[025] A Message From A Poem - Balance Of God’s Attributes

[025] A MESSAGE FROM A POEM - BALANCE OF GOD’S ATTRIBUTES

One area where it takes deeper study to understand, is the attributes of God. The attributes are what is the completeness in God and they are many. It is what God is. We speak about love and mercy and compassion, but we also have holiness and wrath.

In this poem I attempt to put together some of the attributes we know belong to God. A few people think one should only consider attributes where the metaphor is used - “is” as in “God IS love” but I have taken it is a bit wider.

Some of the great biblical passages include attributes that God has. Here is one – {{Exodus 34:5-7 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, COMPASSIONATE and GRACIOUS, slow to anger, and abounding in LOVINGKINDNESS and TRUTH, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who FORGIVES iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”}} Yes, God is Judge, the Forgiver, the Punisher, and many more.

One thing I tried to make clear is this BALANCE of attributes. For example the soul that sins must die but love and forgiveness balance that. God’s holiness says that the sinner must be expelled from God’s presence but the love of God draws the sinner in. How can love and judgement be reconciled? How can forgiveness and condemnation be brought together?

A lovely set of balances - {{Psalm 85:10-11 “LOVING-KINDNESS AND TRUTH have met together. RIGHTEOUSNESS AND PEACE have kissed each other. Truth springs from the earth and righteousness looks down from heaven.”}}

Look at the following verse and can you see the difficulty? {{Hebrews 2:17 “He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a MERCIFUL and FAITHFUL high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”}}

The difficulty is in being faithful (true to holiness and punishment) and merciful (true to forgiveness and mercy).

Here is an illustration I once heard from an Irishman. “A farmer had two pigs and sent his two sons off to market with a pig each. It was imperative that they did not miss the market as the pigs had to be sold. One son belted the pig along the path to the market and got there in time. He was faithful to his father’s wishes but was not merciful. The other son let the pig dawdle along at its own pace and when he got to the market it had closed. He was merciful but was not faithful to his father’s wishes.”

In the Hebrews passage Jesus as High Priest is both merciful and faithful in perfect harmony. At the cross penalty and love; death and life; judgement and forgiveness were in perfect balance for us sinners. I hope you follow the poem.

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BALANCE OF GOD’S ATTRIBUTES

God’s judgement will not be abated,

Until His holiness is satisfied.

Love to holiness, is related,

But in the Godhead they are unified.

God’s attributes work in harmony,

For the full execution of His will.

There are some who think it’s irony,

That judgement and love together lie still.

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How can a God of love take action

Adversely against His own creation?

How do you reconcile the action

God has to take as needful purgation?

The balance of attributes must flow,

That holiness, judgement and love, accord.

That harmony, God only can know,

For good and evil will have their reward.

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Love demands acceptance of sinners,

But holiness demands full penalty.

Our recompense won’t make men winners,

So how do you solve the difficulty?

Love worked in fullest measure to win,

But holiness too, gained the victory.

Those two attributes balanced man’s sin,

And it was all resolved at Calvary.

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For there at the cross where Jesus died,

On sin, full penalty was metered out.

God’s holiness there, He satisfied;

The stroke of our penalty’s rod, didn’t flout.

At the cross, undergirding that day,

Was love, so expansive and so profound.

He paid ALL our debt and found the way,

To redeem us lost souls who were hellbound.

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16-17 September 2021 R E Ferguson Metre = 9-10 throughout