I recently wrote a blog about the sermon "Sinner's in the Hands of an Angry God" and spoke of how it burned an imprint in my mind of a God who is angry with sin and how it made me feel, and think, about God. I think a lot of people misinterpreted what I was trying to say.
I do believe that God is angry sometimes, but I don't know how to explain it other than it's not the way we associate anger with performance. He's never disappointed in us, because we have Christ's righteousness to stand for our performance. How can He become disappointed at perfection? Jesus says, "Be Holy...unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees." Perhaps what He's getting at in these places is our need for a new covenant with Him, and through Him to be one with Him and the Father. We are now found in Christ (see Rom. 6 and Col. 3), in a way that we cannot be separated from Him.
God is love, and His Kingdom is built upon that one thing, not that Jesus died to simply allow us the freedom to be righteous and to stop sinning, but that He died so that we can enter into the same relationship with Abba that Jesus Himself had, as a righteous son, and not as a sinful servant.
We often confuse freedom from sin to mean that we have the freedom to control and manage our sin and to get ourselves into a nice and neat little package to make ourselves more attractive to God. (so that we can get more of Him, and then perform better, get closer so that we can perform even better...) Sin, in it's essence separates us from God. To be free from sin is to be free from being separated from God and His love, and to be able to begin experiencing Him now and forever.
How is it that we often act, feel, and believe that we must get closer to God, though, in fact, we aren't separated from Him and His love at all? How is it that when we sin we feel distant from God, when we're no farther away than we were before? We are infinitely close to a loving Papa. That is the truth...however it is not necessarily, our direct experience because our emotions, religiosity, fear-based nature, and performance mindsets ingrained from childhood tell us otherwise.
I read one guy respond to a similar blog by saying that God is not "love, love, love" but that He is "Holy, Holy, Holy." God is Holy, but Holiness and righteousness, I believe, are two different things. We associate holiness with righteousness because of "holiness doctrine" and expressions such as "holier than thou" and so on. I think holiness really means one who is "altogether different." It is something that we have absolutely no reference for here on earth, which is God's agape love. Fear is the operating system that we have used, our Matrix, if you will, since the fall. Now the Kingdom, which is "altogether different" is made of love and has no fear in it at all, and the only reference that we have for it is God Himself, who has poured His love into our hearts.
I shut down intuitively to manipulation of any kind. But someone who is interested in my heart, desires, vision, wants, fears, scars, and most of all is attracted to me for who I am, rather than what I'm not, I will run to Him at all times. God is not a manipulator looking for righteous performers, He's a lover looking for lovers. He's a heart man at His very core, and He's the coolest guy I've ever met.
Comments (7)
agreed, that God guy is a pretty cool kat ;)
this is a wonderful post!!!! why is that so many of operate under this mistaken impression that we can do right, act right, etc in order to please God? Jesus has already taken care of that.... in and of ourselves, there is NOTHING we can do to please God enough.... but only through what Jesus has already accomplished.....
: )
interesting take in saying that you "met" God. I don't quite understand the righteousness versus holiness versus love thing. Personally I don't think God is capable of anger. How could anything that we puny mortals do be large enough to enter as a more than a blip on God's radar. It is very hubristic to think that we could offend an entity so great with our little day-to-day actions on our little planet in the corner of our modestly sized galaxy.
@HeavyThinker - Interesting how much the religious culture that I've been raised and experienced in has affected me as opposed to your background, thoughts, and experiences, although, you quite right that it is hubristic. (that's a good word)
Not that I'm saying that my culture and background are the sole foundations of my faith, but with certain things, I agree that I've absolutely been affected, often in negative ways, by those same things which were meant to help.
I really enjoyed your entry and you are correct about many things. Thank you for sharing it and making it thought provoking.
It depends on how one views our relationship with God in many ways. In other words, there is a tremendous amount of focus on the subjective when that is only one aspect (and the lessor ) aspect.
Our relationship is covenantal, as our salvation is basically objective via forensic justification. Whether we think God is capable of a emotion is irrelevant if the Bible has ascribed an emotion to Him and the fact that we are made in His image.
If God can not look upon sin and created hell for the non-repentant and satan and his minions, while an incomplete descriptive, anger is more than fair to use as a descriptive in our limited vocabulary. One only need crack the old testament to see the God is full of passion. A dispassionate placid God is not the one of the Bible.
Two book sets I would suggest; the existence and attributes of God by Charnock and Ursinus Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism.