The Amazing Love and Justice of God

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. - Romans 5:8–9

This past Sunday I preached on the wrath of God, a topic that generally does not get people out of bed to arrive early to church. And yet, it is a very important topic, a very important reality, one that is so often misunderstood and miscommunicated.  During my sermon I shared the words of another pastor that bothered me, they still do. The pastor told his congregation, “Gods wrath is mentioned more than 600 times in the bible. If you have a bucket of verses that say love, I have a bucket of verses that say wrath, and the wrath one is a bigger bucket, deal with it.” Those words bothered me so much because like so many wrong things that get said about God they are on the unexamined surface true yet at the root of who God is, so devastatingly wrong. 

God does have wrath, many verses make that clear. But God is love. God gets angry, but God is merciful. God is not defined by his wrath, but is defined by (and his wrath is set within the context of) who he is. The Bible tells us that God is:

God. Merciful. Mighty. Great. Holy. True. Righteous. Faithful. An everlasting Rock. King of all the earth. 

For us. Our refuge. Our strength. Our helper. Our salvation. God is light, and God is love. 

The Bible also tells us that God has wrath, that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (Romans 1:18) The wrath of God is real a real thing, that is not a defect in God’s personality, but an outflowing of the perfection of his personality, the outflowing of perfection at the evil that corrupts the world -- the evidences of that corruption so visible around us every day (poverty, war, hatred, divorce, murder, robbery, bitterness, unforgiveness, addiction, the list goes on and on). And so could I, far more than the space allotted. 

If you were not at Creekside on Sunday, listen to the sermon You Will Surely Die (it should be available shortly). Ponder the seemingly antithetical and actually beautiful coexistence of God’s love and wrath. Ponder the wonderful words of Paul, -- God’s active and intentional love and sacrifice saving us from God’s righteous wrath. It is an amazing and complex reality. 

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:8–9)

Peace, hope and love

Doug