It might be better to classify New Year’s Resolutions as New Year’s Good Intentions. How are yours going, by the way? Lost any weight yet? Quit smoking? Stopped using the Lord’s name in vain by starting every sentence with “God this or God that”? How are you doing? Are you still saving money, or did that fizzle out by the second week? Been nicer to your mother-in-law, or have you finally decided that she just doesn’t deserve it?
Resolutions, as a rule, work for a while, but they usually have their failing point. Could be days, weeks, months or even years, but eventually they fail. That’s just the way we humans are. I’m not saying don’t make them or don’t try to quit smoking or attempt to like your mother-in-law, I’m just saying that being the sinful creatures we are, we’re blessed to even have good intentions, much less the good works that follow them.
There is someone, however, who made a resolution once, and has never failed in it. Not yet, nor ever. When God made Adam and Eve, it wasn’t that God failed when they sinned. Man failed God; it never happens the other way around. But interestingly enough, when man failed God, God made a resolution. Sometimes it’s called a covenant. God promised to be man’s Savior, and take him to a promised land. God’s covenant; his resolution, was tested time and again by sinful man. But he stayed with them through some very tough times.
Even though man repeatedly and continually abandoned God, he had made a resolution never to abandon them — not permanently. Oh, once he left them for a time so they would learn a lesson, but always with the intention of watching over them while they struggled and returning to keep his promise.
At the foot of Mount Sinai, after having been rescued through the incredible miracles of turning dew into bread, and parting the Red Sea, man demanded to worship a golden calf. Throughout history, as people prospered — that is, as God blessed them — man has found more opportunities to turn away from their God, embracing idolatry in one form or another.
But God’s resolve is unlike any other. He made up his mind that he was going to save these people, in spite of their sin. Well, he had already promised them, and it is impossible for God to go back on a promise or to break a resolution.
The problem was, that man needed righteousness, and there was no way he could get it by himself. He couldn’t even help God get it for him. No, if man was to be righteous again, it would have to be a rescue unlike any in history before. It would have to be a rescue so great that the parting of the Red Sea would seem like child’s play. Dew into bread would be a mere slight-of-hand trick. This rescue was going to have to be the result of a resolve — a resolution, that God made-not man.
Man was lost now. He had proven himself to have nothing good within him, not even one thing or one man was good (Romans 5:12, Genesis 8:21, Psalms 14:3, Isaiah 64:6). Man was so lost that by nature he couldn’t even desire something good, for even his desire would be tainted with sin. Man was so totally depraved that he was incapable of even choosing to accept Jesus as Savior. Only God could cause this holy desire within him, so that if he had it, it would be all to God’s glory, none of man’s.
Man would come to realize that if he had saving faith, it would never be because of anything he or she ever did, but only because of what God had done. This is what Christ meant when he said, “I came to seek and save the lost.” Unless man admits that he is totally lost, then he is not the one Christ is looking for. And he is destined to think that even his rescue is in at least some small way thanks to himself. Which means he would not really have faith in God alone by what he did in and through Christ, but part of his faith would be in his own “decision” he made to join Christ. Jesus made himself very clear: You did not choose me; I chose you” (John 15:16).
We don’t trust our resolution to choose Him, but God’s resolution to choose us. God is not fickle like we are. If he decided to lose 20 pounds, there’s no question He would do it. And if God decides to save you, and then you find yourself trusting in Christ for your salvation, then know that it is because, unlike you, God keeps his resolutions. And this is why I can wish you and you’ll be able to “Have a Happy New Year!”
The Pastor’s Pen was created by the Rev. Andrew Wollman from Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Goshen. Other pastors are welcome to write a column for the Pastor’s Pen. For more information, call religion editor Monica Joseph at 533-2151, ext. 319. Wollman would like to hear from readers about what subjects they are interested in and may want to read a column about. He may be reached via e-mail at (a href="mailto:pop7705@juno.com"> pop7705@juno.com.
Life
God’s resolution is to never abandon man
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