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Dear brothers and sisters, we are never alone.
We can be far, hostile; we can even say we are ‘without God.’ But Jesus
Christ’s Gospel reveals to us that God cannot be without us: He will never be a
God ‘without man’; it is He who cannot be without us, and this is a great
mystery! God cannot be God without man: this is a great mystery!
Instead, this is a great heresy. God was certainly God
before He created the world along with man, and from all indications, He was
not languishing without us.
Is this unbiblical proclamation significant? Will it affect
our relationship with God? Certainly! For one thing, God requires that we
worship Him in “spirit and in truth” (John 4:22-24). When we worship Him with
the belief that we have satisfied God’s need to be God, we are failing to
worship and relate to Him as He wants us to do.
For another thing, that idea that “God needs us” can lead to
boasting and arrogance – the very thing that God had purposely eliminated through
His grace to the undeserving (Ephesians 2:8-9; 1 Corinthians 1:26-29).
Admittedly, the Pope’s claim is very humanly appealing and self-exalting. Therefore,
many cults make use of it and preach that “God also depends on us.”
To guard against such hubris, Scripture instructs us that we
are unable to give God something that He requires to make Himself complete:
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Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and
knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his
ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might
be repaid?” (Romans 11:33-35)
If we have given God the gift of completeness, He owes us.
Instead, He wants us to understand that grace and salvation are perfectly free
gifts. Jesus didn’t die for us because He owed us but because He loved us.
When we believe this way, God will humble us. Jesus
explained:
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…For everyone who exalts himself will be
humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14)
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