The Biggest Lie People Believe About God
Robert G. Ingersoll was a late 19th century American agnostic who lectured about his reservations concerning the existence of God. One night when he was addressing an audience in New York, he detailed his doubts about the existence of hell and future judgment. When he was finished, a teetering drunk in the back of the room loudly announced… “I sure hope you’re right, brother... I’m counting on that!”
The world does not like to think of God in terms of His wrath, anger and judgment, but rather a God who is loving, merciful and accepting no matter what. Man doesn’t want to be judged and punished for sin, so he longs for a God who is tolerant, open-minded and easy going.
The biggest lie people believe about God is that He is only a loving God with no sense of justice.
But, if we think that way, we will fool only ourselves. With that type of fantasy God there would be no laws and no standards that anyone would obey, making for a chaotic and dangerous world. To make any sense at all, a just society must be based upon justice, not lawlessness.
When we hear of a young mother and child killed by a habitual drunk driver, we want justice. We get angry and want the criminal to be caught and punished and for the punishment to be equal to the crime. It’s how “the world” works. It’s human nature to want “justice” in a case like that. We want the perpetrator to get what he deserves.
But what does the word justice mean in God’s kingdom?
In God’s kingdom, justice goes far beyond our human sense of courts and prisons. It means to give everyone his due. God wills nothing that is not just… because being “just” is one of God’s attributes. God can’t be anything but just. It’s who He is. In kingdom terms, justice is a term used for what is “as it should be.”
The book of Romans tells us that all sin is an affront to God and His justice demands a penalty of spiritual death and separation from Him for it. The Bible tells us of this judgment in many places:
2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Matthew 16:27
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
Matthew 25:32
All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
Hebrews 9:27
And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment…
But dear reader here is the good news! God doesn’t want us separated from Him by sin. When we make a decision to repent, put our faith in Jesus and ask God for forgiveness… we are forgiven… and justified. We are justified (declared righteous) at that very moment. Justification does not make us righteous, but rather pronounces us righteous. Our righteousness comes from placing our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice on the cross covers our sins, allowing God to see us as perfect and unblemished.
Justification is God's removing of the guilt and penalty of sin while declaring the sinner righteous through Christ's atoning sacrifice through faith alone, without us having to do anything else! This is God’s free gift of grace to us. But here’s the thing, when that free gift of grace is deliberately rejected, the only alternative is God’s judgment…
-Jim McCraigh
|
|
Posts