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.

He speaks into our hearts

For those who know Jesus, the Bible is often His way of speaking directly to our situation. The Greek term for this is “rhema” (word) rather than “logos” (also word). This is subjective but a very real communication. What God says to us might be out of context from the Scripture passage, yet never outside the character of God.

Nearly twenty years ago, God blessed me with a “rhema” that He reminds me of today. Back then, on this day, my father died. He’d been ill for a couple weeks and the family took turns sitting with him. I was in a nearby hotel for the night and my younger brother was with dad. It was 5:45 in the morning when the call came.

As I drove the short distance to the hospital, I chuckled. Dad had a habit of phoning the rest of the family as soon as he got up. He was a farmer who often rose before the sun. I said, “Dad, you did it again.”

After spending time at the hospital, I drove back to the hotel. My habit for years had been early morning devotions. I was thinking, “It is Christmas Eve. The devotion will be about Christmas. How can God speak to my need this morning?” I was a bit uncertain about my dad’s salvation. When I opened my devotional book, this was a portion of the passage it featured:

“Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, ‘Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation . . . .’” (Luke 2:25–30)

This morning I joyfully sob again at the grace of God. Dad had made a profession of faith in his old age. This biggest change I’d seen in him was the disappearance of his habit of nervously grinding his teeth. I was not certain, even though he told me he prayed, and even though he spoke well of God and did not blaspheme His name. However, Jesus knew that I needed to have my hope for dad affirmed, so He affirmed it — from the Christmas story.

Since then, we have often experienced Christmas without grief or a sense of an empty chair. Dad is with Jesus, and he would not want us to cry and weep, but be joyful at this time of the year. Jesus didn’t want that either.

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Oh, my Lord God, You are a marvel. You can speak right inside my head and my heart, knowing exactly what I need to hear each day, sometimes each hour. I know that what I hear from You must correspond with Your Word and Your character. Otherwise I would be imagining things. Yet You make yourself known in ways that always surprise me, ways that I would not imagine. Today, I anticipated “rhema” again and You speak. What a joy to celebrate Your arrival on earth — coming to seek and save the lost, and living forever to intercede for Your children, speaking also to our need and giving joy to our hearts.

The repeating love of God

Before reading the devotional this morning, I happened to put the words, “Jesus loves me” on my screen saver so I would see it often. I need reminding because Satan’s original lie to Eve suggested that God does not love His people. She fell for it and since then, the devil has been using the same lie to mess up our concept of God and His love. We need to hear the truth as often as possible.

Maybe that is why modern Christian choruses often involve a great deal of repetition, but since I’ve a scattered and easily distracted mind, I’m not always fond of singing them.

Today’s devotional took me to an ancient psalm (song) of Israel that also has repetition. Each line of Psalm 136 ends with, “for His steadfast love endures forever.” I know I need to know this, but twenty-six reminders in a row?

Then I read it twice, and noticed that the words before the repetitions tell readers the reasons and ways that God loves them. I wrote the passage minus the repetition and took another look:

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good . . . Give thanks to the God of gods . . . Give thanks to the Lord of lords . . .  to him who alone does great wonders . . .  to him who by understanding made the heavens . . .  to him who spread out the earth above the waters . . .  to him who made the great lights . . .  the sun to rule over the day . . .  the moon and stars to rule over the night . . .  to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt . . .  and brought Israel out from among them . . .  with a strong hand and an outstretched arm . . . to him who divided the Red Sea in two . . . and made Israel pass through the midst of it . . . but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea . . . to him who led his people through the wilderness . . . to him who struck down great kings . . . and killed mighty kings . . . Sihon, king of the Amorites . . . and Og, king of Bashan . . . and gave their land as a heritage . . . a heritage to Israel his servant . . . It is he who remembered us in our low estate . . . and rescued us from our foes . . . he who gives food to all flesh . . . Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:1–26)

God’s love for the original readers of this psalm was expressed in the wonders that He did in creation, in delivering them from bondage, in overcoming their enemies, in giving them a home, in remembering their weakness, and in providing what they needed to live. It is a simple list and a good one. It reminds me of all that God has done for me too.

Creation is filled with awesome wonder. How does it show God’s love? He gave me eyes to see it in living color, and a heart to be amazed by it. When I see the stars, a sunset, a leafy tree, flowers, horses and giraffes, water spilling over rocks, birds in flight, mountains and snow, all of it is saying that God loves me!

God also delivered me from bondage — to sin. While I sometimes feel as if I’m still wandering around in the wilderness, I too have the hope of a promised land. As I travel, the Lord goes before me to expose and defeat my enemies and carry me through all threats and trials. This is because He loves me.

He takes care of my daily needs too. We thank Him before we dive into the abundance of food, realizing that daily bread represents all provisions and our abundant life, another expression of His steadfast love.

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All this can be summed up in one word: Jesus. You delivered me and continue to deliver me from sin, from my past life and in my current spiritual battles to overcome the world, my flesh, and the powers of darkness. You hold my hand on my journey to the promised land, sustaining me and keeping me safe. You are the same yesterday, today, and the perfect expression of the steadfast love of God that endures forever.