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So, for the last two weeks, we’ve looked into some of the more prominent characteristics of God’s character – those things which should be fairly obvious to us as we read through scripture. Today, I want to tackle a couple of things that might be… less obvious.
Consider, for example, the many teachings you’ve like heard regarding God’s grace and forgiveness. You have probably heard the following scripture cited in regards to the issue – and rightfully so;
But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9
Did you know that this is actually conditional? The condition is stated, albeit implicitly in the quoted text, but let’s take a moment to look more closely; “if we confess our sins“.
In order to confess our sins, there are a few unspoken prerequisites that have to be satisfied. First, we must believe that God’s word is authoritative – second, we must understand what sin is – third, we have to recognize that we have sinned – and fourth we have to adopt a heart, and posture of repentance.
I want you to think that through for a moment, because what I am saying is that God does not forgive the unrepentant. For many believers, this should be a “duh” moment, but believe it or not, there is a significant population of folks, even among the people of God, who do not understand or realize this… and they really need to.
This is critical because it ties together with the fact that God – our God – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – YeHoVaH – is a God of justice. His grace is sufficient to spare the repentant, but justice will be enacted one way or another. It is as inevitable as is His return. His grace is ever-present and repentance is freely available to anyone at any time – but if we refuse to receive it and act upon it, then we are on our own ~ and that’s not a good place to be.
My point in bringing this up is two-fold; on the one hand, it is incumbent upon us as His followers to understand such things. We are called, after all, to go forth and make disciples of all nations, yet we cannot do this effectively without a firm-grasp and a solid understanding of who it is we’re preaching to begin with… and that leads to the second reason;
God’s justice, and even His wrath are just as much a part of His immutable nature as is His grace and mercy. It may be somewhat uncomfortable, but it’s true – and we see clear evidence of this throughout scripture ~ I mean, He doesn’t change. He loves, He forgives and He IS merciful – and yet, He states clearly that He won’t tolerate wickedness and goes so far as to say that he will not strive with us forever (Psalm 103).
Consider the following passage in which the prophet describes a vision of the Messiah – the one we know to be the Word made Flesh;
Who is this who comes from Edom, dressed in bright red, coming from Bozrah? Who is this one wearing royal attire, who marches confidently because of his great strength?
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“It is I, the one who announces vindication, and who is able to deliver!”
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Why are your clothes red? Why do you look like someone who has stomped on grapes in a vat?
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“I have stomped grapes in the winepress all by myself; no one from the nations joined me.I stomped on them in my anger; I trampled them down in my rage. Their juice splashed on my garments and stained all my clothes.
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For I looked forward to the day of vengeance, and then payback time arrived.
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I looked, but there was no one to help; I was shocked because there was no one offering support.
So my right arm accomplished deliverance; my raging anger drove me on..
I trampled nations in my anger; I made them drunk in my rage; I splashed their blood on the ground.”
Isaiah 63:1 – 6
So much for a “bubble-gum and lollipop Jesus”.
We have to understand that God is a person. He’s not a limited, fallible human-being like ourselves, but He IS a person; capable of the full-range of emotion you and I experience. Who do you think gave us our emotions? That means that He’s every bit as capable of feeling anger and rage as we are… perhaps even moreso.
In His justice, He will rightly respond to these feelings and finally mete out justice for the evils which stirred them up in the first place. The question before us is this – which side of this are we on?
As His followers, we are certainly not appointed to His wrath but I have to wonder, do we really know what upsets or makes Him angry in the first place? There are certainly those who claim to know, but personally, I find that He states very plainly what these things are in His word… mostly in the “front” of the book. I think if we take the time to look and contemplate what He says, we’ll all be made more than a little uncomfortable.
Let us seek to love what He loves, and hate what He hates… and yes, He does hate. He’s stated this plainly.
Until next time,
שלום עליכם – Shalom Aleichem – Peace Be Upon You