Is God Angry with Me?

Juliet was a club prostitute in Port-Harcourt, a city in the Southern part of Nigeria. She was the life of the party, who knew where to get all-time high on drugs, alcohol and sex.

One fateful Thursday night, Juliet stepped out to receive a call from a prominent Alhaji in town and while on the call, she noticed a lanky young man standing at the corner and staring at her. Upon hanging up her phone call, Juliet sashayed towards the young man with the intent of teasing and luring him in but never did it cross her mind that she would end up being the one dragged into another lifestyle.

Image Source: Fidele

"Heyyy", she drawled and in her attempt to touch the young man, he grabbed her hand, smiled and said, " Juliet, you are too valuable for all of this". This took her by surprise because she didn't think the man would know her by her name. Assuming that the man was one of her previous customers, she irritatedly asked him what he meant by that. Getting the cue to speak, the man went on to tell her about a piece of news that was too good to be true. He told her how her sins had been forgiven - past, present and future and how she could live a prosperous life while believing in God's only son.

"Abeg!, do not tell me all this trash", Juliet cut in rudely. She continued, "How can I, who has been in this business, live a good life with God? Even your churches and their members would not accept me, please leave, you are disrupting my business. When I grow old and I'm about to die, I'll ask for forgiveness of my sins". But no, the young man refused to let Juliet go, he kept "pestering" her and said, "but you have been spoken for already, Jesus Christ redeemed you and right now, if only you will believe, you will be free permanently and no one will condemn you, not even the churches and church members".

Juliet froze in her tracks and as if being controlled, burst into tears, accepting the reality of redemption the young man reached out to her about. She got saved, filled with the Holy Ghost and got established in a church.

She grew in wisdom and the spirit of God and got married to a Christian young man who grew up in the Lord and it was all amidst a lot of speculations from hypocritical "church sisters", who had all assumed she could never get a good man to marry no matter how born-again she got. On her wedding day, the church sisters gathered and settled it among themselves that she could never give birth, but the Lord of the breaks had something in store for Juliet - in five months, she got pregnant! The church sisters came together and determined amongst themselves that God was not a fool and so, Juliet's baby would be disabled but the face-slap came nine months after when Juliet gave birth to a bouncing baby boy who was hale and healthy from birth with no congenital health issues.

Finally, unable to keep calm, the church sisters came to the pastor demanding answers on why God was being partial towards Juliet when obviously, she had wasted her youthful years as a prostitute. Then, the teachings came forth - God is not a liar.

Just like in the story above, many Christians today are like the church sisters and sometimes, we wonder why God has been so "slow" towards metting out punishments to those who are sinners. However, the first thing we all must learn is that God is not bipolar, neither does he have dementia, so when He says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new, His all meant all. Not some, not majority, not most, not partially but all! This means that as a new believer, you can be assured that before God, you are as holy as someone who had never been in sin. It means that you can boldly stand before God and the brethren without any sense of condemnation in you because you are a new man. You are no longer that slave to sin, now, God has made you His own son. Likewise, as a believer, yours might be that you secretly watched some pornographic videos and you're wondering how you can stand before your church as the choir coordinator to minister to God's people. God wants you to know that before you offended Him, you had been forgiven already! Romans 8:1 says there is no condemnation for you. Why? You ask. The answer is that you are the blood-bought prized possession of God. Blood was shed for you to attain the righteousness you have and live in today so, no man can condemn you before God. No man, not your parents, not your friends, not your religious association has a legal standing to keep you away and treat you like a criminal because you are God's chosen one. Romans 8:33 says, "Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself" [NLT].

Your righteousness gives you the yeast you need to rise in life just like yeast makes dough rise. You have been made right with God, not by what you do or by what you have done but by the blood that was spilt for your sake and because of the sacrifice of that one man - Jesus Christ, God moved to your side. Yes, you read right, you didn't move to God's side, God moved to your side and when He deals with your sins, He does not cover it up, doesn't erase it but instead, He forgets that it ever happens. You become as clean as a newborn babe and relate with God as a son to his father. (Romans 5:18)

Why is it then necessary to repent?

A Christian should repent from his sins but forgiveness is not the reward of repentance. So, as a blood-bought believer, you don't go seven days fasting because you have sinned against heaven, earth and their firmament and you want to ask God to forgive you.

Your forgiveness has existed, exists, and continues to exist before, while and after you ask. The reason for our repentance, however, is because the seed of God is in us and it helps to keep us in check so that we don't go on a killing rampage.

So, your repentance helps your conscience but does not buy you forgiveness. If you must pay for your sins, then, you must die. That death was already done by Jesus Christ so, you don't have to die to pay for your sins.

Finally, you, as a believer, must know that you do not lose your salvation until you renounce Christ and what He has done for you. Your salvation remains intact and all that is necessary per adventure you fall into sin is to build up your fellowship with God.

This is the gospel - the news that is too good to be true.