salvation. We have to make a decision now.
Father. We humbly repent of our sins and will turn away from them to seek You. Keep us until Your judgment day. Amen.
What do you think?
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