Saturday, August 11, 2012

JUDGE

When God finished up His work at the very beginning, creating the earth and our first parents, giving us life and breath as a gift, He declared it all good.  There was no sin, there was no suffering, there was no sickness, there was no death.

We rebelled.  We declared war.  We ruined everything.  It's my fault.  It's your fault.  It's our fault.  This is not the world as God made it.  This is the world as we have corrupted it.

'This is not the world as God made it.  This is the world as we have corrupted it.'

If we keep following that line of thinking, it makes perfect sense that a convicted criminal goes to prison.  It makes perfect sense that one disobedient to the laws of God is punished.  And what is astonishing is that God would create us out of nothing in the first place and then watch us reject Him -- and then He would send His only Son to die for us on a cross and buy us back again -- that Jesus would come live in the world we destroyed, that He would endure poverty and humiliation and opposition and betrayal, that God Himself would be arrested and falsely accused and beaten and crucified and yet He would cry out, 'Forgive them!' and die in our place, for our sins, as our substitute.

That is the great exchange and that is the love of God.

Some people like to pit God's attributes against one another, but God holds all His attributes in perfect alignment.  What we like to do is find one particular attribute of God and elevate it above all the others. And when it comes to eternal judgment, some will take love and make it not AN attribute of God, but THE attribute of God.  And the Bible does say God is love, but love is not God.  God is love, and whatever God does is loving.  God is just and whatever God does is just.  God is sovereign and whatever God does is sovereign.  God is also simultaneously a God of holiness and a God of wrath.

God is holy and if we don't repent and ask forgiveness, we place ourselves in the path of His wrath.  Some are ignoring that fact right now.  They're daily presuming on the great grace of God, presuming wrongly that just because they're relatively healthy and wealthy - just because everything is going fine, they're all good.  But they're not.

And as you work thru this, I would just urge you not to judge God.  We have three pound fallen brains.  We have sinful dispositions and sinful inclinations.  We're not all-seeing or all-knowing and for us to sit on our personal thrones asking the Creator of the universe to pass before us so we might render a verdict regarding His holiness and justice and His master plan and what He should or shouldn't do is how all the trouble began in the first place, that satan came to Adam and Eve in the garden asking a few innocent questions about the character of God, inviting them to judge Him.

We're in no position to judge God.  We are to trust Him.

And be blessed.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad I am anonymous, but I am going to say something that so many people out in the world think. I wish God could just change my brain and desires and make me someone else, but I am a sinner. We all are, but I know the things I have done in my life. This is the thing....in the back of my mind, I imagine that I can go along as I will and then at the last minute, before I die, I can ask for forgiveness. Like the thief on the cross next to Jesus. I know in my heart that that is wrong, but I do hold out the hope that God is a loving God. I can assure you, I am not the only one. I am afraid of the God of wrath and it is hard to trust someone I am afraid of. There are many people that imagine that they can be spared the fires of Hell, so I know I am not the only one. I know people like that.

PK's BLOG said...

I guess I would just strongly urge you in the most heartfelt way to re-examine your position. The 'game of life' is hardly a game and I can't think of a worse way to play roulette than this.

I don't know why it gives anyone comfort to know or think that you are not 'the only one' or that so many other people 'out in the world think' it.

To know that you are wrong in your heart and yet presume on the grace of God that at the last moment you'll have an opportunity cannot be the best life you can live. There is so much for you in the Kingdom of God that will not disappoint you and that will trump the life you're living now.

I'll be praying for you, friend Anonymous.

Blessings.

Anonymous said...

I listened to this sermon and I also watched Thief in the Night. I have read all of the Left Behind books, as well. It is frightening. I am seriously going to watch The Passion of the Christ again right now. There are times that I feel compelled to watch it.

I was reminded when the Oak Creek and Aurora shootings happened, that I may never get the chance to ask for forgiveness at all. Life holds no guarantees.

I have always wondered about so many with near-death experiences. Most of them report a white light and a feeling of comfort and peacefulness. There are a few that talk of Hell. I always wondered if this was kind of a message that this is what we could have. To bring hope and beauty to our lives. I've often wondered what those in the church believe about that and what it all means.