Blame rejects the idea that God has a hand in ALL things that pertain to you. It also exempts you from the personal examination and cleansing from impure motives. Both are necessary to conforming to Christ. If we don’t accept all things as permitted by God and do not allow the Holy Spirit to guide us through personal examination and touch us when in pain, then we cannot conform God. The will of God is that we conform to His image. Also, that we be sanctified (cleansed). Romans 8:29 and Hebrews 2:11 make this clear.

“For those whom He foreknew [of whom He was aware and loved beforehand], He also destined from the beginning [foreordaining them] to be molded into the image of His Son [and share inwardly His likeness], that He might become the firstborn among many brethren.” (Amplified Version)

“For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,…”

The reason we were spared the penalty of sin is so that we would have the freedom to participate with God. We do this by obeying God’s Will and His Word. When we obey, we conform to Christ. Freedom is a given. Obedience is a choice. The Bible teaches that suffering is one of the ways God used to teach Jesus obedience. Blame postpones obedience. Its underbelly oozes with the pus of self-protection. Continual disobedience develops rebellion. Rebellion towards God compromises our ability to engage in healthy relationships. I John 1:7 suggests,

“But if we [really] are living and walking in the Light, as He [Himself] is in the Light, we have [true, unbroken] fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses (removes) us from all sin and guilt [keeps us cleansed from sin in all its forms and manifestations].” (Amplified Version)

Blame Prevents Healing

But another thing that makes blame impractical for the Christian bent on conforming to Christ is that it prevents healing. When we get hurt and suffer injury we need to be healed. This is as true spiritually, mentally and emotionally, as it is physically. Suffering is recognition that a rupture has taken place between something that was intact and whole. We feel this rupture as a wound. The Hebrew word for wound means, “to split”, or divide into two distinct parts. It implies that something that was once intact is divided. Anything divided cannot sustain weight. Jesus declared this in Matthew 12:25.

“… Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.”

Successful repair requires that the two broken pieces be held together long enough for new cells and tissues to fuse and once again become whole. Jesus’ intercession accomplished this very thing. The cross bound and fused us together so that a new life could form. In II Corinthians 5:17, Paul supports this.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Physically, consider a cut that requires stitches. There was one piece of flesh that is split into two parts. We know because it bleeds. As life is leaves us, we feel pain. We arrive to the hospital. The doctor acknowledges you, examines the wound, cleans the wound and then stitches the two pieces of flesh together. The surgical thread offers the binding necessary to enable new cells to fuse together forming one new piece of flesh. While we may sustain a scar, the flesh is again intact! Healing has taken place. We know because although we retain the memory of life having escaped us, the pain is gone!

The same thing is true for emotional injuries. They bleed too! When we lose someone we love, a significant relationship ends, something desirable taken from us, or something undesirable added to us without our permission life is taken from us. We need closure and healing. We can feign closure, but healing not so much. Out of the abundance of our heart do we speak and behave. Unhealed emotions are more or less obvious-nonetheless obvious! We may hide our pain from others and even ourselves. But we cannot hide from God, or the discerning. Blame leaves us in horrible condition. Isaiah 1:6 reads,

“From the sole of the foot even to the head, There is no soundness in it, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; They have not been closed or bound up, Or soothed with ointment.”

Blame is a sure sign that we have not yet been healed. Routinely reminding a spouse or others about what they have done to you is one way we blame and avoid healing. Repeating what happened to us over and over again is another indication we have not presented ourselves to God for healing. Generally distrusting all that remotely share characteristics of the one that hurt you is still another way we refuse healing.

Regardless of the form it takes, blame prevents us from being healed. It stops God from addressing your pain. Unless the doctor addresses physical wound directly, it cannot be healed. In the same way, unless we allow God to address our hurt directly, we cannot be healed. Incidentally, only you and the doctor (and perhaps a nurse) are in the actual treatment room. Unless impaled, the culprit is usually outside! And even then the doctor will remove the implement and address the wound with you alone.

At some point, the suffering Christian that is determined to know God and conform to Christ must get in the prayer room with God (and perhaps one of His attendants). In this room, the Christian must be willing to ask, answer and allow God to answer some very difficult questions pertaining to our pain. It can be intense. It may be accompanied with tears and strong crying. But in the end, we are healed! The memory we will have, the pain we will not! Let this be our song,

“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” (I Corinthians 15:55)