Disconnecting

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you." (John 5:14)

Last time I visited some of the dark views about God and His attitudes towards us that often are linked with this verse. But I think it is even more important to explore the much less known but far more important truths about God that can open up honest hearts to come to know and trust Him when they are properly understood and embraced.

Jesus very clearly conveyed to this healed man that most likely his sickness had something to do with sin. He also clearly indicated the very real possibility that if the man sinned again that something even worse than he had experienced for 38 years might happen to him as a result. But here is an extremely important point that Jesus did NOT emphasize in His words to this man – He did NOT tell him that it would be God who would impose some sort of punishment on him if he were to sin again. That is an implication that may be assumed by most people when they read this but it cannot be substantiated from the words of Jesus or even in the context.

In addition to this point I have also learned from my own study and experience over the past few years that another important part of properly interpreting this verse is to perceive the true definitions of key words here. Sin is one of those words that has been very seriously distorted in people's minds over the centuries and has come to be mostly associated with the external symptoms of sin rather than with what is actually sin itself. This is a very confusing point until it begins to come clear in a personal, close examination of truth as it is in Jesus and the Word of God. I certainly do not have time or space to explore that very far right here, but this is vital to understand nonetheless if we are to read this verse with understanding.

I will go so far as to say at this point that I do not believe that Jesus was implying that if this man ever made a mistake again or chose anything that was outside the will of God and sinned in his life that God was going to retract the healing that had been given this man and punish him even more severely than what he had suffered already. That kind of scenario is part of the dark views of God that are so commonly found in the human mind and heart and that originally was conceived in the mind of God's worst enemy Satan to keep us from trusting God's heart.

But on the other side there are extreme dangers always waiting to happen to us when we deliberately choose to remove ourselves from God's clear will for our lives and to turn away from Him in rebellion to serve our own selfish desires. God's grace is like an undeserved blanket that surrounds and protects every soul in this world whether they want it or not initially. That blanket to a great extent shields them from the deadly cold of the natural results of sin and is given to allow everyone of us time to turn from our selfish and wicked ways and finally embrace the salvation that has been worked out for us. But the choice to enter into a saving relationship with God is always up to us and grace will not always linger to shield us from the consequences of sin forever.

This is where it is so important to really grasp the true nature of sin and grace and God's attitudes towards us. We must get it clear in our minds that it is not God who is out to punish us for indulging in sin but it is God who is trying to save us from the inevitable and natural results that always follow from disconnecting from the only Source of life available to us. Let me try to put it another way.

Yesterday I was running our vacuum cleaner to get the house ready before my pastor dropped by for a short visit. I knew that my wife would be rather upset if she learned that he had stopped by without her having a chance to thoroughly clean the whole house, but I also knew that if I didn't at least vacuum the rugs that I would really catch it from her later. So I hooked up the vacuum and quickly went around the living room to clean up each rug while I still had a little time.

At one point when I was furtherest away from where the cord was plugged in I flipped the cord up in the air to get it over some furniture so I could circle around to the other side of the room. For a moment the vacuum turned off but then came on again. I realized at that point that what had happened was that in flipping the cord up in the air I had almost pulled the plug out of the wall receptacle. Fortunately though, it had remained attached enough to keep it connected because I had not completely pulled it out.

Now here is the main point that relates to the issue I am looking at here. Would it make any sense at all to assume that if that plug had become disattached enough from the wall that somehow the electric company was waiting to punish my vacuum cleaner for failing to stay plugged into their network? Did you get that yet or is it so silly that you missed the main point?

My vacuum cleaner was not being punished for disconnecting from the power socket on my wall. When it momentarily began to die it was not because someone was arbitrarily punishing my vacuum but was only a natural result of not maintaining its vital connection with the only source of power that enables it to do what it was designed to do. You could say that I caused my vacuum to 'sin' in that I almost pulled the cord out of the wall causing it to slow down temporarily. But because the cord did not come completely out it was somehow able to remain tight enough to recover before it stopped completely and I was able to finish cleaning the floors without going over and reconnecting the plug.

I see the very same thing in these words of Jesus to this recovered sick man. He was giving him a very serious warning about reality, not trying to intimidate him with threats of dire punishments that a stern God was ready to inflict upon him if he were to return to a life of sin. Jesus certainly was telling this man that there would be unavoidable consequences if he were to choose to disconnect from the only Source of life that had graciously provided miraculous recovery for his body. If he chose to turn away from the undeserved grace and love that had been unexpectedly extended to him there were evil forces and natural, terrible consequences that were sure to happen to him if he made such a choice again. Jesus wanted him to be aware of that stern reality that we all live with. But He was not implying that those consequences were going to be somehow imposed on his life by an upset God who would get angry at him for spurning His love and healing grace.

It has not been that long that I have been learning this amazing truth about God and I am still trying to get my heart to absorb into its own beliefs this truth more completely. It is a struggle to come to really believe that it is not God who is the source of all our pain and trouble and death, especially in a world that is filled with lies about this very issue and teaches these lies explicitly in every religion. But it is vital that each person come to a knowledge of the real truth about reality and how sin is the real problem, not God.

Just one last point on this. Paul makes this point very clear but we too often forget it in our false assumptions about God that permeates so much of our thinking.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

It is sin that pays the wages of death, NOT GOD! When that amazing truth finally began to dawn on my consciousness it began to transform everything about my relationship with God and my perceptions of how He feels about me. Slowly over the years He has been revealing to me more of this truth about reality and it has been liberating my heart in surprising ways to respond with genuine and worshipful love toward Him who for so long I was secretly afraid of and even hated deep inside. As I have come to realize that sin is my antagonist and not God, I have found it much easier to begin to trust Him and come into that vital, intimate, saving relationship with Him that has the power to liberate me from the lies about Him and the effects of sin.

Sin in its simplest definition is being disconnected from God just as my vacuum cleaner dies when it becomes disconnected from the power flowing through the cables. God's gift all the time is life itself and sin is simply the opposite of that. When I choose to indulge in sin I am loosening my power cable from the wall receptacle and God wants me to know that there are going to be serious consequences if I continue to play around with that connection. That is now what I am starting to see in these words of warning to this man who had graciously been given a new solid connection with his only Source of health and life and hope.

In essence, what I see Jesus saying to him is, “Don't disconnect yourself again from your Source or the consequences are going to be even worse than last time.”