HoHum:
What is our picture of God? What images come to our minds when I say God?
A God who always says “No” or “Do Not”
A tyrant requiring perfection.
An old fashioned guy
An impersonal executive
A lot of people perceive God like one person said: God is a lot like our preacher. I don’t see him through the week and I don’t understand him on Sunday.
WBTU:
One would think that after a section like Romans 1:16-17, that Paul would continue to talk about the greatness of the gospel. However, what are such positive notes in vs. 16-17 goes immediately to negative ones in vs. 18 and following. Why the change?
Must know the bad before we can be thankful for the good.
Before we can go on, we must discuss the two sides of God’s moral nature. Within God, as far as it concerns us, there are two natures that are in opposition to each other. Paul begins to discuss one of those sides in vs. 18- the wrath of God.
Both sides are talked about in Romans 11:22: Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. More precisely these two sides are His holiness (sternness) and His love (kindness).
Thesis: To understand grace, we must understand these two attributes and how they are related to one another.
For instances:
The Holiness of God
In Scripture God is addressed as “Holy, Holy, Holy”- Isaiah 6:3, Revelation 4:8. We never read of God being addressed as “Love, Love, Love.” Holiness must be an important attribute of God.
For this discussion, when we say that God is holy we mean that he is separate from sin and from sinners. His essence is pure moral goodness and is the very opposite of sin.
The holiness of God has both positive and negative aspects.
1. The positive aspect includes what God is for, or stands for. God demands and delights in these things in His creatures with the zeal of a cheerleader or sports fan.
The negative aspect of God’s holiness includes what God is not- what God is against or what He opposes. God is against these things in His creatures.
What God stands for and what God is against are found in His Word, the Bible. The commandments of the law are God’s own holy character and will verbalized. God’s law is more than commandments, however. It also includes penalties, especially the penalty of eternal death in the lake of fire. These penalties also reflect God’s holiness, His negative side in particular. Because God is holy and hates sin, He not only forbids it in the law’s commandments but also shows how much He hates it in the law’s penalties.
An old religious comic strip called “Pontius Puddle” once depicted two men (I will call them Joe and Moe) discussing the Judgment Day. Joe said, “Certain things about judgment day really scare me.” Moe replied, “Relax. We have God’s assurance that His judgment will be fair- impartial- just!” “Yeah,” said Joe, “those are some of the things that frighten me!”
The Love of God
1 John 4:8: God is love. This is so different from non-biblical concepts of God.
In its most general sense God’s love is His benevolence, kindness, and good will toward His creatures. God is not mean, cruel, uncaring, or indifferent toward us; He is good to us. He is kindhearted, friendly, and generous. He desires every good thing for us.
God’s love is experienced especially through His constant giving of gifts and blessings to His human creatures. None of these gifts are deserved.
We can sum up the difference between God’s love and God’s holiness this way: Holiness demands, love gives. God’s holiness demands obedience from His creatures, and it demands punishment for those who disobey.
God’s love, on the other hand, is a fountain of blessings upon these same creatures, whether they deserve it or not and often even though they deserve the opposite.
God’s Holiness Vs. God’s Love
Even though God’s holiness and God’s love are different from one another, they exist within God’s nature in harmony under most circumstances. They both existed in harmony at the beginning of our creation as described in Genesis 1 and 2. God’s holiness and God’s love were both experienced by Adam and Even without any conflict.
However, when the Fall came in Genesis 3, something happened within God’s nature. The presence of sin within God’s human creatures resulted in a tension between the two sides of God’s nature, His holiness and His love. When sin came into the picture, God’s nature began to be pulled in two opposite directions, just as a rubber band may be pulled strongly in two directions at the same time. In both cases the result is a terrible tension. A rubber band may be stretched so tight that it may break; but this could never happen to God. When this tension occurs within God, He must find a way to resolve it.
This tension causes His holiness and His love to undergo transformations. This does not mean that God’s nature changes. What changes is the way God’s holiness and God’s love express themselves in reaction to sin.
Holiness becomes wrath
Wrath is always a part of God’s nature, but in the absence of sin there is no occasion for wrath to be expressed. The “consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29) of His wrath is always there, below the surface, as in a dormant volcano. But when sin enters the picture, the volcano erupts; and holiness expresses itself in the form of wrath. God’s holy nature requires that wrath be applied, and He must be true to His nature. God’s justice requires it, and sinners deserve it.
Wrath as an aspect of God’s holy nature is taught many times in the Bible. We see it in Romans 1:18. Many like to quote 1 John 4:8, “God is love,” but they leave out the many passages that talk about wrath. We cannot forget Hebrews 12:29- Our God is a consuming fire
Love becomes grace
If God is holy, and if holiness must express itself as wrath toward sin, then what hope do sinners have? Our hope lies in what is happening to the other side of God’s nature. In the presence of sin, God’s love undergoes a similar transformation: His love becomes grace. When sin enters the picture, a geyser of grace pours forth from God’s loving nature.
He is the God of all grace- 1 Peter 5:10. The essence of grace is to give and the gift of all gifts is forgiveness of sins. Because he is gracious, God is “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance- 2 Peter 3:9.
The God of grace earnestly desires to forgive all sinners.
The tension between wrath and grace
When sin enters, He wants to exercise both natures in wrath and grace. God’s nature, like a rubber band, is being pulled in opposite directions. Kind of like when child wanders away; want to hug him when he is found and then want to kill him as well.
How can God deal with this tension? Just turn off one side of His nature. Maybe God could flip a switch and turn off His wrath toward sinners and take everyone to heaven! But wait- wrath is also God’s very nature. He cannot stop being who He is; His wrath cannot simply be turned off as we might turn off a burner on a gas stove.
How does God resolve this tension? Moved by his love toward sinners, God Himself became incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth for the purpose of becoming an object of His own wrath deserved by sinners, in the place of sinners, so that He could save sinners and still be true to His nature. The tension in God’s nature is resolved through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Conclusion and Invitation:
God cannot choose. The good thing for us is that we get to choose which side of God’s nature will determine our eternal destiny. We can choose either to be objects of God’s wrath for eternity, or to enjoy the blessings of His grace for eternity.
We have no choice about whether we will relate to God. We have to relate to Him in some way. We are part of God’s universe, living under His rules, subject to His judgment about our final destiny. We are going to relate to Him. But God has given us this wonderful blessing: as sinners we can choose which way we will relate to Him. Law or Grace.
Picture God looking out from heaven upon mankind. He looks at us through two windows that are opposite each other. One is the window of His holiness. These are under His wrath and stand to receive the wages of eternal death in hell.
The other is the window of His love. Those whom He sees through this window are the sinners who have made the decision to accept God’s free offer of grace and forgiveness, and who live in assurance of receiving the gift of eternal life on Judgment Day.
Revelation 22:17: The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
