What is God really like?

But you who forsake the Lord, who forget my holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny, I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter, because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes and chose what I did not delight in.” Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame; behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart and shall wail for breaking of spirit. You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord God will put you to death, but his servants he will call by another name, so that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my eyes. “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. (Isaiah 65:11–17)

Hell and judgment are not popular topics. But what would I think of a God who claims to be holy yet puts up with persistent sin? Could I worship a God who mercifully offers forgiveness and freedom from sin and then looks the other way when sinners prefer their choices over such grace? Does not God have the right to withhold blessing or eternal life from the people who defy Him or just ignore Him?

We get upset with the police who ignore crime or even speedsters who break the law plainly written on road signs. We get upset with doctors who ignore symptoms and tell sick people to take two aspirins and go home. It bothers many to see children abandoned by their parents or teachers who ignore their class. Yet God is criticized for letting the consequences of sin take down those who will not listen to Him and insist on sin?

It should break my heart to see the rich abuse the poor, and political leaders use their power for personal gain. I should also be glad to hear the prophets make declarations such as these:

“Therefore I still contend with you, declares the Lord, and with your children’s children I will contend. For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:9–13)

How sad to see the ‘wealthy and wise’ of this world value their gods that cannot see or talk and will not last, nor go to the grave with them, and to watch them live as if they are gods themselves, ruining lives until they themselves also become terminal.

And yet the love of God remains. No one is beyond repentance and redemption. How different He is from the gods of this world who entrap and bind people in sin and selfishness that ruins their destiny and harms so many along the way.

Jesus, no wonder You tell us to pray for those leaders. Not for our comfort but for their souls and for us to be at peace even if they keep on resisting You. Grant me the patience that trusts You with those who say no. You might lead them to repentance, but like the prophets say, You may also leave them to eternal punishment. 

Love your enemies?

And the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and said, “I came to Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night. And the leaders of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house against me by night. They meant to kill me, and they violated my concubine, and she is dead. So I took hold of my concubine and cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel, for they have committed abomination and outrage in Israel. Behold, you people of Israel, all of you, give your advice and counsel here.” 
And all the people arose as one man, saying, “None of us will go to his tent, and none of us will return to his house. But now this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot. . . .  (and) repay Gibeah of Benjamin for all the outrage that they have committed in Israel.” 
So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one man. And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What evil is this that has taken place among you? Now therefore give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge evil from Israel.” 
But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel. Then the people of Benjamin came together out of the cities to Gibeah to go out to battle against the people of Israel. And the people of Benjamin mustered out of their cities on that day 26,000 men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who mustered 700 chosen men. . . .  all these were men of war. The people of Israel arose and went up to Bethel and inquired of God, “Who shall go up first for us to fight against the people of Benjamin?” 
And the Lord said, “Judah shall go up first.” . . . . 
(Judges 20:1–28)

The people of Benjamin came out of Gibeah and destroyed on that day 22,000 men of the Israelites. This happened again, but the third time, after prayer and fasting, and offerings to the Lord, they asked again and the Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.” 

Last night our home group were asked what quality of God we would emphasize: His kindness or His sternness? Most said His kindness as shown in Jesus Christ rather than His sternness as seen in this narrative in Judges. However, I thought of Jesus overthrowing the money-changers tables in the NT and the several times His anger was expressed. God is both gracious showing mercy, yet holy and displaying His outrage at sin. 

Romans 11 tells how He uses even the sin of the Jews to show mercy to the Gentiles, and the faith of the Gentiles to reach the Jews. Then Paul declares, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”

It seems contrary to God's love and mercy to pit one tribe of His people against another, yet His attitude toward sin shows up in Judges, just as it shows up in the NT at the cross where His outrage against sin combined with mercy for sinners tell me that God is both. We would not realize His kindness if we didn’t know His outrage.

Jesus, You hate sin so much and love sinners so much that the only thing to do was take our sin upon Yourself and die for it so that we could escape its grasp. Your mercy is meaningless without realizing how badly we need it.

 

Goodness in, garbage out . . .

When I clean my house, I put out the dirt; when I organize files, I get rid of the disarray. Good in, bad out. This simple principle is true for creative people. A famous sculpture was asked how he was able to carve such magnificent horses from marble. He said that he simply cut away everything that didn’t look like a horse.

This principle is also true for Christians. In living for Christ, I’m to get rid of everything that is not like Him.

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. (Colossians 3:8–10)

A few weeks ago, someone told me that no one has the right to tell others what is right or wrong. I was so surprised that I couldn’t think of much to say, but later shook my head thinking no one has the right to tell another it is wrong to beat their children? Or rob a bank? Really?!

This person’s focus was on a narrow category that does not hold up to biblical standards. Perhaps she was really saying that God didn’t have any right to tell people what to do. She also was thinking of rules, but had no idea that a list of rules is not the measure for what is good or evil. Instead, Christ is the measure.

That said, no one can carve their life in His image without knowing what He looks like. A false notion of Christ will not do. Neither will a false notion of what does not look like Jesus. Those who focus only on the meek, mild, loving Savior forget or ignore that He also turned over the tables of the money-changers in the temple. Those who focus only on that demonstration of wrath against sin forget that He took the hand of a woman caught in adultery and said, “Has no one condemned you . . . Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

Why did the Son of God behave in such seemingly opposite ways? The psalmist was referring to Jesus when he wrote:

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; (Psalm 45:6–7)

Jesus loves what is good and abhors what is sinful. Some say He loves the sinner, but hates our sin. How then can a person be like Jesus without the same attitude of loving righteousness and hating evil? Not only that, good or evil cannot stand by itself. One is known because the other is known.

I know God loves me with an everlasting love. I also know that He hates sin and wickedness. His goal for me is that I am transformed into the likeness of His Son Jesus. He made humans in His image, and for that reason, He chips and carves away all that is contrary.

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. (Proverbs 8:13)

Tozer says that to be filled with the Holy Spirit, I must be emptied of everything contrary to Him. If I want to accept the goodness of God, there are some things I must reject. In order to say YES I have to be able to say NO. He compares this to breathing in and breathing out. Anther metaphor that illustrates this truth is that any pond or lake that has water flowing in must have an outlet; otherwise it becomes like the dead sea, poisonous and good for nothing.

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Jesus, thank You for giving this to me during this time of life when I’m so conscious of breathing in and out. You keep drawing my thoughts to various songs that speak of You being the breath that I take, of You being as vital to me as the air that I breath. But I cannot hold my breath. What You put in needs to flow out, but so also does my sin, the junk that You didn’t intend to be there.

God’s love — God’s wrath

There is a kind of Bible teaching and preaching that offends people. Most of us do not want to hear it or go to a church that includes it. It is when the speakers focus on God’s warnings and wrath, the stuff that some jokingly call “turn or burn” preaching, the prophetic kind that jars and points to God’s holiness and hatred of sin. This reaction needs some thoughtful consideration. It might be what this verse is talking about . . .

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:3–4)

The average person in the pew or on the street wants to hear only about the love of God. Most Christians also want to be reminded that God loves them, no matter what. Yet does God’s holiness negate His wrath? Does His wrath negate His love?

After some thought, it seems to me that the wrath of God makes His love even more amazing. How can a God who is holy and hates sin love me — a sinful, sin-enjoying rebel? Yet His love is not the ‘look the other way’ kind that cares nothing about my sin and would make me a spoiled brat. He is not indulgent. Instead, He cares about what I do with my life. That other kind of ‘love’ would not be worth having.

Solid and thorough Bible teaching and preaching will offend at times. Otherwise, we sinners are likely to start thinking that God isn’t interested in our holiness and that His love does not include a desire for what is best for us.

Paul wrote most of the New Testament and certainly emphasized the love of God, but he included warnings and most definitely included the holiness of God. He knew that anything less would not be worthy of his worship, but the Bible is so clear that God cares about people. When people wanted a god that was not like God, Paul took that very seriously. He didn’t want anyone to be deceived.

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. (2 Corinthians 11:3–4)

Itching ears is evidence of deception. People who attend church and hear a message that offends them because it includes God’s hatred of sin have been deceived. Those whose focus is totally on the love of God are far too easily able to sin and say, ‘God loves me anyway’ using this to excuse their disobedience. Preachers who declared the love of God without talking about His holiness are catering to those ears who itch rather that preaching the whole gospel.

Tozer says, “For any man to presume to represent the Son of God … without the anointing of the Holy Spirit, is the most daring presumption.” It is also a dangerous presumption. I will not lose my salvation by ignoring the will of God and saying, “God loves me no matter what” but I will lose my usefulness to Him and the rewards I could have for being more faithful to His Word. The Bible describes it this way:

Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:12–15)

All this said, the first and greatest lie of Satan is that God does not love me. Like any little child, I tend to think that if God hates sin and I commit a sin, He must hate me too. But that is not true. Satan is my enemy, but so is sin. Without the grace of God, sin would send me to eternal punishment. I need to know the horror of sin!

For that reason, God is showing me that His wrath against sin is an expression of His love. Like a parent who corrects an erring child because of love, God’s hatred of sin says that He wants His very best for me, and His very best means that I stop sinning. Sin will ruin my life, even slay me. The truth is that Satan wants me to think that I can sin no matter what — but if I do that, then he has me in his deceptive trap.

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Jesus, to trust You means to believe whatever You say, even if my sin nature wants to resist You and do its own thing, and even if whatever You say goes against my false ideas of what love means. When You rebuke me, may I see that as an expression of Your love. When I hear a message of ‘turn or burn’ may I see that as Your desire for my holiness, not for my destruction. May I always remember that although You love me just as I am, You also love me too much to leave me that way.

Jesus died for all

By now, anyone who reads Fortner’s devotionals along with my devotional posts will know that I cannot accept some of what he says. I agree that salvation is by grace through faith and that everyone who believes is drawn to that faith by God. I believe we cannot save ourselves because we will not. Sin ruined our ability to say yes to Him and that is why He must save us.

I agree also that God is sovereign, and in sovereignty gave the first people the ability to choose. They did not yield to what He said, bringing sin into the world and with it, the loss of choice. All humanity is born sinful (resisting God) and without the ability to save ourselves or even call out to Him for mercy. Sin keeps us from God, so God reaches out to us. However, He will not force salvation on anyone who says no to His existence, or refuses to acknowledge their sinfulness.

I also believe that when God reveals truth to us, we must respond. He reveals that He exists. Saying yes brings more revelation from Him, gradually leading people to the Cross and to faith in Christ. I also believe that no one can take any step toward God without God’s grace enabling them. Without Him, people cannot save themselves. The good news from the Bible is that Jesus died for the sins of the world, and whosoever will may come to Him.

However, Fortner says Jesus died only for those who believe. He uses many verses to verify this, yet omits those verses that do not. This seems like attempts to align opposing ideas (God’s sovereignty vs. the will of man) by picking sides. We have no ability to save ourselves, but Fortner also says if Jesus died for all, then all would be saved and since that does not happen, then Jesus did not die for all, but only those who believe.

Today’s devotional adds another thought that surprises me. I’ve never heard this before . . . 

“If Christ died only for a specific people, how can I know that he bore my sin and died for me? I know that Christ died for sinners and I know that I am a sinner. I know that he died for every sinner who believes on him and that all who believe on him will be saved, because God said so. Now as a guilty sinner I do with all my heart trust the Lord Jesus Christ as my only and all-sufficient Savior. Since I trust him, I know that he died for me. Will you trust him too? If you can, then he died for you.”

Is this reasoning backwards? ‘Since I trust him, I know that he died for me . . . . If I can trust Him, then He died for me.’ Isn’t it biblical to say that “Since He died for me, therefore I trust Him”?

Faith is not about itself, but its object. It is about trusting Jesus; who He is and what He has done. He died for my sin — my ability to believe it does not make it true for me and not for others. This illogical reasoning puts salvation in my court. It says that whether or not Jesus died for me a matter of my choice. But I don’t make Him Lord by my faith; He IS Lord, whether I believe it or not!

King David expresses well what God does — and how he and others respond to Him.

I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie! You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me! For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me! Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life; let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt! Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, “Aha, Aha!” But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!” As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God! (Psalm 40:1–17)

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Jesus, You are my Lord and Savior who delivers me from sin. I know this is true, not because my faith makes it true, but because Your death on the Cross for the sin of the world is a fact. Your grace and mercy are available to me and to everyone. Our response is vital, yet without Your unconditional love there would be no revelation of Your grace, no great mercy made available, and nothing to respond to.