Changing His Image

Romans 1:22-23 (KJV)

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Often times I have wondered how people could claim to be in fellowship with God while they were still bound by the chains and shackles of sin. It seems that there exists a new breed of religious practitioners that hide themselves underneath the guise of Christianity, but the only existing similarities are the flags bearing their names.

Their new religious philosophy suggests that God has become more tolerant towards sin and less stringent in His requirements. The age old tenants of the true Christian faith that announce the power and the habit of sin broken through repentance, redemption, and the blood of Jesus Christ, have been modified to become more gentle and less offensive towards those yet swimming in the contaminated waters of sin.

Holy and righteous standards are soon boxed up and neatly tucked away on the shelves of our minds to make room for newly introduced practices of tolerance and acceptance. These culturally craved practices draw no lines between sinner and saint. This gospel of inclusinism not only grants acceptance and tolerance towards lifestyles such as homosexuality and idolatry, but it grants them the same honor that is only promised to righteous saints of God that tremble at His Word.

How could such perversion find its way into the sanctum of our Christian identity? It is evident that we have joined ourselves to the practices of the early Romans by changing the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man. Our culture has embraced forbidden practices such as homosexuality and idolatry and therefore the god we serve must embrace them too. We have reduced our perception of God to conform to our lifestyles instead of changing our lifestyles to conform to the image of God.

Contrary to our tolerant cultural religion, God doesn't accept every lifestyle sporting a Christian t-shirt. Our culturally creative minds that have re-created or re-written the role of God have only influenced our perception but have no effect upon reality. The God that stands against wickedness and sinfulness with perfect intolerance has not moved one inch towards tolerance. It is only our perception that has moved; God has not!

My concern is that our hyper-tolerant religious world is being given over to the desires of its own depravity. Paul identified that God gave these men up to uncleanness because their hearts raged with lust. Their hearts were tolerant towards men bound by these vices because of an inordinate kinship with them. Beloved, the offense of sin becomes less offensive towards you while it is still paying you dividends.

This ideology produces a perception of a god that is perfectly tolerant to sin, accepting every man that tromps into the holy of holies, regardless of his lifestyle. Our appetites and desires have created this imaginary god, having been fashioned after our own image - but this is not the God of the Bible. The Apostle warned us by saying: "but we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things."

Oh beloved, we must abandon these shameful, abominable thoughts that diminish our perception of whom our God really is and what our God really demands. Again, our perverted perception of God does not change the reality of who He is. We must conform to His standards; He will not stoop to ours. We must change; He will not. We must pursue His likeness; He will not pursue ours. We must become intolerant to that which He is intolerant towards - loving what He loves and hating what He hates.