DEVOTION//No need to bell the tiger

A Chinese proverb says, "Let the person who tied the bell on the tiger take it off."

It pictures someone creating a dangerous situation (by placing a bell on a tiger). It insists that the one who created that situation is responsible for fixing it (by removing the bell from the tiger).

Perhaps the American equivalent is, "You broke it, you fix it."

Am I glad God does not quote that proverb to me. "Son," he could say to me, "your failure to obey me has created huge problems for you. You've broken your relationship with me. And you have not just belled that tiger once or twice. You keep doing it every day. Now I'm holding you responsible for fixing it. You're going to have to find a way to make up for your sins. Let's see how you do at taking the bell off that tiger."

I am thankful -- eternally thankful -- that it's not on me to fix my relationship with God. I am thankful -- eternally thankful -- that he fixes my relationship with him.

The psalmist was thankful, too. "[The LORD] does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:10-12)

Notice in those verses how God makes himself responsible for un-belling the tigers we played with. His great love motives him to refuse to treat us as we deserve. Even though justice demands that we pay for our iniquities, he, the judge, removes those sins from us, making it as though we never picked up a bell.

He doesn't treat us as we deserve because his Son volunteered to be punished in our place. He doesn’t repay us for our iniquities, because Jesus paid for those sins. That's why the justice our sins demand are farther from us than east is from west. That's why we can find comfort in the fact that God's love for us is beyond measure (love "as high as the heavens are above the earth").

The tiger we belled, Jesus has un-belled. Everything we have broken, Jesus has made as perfect as new.