The Kingdom Perspective

Is God actually angry against those who disobey His law? I am quite aware that such notions of an angry deity do not fit well with our modern understanding of God. Generally speaking, we are content to believe in the existence of a Higher Being (the latest Gallup polls say that well over 90% of Americans do). But we are less apt to conceive of a god who is upset with his creatures, and certainly not one that is intent on judging them.

Allow me to file a brief in the court of public opinion. Is God a God who is angry at His disobedient creatures? The testimony of the Bible says yes. Listen to the prophet Nahum, “A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; the Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, and he reserves wrath for His enemies” (Nahum 1:2). Next witness: The apostle Paul in Romans 1:18, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Finally, the testimony of Jesus Himself: “I have come to cast fire upon the earth and how I wish it was already kindled” (Luke 12:49)!

God, being a good judge, is passionately concerned for justice. Therefore, He is committed to not allowing the guilty to go unpunished. How can we possibly escape His consuming judgment?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; the LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.”

~ Nahum 1: 2-3

Let me ask you a question: Are you somebody special? Do you have value and worth? I ask this because I know that we can have a tendency to struggle with such issues as personal significance. Now, it seems to me that only the Bible has a solid, positive answer to this question. You are made in the very image of God. Genesis 1:27 puts it this way: “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Now you say, “Big deal! What does that mean?” Well, it
means that you are someone special, someone of significance.

But there is more to be said. Your lack of appreciation for this truth reveals another critical truth, namely your lack of appreciation for God. Being human is indeed a good thing. You are the crowning achievement of God’s creation. But this is not the whole picture. The rest of the story is that the entire human race has rebelled against God and is therefore trapped in a state of alienation from Him. In the words of St. Augustine, “Man is a good thing spoiled.” This is why you struggle with understanding your purpose and significance in the world. This is why we struggle to understand and love God.

Now I want to leave you with one question, perhaps the most crucial question of your life: How is it possible to reconnect with God and thereby know our purpose for existence? Do you think that God has provided a way to escape this alienation from Him?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

~ Genesis 1: 26-31

It was the late Francis Schaeffer who correctly assessed the values of our culture when he said that most Americans have two primary values:  Personal peace and affluence. By affluence he meant the love of things; a desire to have all that money can buy. The multi-billion dollar advertising industry is evidence of this underlying American value. Sure, there are some things that money can’t buy, but for everything else there’s MasterCard, and as Americans, we tend to be most impressed by the “everything else.”

But is this really just an American phenomenon? No. For example, Jesus had the same assessment of the religious leaders of His day. Luke 16:14 says that the Pharisees were “lovers of money.”

But here is the point where we all must sit up and take notice. In the very next verse Jesus condemns the Pharisees for their love of money, saying that which “is valued among men is detestable in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). That’s right. There is a difference between what we as fallen creatures value and what God values. The frightening thing is that we will be judged not according to what we value but according to what He values.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.”

~ Revelation 3: 17-19

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Don’t be deceived. Just because God doesn’t judge our sin immediately doesn’t mean that we are off the hook. It doesn’t mean that God has changed His mind about every action being accountable before Him. It doesn’t mean that He has become flippant about the issue of disobedience to His law. Rather, the delay in judgment is evidence of His mercy. Although owing no one a delay in the execution of judgment, this is what God does over and over again.

Unfortunately, as sinners we have a tendency to mistake the slowness of God’s judgment for a belief that God doesn’t really care about what we do. Worse yet, we begin to assume that perhaps God does not think so badly of what we have done. “Perhaps,” we reason, “God is more like us than we originally thought. Psalm 50 warns us of just such false confidence. There God cites a list of infractions against His law and then says: “These things you have done and I kept silence; You thought that I was just like you….”

Really, the point is quite clear. Don’t deceive yourself. Don’t misunderstand the slowness of God’s judgment. Every deed will have its judgment day and unless you find a hiding place in Christ you are exposed to that judgment.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

~Romans 2: 4-5

The game “Hide and Seek” is a favorite among children. One person hides and another seeks to find them. Although there is nothing terribly profound about this game, when placed on a divine-human level, it takes on primal importance.

What is the normal reaction of sinful human beings to the presence of the God? Well, we need only look at the first human beings immediately after their first instance of sin. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve had disobeyed their Creator and immediately they did two things. First, they “sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” They were ashamed of their nakedness. And second, when they heard God looking for them in the garden, they “hid themselves from the presence of God.” When God finally gets them to respond, Adam’s words are telling. He says to God, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid myself.” In this primal game of Hide and Seek, Man is the one hiding and God is the One seeking. Ever since that time this has been the pattern for all our relations with God. In point blank fashion Romans 3:11 tells us that “there is no one who seeks for God.” Without God’s relentless pursuit of us, no one would ever find God because no one is really looking.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.’ And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’”

~ Genesis 3: 8-11

Many a person, when coming face to face with suffering or loss, will look God square in the face (so to speak) and say, “God, what in the world are you doing to me? Don’t I deserve better than this?” I have an appreciation for the “real” nature of this complaint. Having been a recipient my own share of loss and suffering, I know that petty words such as “It will be all right,” seem to comfort for only a little while. In the end, however, only the naked truth will salve the soul and bring healing. From a biblical perspective the truth is quite clear. The original contract between God and mankind was established long ago in the garden of Eden. God promised that “in the day that you eat of the tree you shall surely die.” In other words, one sin equals death, so my sin equals my death. What do I deserve? Instantaneous, complete death. But generally what do I get? Life and a relative level of happiness.

How can that be? If what I deserve is death, why does God continue to sustain my life and abundantly provide for me? There is only one possible answer to that question: Because He is full of mercy. And how long can we expect it to continue? As long as He so desires.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’”

~Genesis 2: 16-17

Modern Christians may think that Zacharias Ursinus was being too harsh when he wrote the answer to question #5 in his classic work, “The Heidelberg Catechism.” He said, “I am prone by nature to hate God and my neighbor.” This is just too negative, isn’t it? Isn’t there some native moral goodness in us even apart from Christ? Well, not from God’s perspective. Listen to God’s description of mankind from Genesis 6:5: “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Wow! Now that’s a strong statement: “…every intent of the thought of [mankind’s] heart was only evil continually.” According to God, mankind had become a sin factory that operated at full capacity twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

But someone may object and say, “Well, this description was prior to the flood that cleansed the earth of wickedness.” True. We find, however, an abbreviated version of this same unfortunate description immediately following the flood. “For the intent of man’s heart is evil” (Genesis 8:21). Mankind is a prisoner of his own wickedness. Who will set him free?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

~ Psalm 14: 2-3

In Romans chapter 8 Paul uses very black and white language to speak of the difference between a believer in Christ and one who is not a believer in Christ. The non-believer is tied to the “flesh.” By flesh, Paul does not mean our physical bodies but that principle of sin that separates us from the life of God. According to Paul, a non-believer’s life is dominated by the flesh, by this principle of sin. They walk according to the flesh and they set their minds on the things of flesh. Their life revolves around this
principle of sin. Indeed, they are “in the flesh” as opposed to “in Christ.”

But the main thing that I want us to notice is the non-believer’s posture toward God Himself. Apart from the miracle of salvation through Christ, is it possible for a person to please God at all? Is there any genuine warmth toward God in the heart of those who are outside of Christ? The Bible could not be clearer. Verse 7: “[T]he mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

No matter how much you flirt with goodness and godliness, it is a hopeless cause apart from Christ. The Bible knows of no real goodness apart from the salvation only Jesus brings.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

~ Ephesians 2: 1-3