If we
just loved people more, maybe more people would be saved.
If we
just weren’t so offensive and hypocritical, maybe more people would be saved.
If we
just defended Christianity better, maybe more people would be saved.
If we
would just avoid social issues maybe more people would be saved.
I
think a lot of Christians tend to assume that if we could just do more of the
above, people would respond positively and love God. I don't think that's
true!
I
think most people, including many “cultural Christians,” have drunk so deeply
from the wells of our culture that if they were truthful with themselves, they
would have to admit that they really don’t much like the God of the Bible at
all.
They
want God to be an all loving, all tolerant, all accepting God of compassion.
They want a God who will accept them just as they are and leave them that way.
They don't like the idea of a God of wrath who calls people to repentance. But
both the idea of God's love and God's wrath are found in the Bible.
According to the story-line of the Bible, Adam
and Eve rebelled against the command of God and they were expelled from the
Garden of Eden.
When
every thought and intent of the people in Noah's day was wicked, God destroyed
them all.
Because
of the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah God destroyed those two cities as well.
God
had been patient with the evil and wickedness of the cities of Canaan for 400
years, but when his patience finally ran out, he sent Joshua to destroy them.
The
repeated theme in the Book of Judges is that when the people of Israel rebelled
against God, He would allow their foreign neighbors to conquer and oppress them
until they repented.
God was
patient with the northern kings of Israel for 200 years before finally allowing
the Assyrian government to conquer and deport them.
A
little over one hundred years later God sent the Babylonian government to
conquer the southern Kingdom of Judah.
When
people rejected Jesus, he predicted that Jerusalem would be surrounded by
armies and destroyed. That actually came to pass in AD 70.
And
most people are familiar with the catastrophic destructions described as the judgment
of God in the Book of Revelation.
But
this is a God we don't want to think about. This is a God that many Christians
are embarrassed by. This is a holy, righteous God whose patience and
long-suffering can run out –
And when
his wrath finally falls it can be truly catastrophic.
So
where is the love of God in all of this? God's love or grace was seen in that
he did not destroy Adam and Eve but provided for them.
He
saved the family of Noah from the flood.
He
saved the family of lot from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
He
rescued the children of Israel from Egypt and gave Israel the Promised Land.
Despite
the repeated rebellion of the children of Israel during the time of the judges,
God rescued them when they repented.
Despite
the hundreds of years of rebellion by all the Kings of Israel and many of the
kings of Judah, God did not ultimately destroy the nation, but preserved them
in exile and eventually brought them back to their homeland.
But
God's ultimate expression of love was, in the words of Paul, when “God
commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for
us.”
Or as
the Gospel of John says, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.”
In
other words, God’s love is demonstrated in the fact that even though the entire
human race metaphorically spit in his face and gave him the finger, he did not
crush us like bugs but “became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” He
willingly subjected himself to die an agonizing, torturous death to save us
from the penalty of our own rebellion.
In the
Chronicles of Narnia CS Lewis portrayed God as the lion Aslan. Aslan was a
loving and compassionate lion, but he was not a tame lion. You didn't pull his
whiskers or yank on his tail. He was not to be mocked. He was powerful and
could be dangerous. I think this is an apt expression of God's character.
The
God portrayed in the Bible is a kind, loving, compassionate and patient God—A
God who is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to
repentance (2 Peter 3:9). But he is not a God to be messed with. As Paul
wrote, “Be not deceived. God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7).
He is
a holy and righteous God who hates rebellion and wickedness. The same chapter
in the Gospel of John that says, “For God so loved the world that he gave
his only son” (John 3:16), also says, “whoever rejects the Son will not
see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36).
According
to Romans 1 the wrath of God has been poured out on this world precisely
in the fact that he has allowed people to go their own way and reap the terrible
consequences of their own sinfully rebellious behavior. The result has been
man's terrible inhumanity to man.
I
would suggest that most people hate the God of the Bible with a passion. They
either deny that such a God exists at all, or they cherry pick the Bible to
create a god in their own image— An all-loving, all-tolerant, all-accepting God
of compassion who either approves of their sinful behavior, or at least accepts
them as they are and approvingly leaves them that way.
Such
a God is a figment of people's imagination, no less an idol than those made of
gold, silver, wood, or stone.
There
is no amount of sugar-coating or spin-doctoring that will make the biblical
view of God palatable to modern culture. Our job is not to convince people to
be saved as if we could change people’s hearts if we just tried harder. Only
the work of the Holy Spirit will change someone’s heart. Our job is simply to
present the Gospel. If people reject that, it doesn’t necessarily mean you
failed or “didn’t do it right.”
