Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
When you finally wake up after a wasted life, the loneliness you feel is oppressive. You feel that God has forsaken you.
You may not realize what is happening but God wants you to understand. You are in Galatians 3:22-24, which says: "The Scripture has confined [locked up] all under sin, that the promise by faith [of, KJV] Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. ... The law was our tutor [disciplinarian, Greek; schoolmaster, KJV] to bring us [drive us] to Christ, that we might be justified by faith."
The broken holy law of God has become your "jailer," locking you up until you can learn to realize your lost condition. Nothing you can do can ease your burden; promising God that you will do better is in vain; all efforts to "pay" for your sins are useless. Nothing good you can do can make up for the sins you have committed. You cannot buy your way out of this prison-house. God Himself is not tormenting you--the holy broken law is tormenting you.
The only remedy is for that broken law to prod you, to drive you back to where Abraham was when he was "justified by faith." That is the teaching of Galatians.
Next it says, "After faith has come, we are no longer under a [disciplinarian]" (vs. 25). This blessed process of deep conviction of sin is the work of the Holy Spirit. Yes, it hurts! But it's not God who is punishing you--He is only trying to impress upon you the reality that Christ was punished for you! You lay your sins upon Him, He is already your sin-bearer.
This process of the law working "wrath" upon you (Rom. 4:15) is a ministry of mercy. It proves the Savior's intimate, personal concern for individual you, through the Holy Spirit. It's solid evidence that God loves you for yourself, that angels are your servants, that all Heaven is absorbed in your case.
God loves sinners, and He especially loves a sinner like you who at last knows that he or she has "blown" it. Turn to Him. Now humble your proud heart and accept His forgiveness.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 30, 2002.
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