Friday, August 15, 2008

The Kindness and Severity of God

"Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness."(Romans 11:22 ESV)

"Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation." (Exodus 34:6,7 ESV)

I have been thinking a lot about the contrast between "the kindness and severity of God". God is Love and does not willingly (literally: from His heart) "afflict the sons of men" but He is also just and does not let the wicked go free. It is truly only when we can know the fullness of God in all of His character when we can appreciate the fullness of who He is and to really know what His mercy and grace are like. God even desribes this in His declaration of who He is to Moses. Moses asks God for His name earlier in the book and He is told it. When Moses was asking God for His name, he was asking for how he was to distinguish this God from the other "gods" but that wasn't primarily his objective. In Hebrew culture names meant something about the person or their history. Mose was not only asking what do I call You but what are you like? Later on in Exodus Moses pleads with God to show him something more. He knows God's name, but He wants something more. Moses asks to see God but God denies him the request but promises to shield him and let His goodness pass by. As God is passing by He declares more fully who He is. He says:

"Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation." (Exodus 34:6,7 ESV)

This declaration of who God is is very reflective of what we as humans have come to know about God and His nature: God constantly desiring to have a people of His own but is also constantly having to pour down judgement because of disobedience. In the book of Job, Job has a lament where he is talking about how God should rightly bring judgement on people who do evil. He comes to a place in the passage where he has a realization that he is no better or different than anyone else and that he too has no way to stand against a Holy and Just God. No one is any better off than anyone else in that they are free to do what they please to their fellow men. ALL men will have to give an account for what they have done.

Job 31 (NIV)

2For what is man's lot from God above,
his heritage from the Almighty on high?

3 Is it not ruin for the wicked,
disaster for those who do wrong?

4 Does he not see my ways
and count my every step?

5 "If I have walked in falsehood
or my foot has hurried after deceit-

6 let God weigh me in honest scales
and he will know that I am blameless-

7 if my steps have turned from the path,
if my heart has been led by my eyes,
or if my hands have been defiled,

8 then may others eat what I have sown,
and may my crops be uprooted.

9 "If my heart has been enticed by a woman,
or if I have lurked at my neighbor's door,

10 then may my wife grind another man's grain,
and may other men sleep with her.

11 For that would have been shameful,
a sin to be judged.

12 It is a fire that burns to Destruction;
it would have uprooted my harvest.

13 "If I have denied justice to my menservants and maidservants
when they had a grievance against me,

14 what will I do when God confronts me?
What will I answer when called to account?

15 Did not he who made me in the womb make them?
Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?



The Law that God gave to Moses brought condemnation to all men on the earth. God does expect us to act justly but through the Law we will all come up short. Yet even in our shortcomings, the Name of God is still proclaimed: "a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin" (Exodus 34:6,7 ESV).

Listen to what Jeremiah proclaims about God and who He is.

Lamentations 3 (NIV)
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.

20 I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.

21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."

25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;

26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.

27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young.

28 Let him sit alone in silence,
for the LORD has laid it on him.

29 Let him bury his face in the dust—
there may yet be hope.

30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
and let him be filled with disgrace.

31 For men are not cast off
by the Lord forever.

32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.

33 For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to the children of men.



For though the Law, even having a glory of its own, brought condemnation to all men into the world and casted us far away from the Lord, "men are not cast off by the Lord forever" and "though he brings grief, he will show compassion". He has done this is such a marvelous way.

"For the law made nothing perfect, and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath,but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him:
"The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind:
'You are a priest forever.' "
Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant." (Hebrews 7:19-22 NIV)

Only because of Christ can we come boldly and securely forever into the presence of the Father. Not only did Jesus free us from the condemnation of the Law, He also gave us life that has freed us from the power of sin and empowers us to live to Him.

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4 NIV)

Oh how I pray that we may come to know and appreciate the depth of God's love for us in ALL of who He is! Sometimes the best prayers come from God's Word itself and I hope that anyone reading this will consider praying this prayer on a regular basis.

"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 4:13-21 NIV)

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