God Is Not Reactionary | Theocast Clips

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I keep saying this, do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

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Why would James have to say that? Because first of all, we don't think of God in godly terms.

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We think of God in human terms. So he's going to clarify that for us. He says this, do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

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Every good gift and every perfect gift, and when he means by perfect, he means that which cannot fade away.

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Houses, health, jobs, relationships will fade. Perfect means without fade. So every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and coming down from the father of lights, which this is an old reference, a

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Hebraic reference to the creator of the universe is how it's in reference, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

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He's saying his gifts towards you are not based upon two very important things.

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First of all, God is the creator, sustainer of the world. He, in other words, is sovereign, and he does not give them based upon a transactional relationship.

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You know, Justin, we were talking about this before the podcast. We naturally project upon God the way in which that we interact here.

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We take our human interactions and project them upon our relationship with God. First of all, the emotional relationships that we have with people, right?

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You and I both know our wives, there are times that we love them more and we love them less, and it's a shame. It's to our own shame.

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And we feel it more or less or whatever, yeah. And that's based upon the emotional reactions that we're having with them, and this is true with anyone else in the human race.

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We also have transactional relationships. In other words, two people begin to date, why? Because they're trying to determine whether they're going to enter into this relationship with them.

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And in the other person, they each see something that will help them realize the dreams and hopes they have for their own lives.

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Let's be real. Yeah, and so there's this give and take, right? It's transactional.

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And what can you do for me? What can I do for you kind of thing. Right. Let's just go back to what James just said here.

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He's saying, everything that comes to you, first of all, from the father of lights, if he's the creator and sustainer of the world, it means he does not need anything from you, right?

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This is the satiety of God, or you could also say this is God who is without need.

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He does not sustain himself based upon reactions or - He is self -existent, self -determining, self -sustaining.

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That's right. And then he says, this is so important. With whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

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Meaning God's response to us is, I'm sorry, God does not respond to us.

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That God's determination of what he will and will not do is based upon his nature, not based upon emotional changes to us.

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Yeah, what I might say is God does respond to us, but he's not reactionary. His response is always driven by his character, which never changes, right?

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And by his attributes and even by his love for us, his mercy toward us, his grace toward us as his children that never changes.

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All right, so going back to verse 18 again, it says, of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creation.

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The point of it is, is that God's relationship, so he's tying it all together. God's relationship to us is not

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God watching us and then he's going to respond, exact to react to us based upon what we're doing.

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He's saying he entered into this relationship based upon his own desires, his own will.

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And everything he does to us is not based upon a reaction to us, but based upon his will.

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That's why he says every good and perfect gift that comes down is coming to you based upon his nature, not based upon you.

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One, that kind of blows up the Christian karma nonsense that exists so often in the church. But main takeaway for me is this has everything to do with mercy for doubters and compassion for strugglers and grace for all of us, because this is how

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God is inclined towards his own. And for those of us who by the grace of God have understood that we need mercy for our sins, we need forgiveness, we need to be absolved of guilt, we need righteousness that we don't have.

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He always is mercifully inclined and always is graciously inclined.

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And we don't need to doubt that. I mean, we can trust that that God is not responding to me in the ebbs and flows of my heart and mind.