So What if the Truth is Rejected?
I watched a movie recently about the journey of young man addicted to drugs. In hindsight, I realized the young addict, Nic, was not the main character. It is his father, Dave, with whom the viewer is meant to identify with.
The film is too tragic for me to recommend it to others. It depicts a relentless cycle of Dave laboring in vain to bring his son to sobriety. Nic gets clean, and then relapses. Rinse. Repeat. Rinse. Repeat – for more than two cinematic hours. After numerous brushes with death, Nic “repents” and Dave embraces him with love and helps him make a new start.
But after Nic has yet another relapse, Dave has a catastrophic epiphany: he must have the courage to hand his son over to the addiction. The scene plays out through a painful phone call:
“Dad”, Nic calls, crying, from the middle of the street watching an ambulance rescue his girlfriend after a near fatal overdose.
“Nic, where are you?”
“Dad, I am ready. I can’t do this anymore. But please...just let me come home - don’t make me go to rehab again. Just let me come home”.
(silence)
“Nic, I can’t do that. You need to decide to check yourself in - when you do, I’ll be right beside you. But I cannot help you any more.”
With that, Dave disconnects the call and crumbles into violent anger and grief.
If you’re a parent you understand why this movie climaxes at the father’s trauma. You can also fathom the tone of grief with which the apostle Paul writes to the Believers, on behalf of God, in Romans chapters 1 and 2. Let’s look at a few excerpts:
Romans Chapter 1 (NIV)
v18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of the men who suppress the Truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them.
v21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
v24 Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts…
v25 They exchanged the Truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.
v32 Although they know God’s righteous decree, that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approved of those who practice them.
Romans Chapter 2 (NIV)
v8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
v9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil.
As a teenager I identified the character of God to be mighty, powerful, hell-fire and brimstone. Which means I imagined these passages, and God’s overall attitude toward my rejection of His law, wrought with impatient anger: “Jami, how can you do this sin again!? Stop making me angry or you will see My fury!”
It wasn’t until I became a parent that my understanding of sin changed.
In his book, The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis wrote:
It’s not a question of God “sending us” to hell.
In everyone there is growing something which will BE hell
unless it is nipped in the bud.
This helps us better understand God’s heart when He “gives us over” to our sin. When we truly begin to recognize the catastrophe we bring on ourselves, like Nic’s drug addiction, and we come to terms with the grief our sin imposes on God, we may begin to understand why He cannot let us continue in sin without effect.
The current culture wants us to believe that rejecting Truth bears no implication; that we can continually define our own meaning and morals without impact to ourselves, our community and our culture. We are encouraged to see God as a moral dictator who condemns and harpoons our happiness by imposing arbitrary limitations. But the irony is almost comical: as parents warn their teens about the dangers of drugs, or limit their screen time, or take away their car keys after getting a DUI. The reality is every good parent knows that texting and driving leads to tragedy and we will govern our kids into a culture-bubble if it means protecting them from harm. Like God, we long for our kids to trust our character, our heart for them, and the liberty we know results from living life according what is true.
Evil comes from the Father of Lies. Truth comes from the Prince of Peace. Like an addiction, evil enslaves. When we abide in God’s Word, the Truth sets us free.