“God Is A God Of ….”

“Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.” Ephesians 5:6

Finish the above title with the first thing that comes into your mind. I’m pretty sure I know what your response would be. Am I correct?

The above verse tells us the other ending to the title. It’s another aspect of God that doesn’t get much air time these days. Actually, it hasn’t gotten much air time for a long time in our country. And I think the ramifications of this silence of ours is starting to be glaringly obvious everywhere we look.

We must not, we dare not, minimize the “wrath of God” side of our loving God. There cannot be true love without wrath. To have either one exclusive of the other is a grave imbalance. And both of these aspects must be in complete balance to be fair and equitable. Thankfully, God is perfectly balanced.

Before I continue, let me insert these verses for us to ponder.

“ Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.

2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.

3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?

4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds.” Romans chapter 2

When I got saved in 1973, I had come to the point of accepting, and acknowledging, the reality that I was a horribly guilty sinner. With that base of knowledge, I knew I deserved Hell and therefore accepted the offer of personal salvation in Christ. It was a wonderful day in my life.

A few months after, while on 2nd shift lunch break, I was outside sitting down eating. I was reading Romans chapter two in my pocket New Testament. As soon as I read verse four I realized/understood that it was the goodness of God, during the awakening process of my need for salvation, that ultimately had drawn me to Christ.

I knew what a sinner I was. I knew I deserved the wrath of God. I fully realized at the moment I read verse four that I was delivered from God’s wrath because of my salvation in Christ. Christ took upon Him the wrath I deserved. And because He did I would never have to face a just God and hear Him declare me guilty. Amazing!

In Ephesians, Paul draws our attention to the need to guard ourselves against the wiles of Satan. This is key to grasping Paul’s thought process as he lays out his writings to the Ephesians, and to us.

If you were Satan wanting to take down your opposition and render it ineffective, what kind of wiles/schemes/strategies would you use? What tactics might you employ to throw off, misdirect and weaken your enemy?

Consider this …

If God is primarily a God of love and the “angry God” is relegated to the back of the Book where He belongs … and … if He’s primarily a God of love … then surely, a loving God wouldn’t send anyone to such a horrible place as Hell … would He?

Please don’t tell any of this to Jonathan Edwards. He might feel the need to come back and revise his message that set New England ablaze for God. Instead of titling it “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God” he’d have to change it to:

“Those Less Than Perfect In The Hands Of The All Embracing, All Accepting, All The Time Loving Hands Of A Higher Being —Whomever He Or She Might Be."

I contend that a major tactical point of Satan’s wiles is to get people less focused on anything that would “scare or frighten” them into the hands of a loving God.

John chapter three tells us:

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (Jumping down the passage to)

35 The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.

36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

“Love” and “Wrath.” That’s the true balanced picture of God and His desire for all His creation.

He “loved” us so much that He sent Yeshua to die in our place. He alone took our deserved wrath upon Him and thus saved us from “the wrath of God” and bestowed upon us “everlasting life.”

That’s the truth, the whole truth, the balanced truth that will save …

“Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God”

Bless His Holy Name.