God is...

Just a week or so ago, I was having a conversation with one of my best friends. The subject of God and punishment came up, and we talked of how to reconcile a loving, compassionate God with one that sent people to Hell. Is God really a God that punishes? That is not an uncommon question. Believers and nonbelievers alike struggle with wrapping their minds around the vastness of God's character. Some people do not acknowledge that God can indeed hate and does justly punish. Written below is an excerpt from an emailed response I sent her in regards to the nature of God and what Scripture says about his ability to love and hate. I think this explanation is very important in order to fully understand God's character, not just as a merciful, loving, compassionate and sovereign God, but also as One that is offended by our sinful, fallen state.

It is extremely common among many evangelicals and also nominal Christians to be rather choosy in the god they choose to love and serve. I frequently encounter men and women who prefer "God is good, He is loving, His mercy endures forever" as opposed to "God burned with anger toward his people". There is nothing unnatural about not wanting to experience God as angry or wrathful--it is difficult to wrap our minds or our conscience around because in our heart of hearts we all know we have sinned against a Holy God and that we deserve divine punishment. The fact of the matter is, is that God is indeed both loving and wrathful. He is not one or the other. His love is expressed in his hatred of sin and his desire to punish and eradicate it. Certainly God is able to express his love in any way he sees fit, but punishment of sin is a characteristic of his holiness and an expression of his love from Genesis to Revelation. I heard a theologian say once "God cannot love unless he hates"--meaning he cannot love what is good and holy and not hate sin and evil--it would be contradictory to his character.

Anyone who is struggling with the thought of God punishing sinful people (and by sinful people I mean anyone who has ever broken even one part of God's Law--which is everyone who has ever lived), they should consider the numerous (I believe over 600) references to God's anger/wrath/punishment/hatred mentioned throughout scripture. And, while you could start in Genesis and see how God begins to deal with sin, I would suggest you begin and end with the cross. Before one makes a conclusion of God's character not being judgmental or wrathful, they should examine the cross and just what Jesus' death meant. If you believe in the cross and its purpose then you must believe that God punishes sin. Jesus came into the world during a time when death by crucifixion was common. Crucifixion throughout history has been ranked among the most horrific, gruesome, humiliating means of punishment. God sent his Son to earth to die during a time when he knew Jesus would receive the full punishment for what we all deserved. Nothing less than what Jesus endured on the cross is what we deserved. I love the word "propitiation". It means "satisfied" or "appeased". Romans 3:25, Hebrews 2:17, 1 John 2:2 and 1 John 4:2 all speak of Jesus' death being the satisfaction of God toward the sin of mankind. God's wrath toward his people was eternally satisfied on the cross. God had to punish sin--he did this through Jesus Christ.

Our minds are influenced by who post-modernists say God is. Most say he is only loving, never wrathful or that a loving God could not be wrathful. I would say that they do not love the God of the Bible and they have trusted the wrong Jesus for their salvation. Some other things to keep in mind about God is that his anger is not like our anger. His anger is holy and right, and our human mind cannot comprehend it. Also, God is not an angry father sitting on his throne waiting for us to mess up so he can punish us. Scripture is clear that he is "slow to anger, abounding in love"..."patient with us"...."he remembers that we are dust". Certainly, God could bring things into our lives that are means of godly discipline to correct us--"God disciplines the one he loves" Hebrews 12:6, but God generally just allows natural consequences of our sin to occur. Many "bad" things that happen to us are usually just a result of our sin. And though God will allow those consequences to occur, He is always faithful to use them for His eternal glory. Lastly, it is "the kindness of God" that leads us to repentance. True repentance and belief comes from the kind and loving conviction that God places on one's heart and mind that they have indeed sinned against a Holy God and the only way that He will be satisfied with their sinful state is for them to put their trust in Jesus' death and resurrection and then to accept that they are no longer spiritually dead, but alive in Christ and they now take on the righteousness of Christ. Jesus died in our place. I read recently in a book by Jerry Bridges called: TRANSFORMING GRACE, that not only did God pay our sin debt on the cross but he also purchased every means of common grace we experience on this earth. All of the blessings that we take for granted were purchased by Christ.

In the end, God is both loving and wrathful. His love is expressed in many, many ways. Just as I discipline my own children out of love--God does the same. He gives us grace for everything. I yell at my kids..there's grace. I over-eat..there's grace. I have bitterness toward my husband..there's grace. I do not say there's grace so that "grace can abound all the more" (see Romans 6:1-2) but to boast in what the cross and God's punishment there does for us.

I feel, more than ever, that it is critical that professing Christians have a true and biblical understanding of who God is and what his character is like. It is imperative that we study who He is--if we don't we may just find out we've been worshiping and serving a different god--not the God of the Bible.