Scammed

Romans 2:4 Or do you suppose on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Acts 26:20 ...and also to the gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance

A couple of years ago a good friend of mine got burned by an on-line car salesman. My friend selected the vehicle on-line, had some phone conversations that led to an agreed upon price, and then wired the money to the man in Houston, Tx. The only problem was that when he got to Houston, the man, the car and the company this man worked for, were no where to be found. My friend had been scammed. He had held up his end of the bargain and was owed a car, instead he got a 16,000 hole in his wallet. The FBI is still on the case as we speak.

Do you think that we try to scam God and His grace? It sounds harsh, but it is something we must look at it. Throughout the Bible, God's grace has a clear end result of eliminating sin, not enabling it. Look at the passages above at what Paul is saying. Clearly he warns those who take for granted and even manipulate grace to validate their sin instead of crucify it. I know for many years I tried to scam God as I wanted forgiveness, but I wanted to continue in the sin that incurred the guilt that needed forgiving, more than I wanted Him. That is the heart of a scammer. Twisting the deal to serve your best temporary interest.

When I look back at the times when I "supposed" upon God's grace, I have great remorse. Not that I am perfect now, but I can see how dangerous it is to try and manipulate God's grace. When His grace is alive in our lives it will bear fruit of repentance. If we are truly repentant, we will leave sin behind and our desire to sin will shift to a desire to worship Christ. We will stop worshipping created things like ourselves, money and other people and we will exalt Christ, the one who makes it possible.

Are you a scammer? Are you using Christ to justify and enable your sin? Do you believe Paul's words that grace is meant to lead you to repentance? Do you understand that repentance is more than an emotional sorrow for your actions, but rather a deep seated hatred for the sin and a true desire to leave it behind and walk towards Christ?

These are all great questions to walk through at the heart level. Just as we all can see clearly how wrong my friend was done, can we all see how easy we can scam God? It is right their in front of us all in our culture. It should raise hairs on the back of our necks.