By Dennis Pollock
In this study, I am going to contradict an idea that many Christians have held from their earliest days. The question is this: Does God ever give up on people? If you surveyed professing Christians, I do not doubt many, maybe even a majority would answer, “No, God never gives up on anybody.” But that is not strictly true. In the Psalms we read:
I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. But My people would not heed My voice, And Israel would have none of Me. So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, To walk in their own counsels. (Psalm 81:10-12)
God is essentially saying of His people, Israel: “I wanted to bless them, I wanted to fill their lives with good things, but they would not listen to Me and wanted nothing to do with Me. So, I gave up on them and turned them over to their own stubborn heart, to do the wickedness they were so eager to do.” He does not say that He turned them over to the devil, or that He gave them over to their enemies. He states that He turned them over to their stubborn hearts, the sinful urges that lived on the inside of them.
Some of you may be saying, Okay Dennis, but this is an Old Testament verse. God is different these days and He operates through grace. So, the idea of God giving up on someone is irrelevant in today’s dispensation of grace and forgiveness. But you can find a very similar concept in the New Testament, in the writings of Paul. In Paul’s epistle to the Romans, he writes:
Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man–and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves… (Romans 1:21-24)
Choosing Gods Rather than God
Paul is speaking of a people who refuse to accept the one true God and prefer to make idols according to their lusts as substitute gods. He says that due to this continual preference for idolatry, God gave these people up to uncleanness, which in Biblical terms nearly always has to do with sexual immorality and perversion. Likewise, Paul’s inclusion of the words “to dishonor their bodies among themselves” is undoubtedly a reference to unlawful sexual practices. As with the passage in Psalms, these people are given up, not to Satan, not to physical enemies, but to the lusts, the passions, the unlawful, immoral urges that rage and foment in their hearts. They are given over to themselves.
In the next verses in Romans, Paul continues with this precise theme, saying:
…who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. (Romans 1:25-26).
Here’s What’s Obvious
In these verses, several undeniable insights shout out to us:
First, If God can give up on people, he must have been restraining them before giving up. You cannot cease restraining a person you have not previously restrained. You cannot untie a knot that was not tied. You cannot release a tiger at the zoo if he was not formerly caged. So, in some fashion, God must, under normal circumstances, be restraining human beings from some of their worst and most degrading sins and passions.
Second, there seems to be a point of no return, at which time God determines to cease restraining and then allows people to become far more wicked, immoral, and inflamed with lust than they would otherwise be, had He not previously restrained them. Often, we hear of people committing atrocious acts, after years of living a reasonably quiet, decent, and well-mannered life. When the knowledge of their heinous act becomes known, people say things like, “I never thought he would ever do such a thing,” or, “He sure wasn‘t like that when I knew him.” At some point he or she passed the place of no return, and a silent, invisible, and terrible thing happened: God gave that person over to their wicked urges and passions, and tragedy and misery were the result.
One of the major means by which God restrains people from evil is the conscience. Everybody starts in life with a conscience. Regardless of your religion or whether you have no religion at all, you begin with at least a reasonably functional conscience. But the conscience is never perfect, and it can become so abused and overridden that it barely functions at all. In writing about the ungodly people who will live in the last days, Paul says: “speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron…” (1 Timothy 4:2). Essentially – a dead conscience, which is manifest evidence that God has given up.
A third point that is clear in the Romans verses is that when God does indeed give people over to their stubborn, wicked hearts, sexual immorality is a major result. An abnormal emphasis on sex, perverse and twisted sex, apart from the natural plan demonstrated by the first marriage on earth – such things will always be the result when God gives up on a person, society, or nation. If we ever needed an example of this kind of society, it would be our nation in our day. Practically every TV sitcom and most movies prove this is true – God is giving up on many. And this obsession with and embracing unlawful sex has even seeped into American politics.
Preserving Grace
There is some good news that springs out to us from this principle so plainly revealed in the Scriptures. And that is that the same God who can give up and turn us over to our stubborn hearts does not prefer this and will do the very opposite for those who abide in Jesus Christ. There are numerous verses and Bible promises which indicate that God is the Preserver, the Upholder, and the Keeper of His people. Paul writes:
And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen! (2 Timothy 4:18)
In another place, he says:
… our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful… (1 Corinthians 1:6-9)
Confirmed to the End
Preserved for Christ’s heavenly kingdom, confirmed to the end! What could be better than this? Rather than giving up on us or turning us over to our wicked, stubborn hearts, God, through Jesus Christ, upholds us, confirms us, preserves us, and restrains us from evil – which is the very thing we eagerly desire! We can fail, but we do not have to fail. We can reach the end of our lives, preserved and upheld to the very last day. We don’t have the power to do this ourselves, but we can look to Jesus, trusting Him as our divine Upholder. In his prayer to the Father, just before going to the cross, Jesus prayed: “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition…” (John 17:12). When we put our faith in Jesus and receive the gift of salvation, we are not only given the grace to go to heaven and live forever – we are also given the grace which will keep and preserve us in this life, while we abide in the land of the living. Christ will keep us, and He will do so if we abide in Him. Jude writes:
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen… (Jude v 24-25)
