In honest reflection, my view of God leans towards a more loving God. My imagination allows me to extend what I understand and have experienced in human love to partially understand what holy love must look like in God. When I consider God being wrathful, this is more difficult. To overlay the examples of human wrath onto a sinless God does not match up. Holy wrath is a stretch for my imagination. However, my understanding of God's holy wrath is expanded when considering it through the lens of God who loves fiercely and detests harm coming to his children. I do not fully understand the holy wrath of God, but I understand that God’s inability to entertain sin is what led to my rescue from the curse of sin in Jesus' sacrifice. Gratitude abounds.
Loving God. Because He saved a wretch like me. When I think about the second question regarding sin weight and relational tension, I drift toward wanting justice and building resentment. When I’m wronged I want to witness the consequence purchased by the wrong doer. This doesn’t always happen. Sometimes there isn’t a consequence or maybe not one that I see. And that can germinate and grow into resentment. This leads right into question 3 where I’d say I feel gratitude when reading Stott’s quote. My desire for judgement is my claiming of prerogative that belongs to God alone. His judgment is wholly perfect and mine obviously is not so there is gratitude that He is in control. The gratitude is compounded exponentially as I think about God accepting the penalties that I have purchased through my sin.
I’m grateful for the earthly father I had. Imperfect as he was, he loved me, yet I had a healthy fear of disregarding his instructions. His anger was against anything he saw as a danger to me, even if it my own willfulness. Indifference is surely the opposite of love.
Kate - the beauty of what you’re grateful for is that his wrath was not spared but was on full display…on the cross.
We should fear God (there is a healthy, awe-inspiring sort of fear the Bible refers to). And part of the reason is that we see how powerful he is - even to overcome the darkest sin and death itself.
Regarding substitutionary atonement, I'm reminded of the Muslim man who complained that Christians practice cheap grace, that we do not appreciate the importance of submitting to God, that our devotion is too small to obtain God's approval. But we value grace much higher and know that it is far beyond our ability to earn but was bought with the blood of Jesus.
I think I have always differentiated in my mind between the God of wrath in the Old Testament and Jesus, the epitome of love in the New Testament. Honestly, this has made it difficult for me to connect to the Old Testament. I love how Keller described that the wrath and love are counterparts to one another, and co-exist with one another. Understanding the that wrath exists because his love exists and that he willingly chose to bear his own wrath as a replacement for us is powerful.
Also, Stott's quote was enlightening.... to think of sin as not just disobedience, but as substituting myself for God..... Wow. I mean I can lie to myself and justify disobedience in 1000 ways, but there is nothing that I can tell myself to justify putting myself in the position of the Creator of the Universe.
Carissa, I had similar thoughts when reading Stott's quote. I had never thought about sin in such a way - inserting myself where only God belongs... - enlightening for sure.
Definitely a loving God-however, I’ve always had a difficult time relating to God as a “Father”, as my human Father passed away when I was quite young. My memories of my human Father, while mostly lovingly towards me due to my age, I do recall him as being “wrathful” towards my siblings as they were much older than me, and he was also quite ill.
My father’s wrath towards my siblings left such a negative impression on me for most of my life.
It wasn’t until really this past year, that I have finally been able to pray to our Heavenly Father, and that has been a huge blessing. Most of my life I have prayed to Jesus or Our Lord.
I do recall listening to one of Tim Keller’s sermons and he stated that how a person relates to their human parent, especially their Father, can have an impact on how they relate to their Heavenly Father.
How I related to God the Father and as a loving or wrathful Father was a direct result of the relationship I had with my own father, short as was, here on earth. But, my relationship with Jesus, dying on the cross for my sins, was never in question. Always-in awe. Always-grateful. And, why me? Why was I of this kind of love? I am not deserving. But Christ’s blood made me so.
Susan - praise God that you see Him as the heavenly Father He is. We all have our earthly baggage don't we? Our son and the sin of our fathers, on display for all to see.
In honest reflection, my view of God leans towards a more loving God. My imagination allows me to extend what I understand and have experienced in human love to partially understand what holy love must look like in God. When I consider God being wrathful, this is more difficult. To overlay the examples of human wrath onto a sinless God does not match up. Holy wrath is a stretch for my imagination. However, my understanding of God's holy wrath is expanded when considering it through the lens of God who loves fiercely and detests harm coming to his children. I do not fully understand the holy wrath of God, but I understand that God’s inability to entertain sin is what led to my rescue from the curse of sin in Jesus' sacrifice. Gratitude abounds.
Loving God. Because He saved a wretch like me. When I think about the second question regarding sin weight and relational tension, I drift toward wanting justice and building resentment. When I’m wronged I want to witness the consequence purchased by the wrong doer. This doesn’t always happen. Sometimes there isn’t a consequence or maybe not one that I see. And that can germinate and grow into resentment. This leads right into question 3 where I’d say I feel gratitude when reading Stott’s quote. My desire for judgement is my claiming of prerogative that belongs to God alone. His judgment is wholly perfect and mine obviously is not so there is gratitude that He is in control. The gratitude is compounded exponentially as I think about God accepting the penalties that I have purchased through my sin.
My thoughts exactly.
I’m grateful for the earthly father I had. Imperfect as he was, he loved me, yet I had a healthy fear of disregarding his instructions. His anger was against anything he saw as a danger to me, even if it my own willfulness. Indifference is surely the opposite of love.
Healthy fear - great illustration!
Isn't a wrathful God one we should fear?
Personally I look at God as a loving God. Who will also take charge in ones life when sin needs to be paid for.
Thankful that God is a loving God and takes our pain from us when we've struggled in the past, today and in the future.
It's something I've prayed about for a long time and thank God for His forgiveness and ability to move on and 'forget'
Kate - the beauty of what you’re grateful for is that his wrath was not spared but was on full display…on the cross.
We should fear God (there is a healthy, awe-inspiring sort of fear the Bible refers to). And part of the reason is that we see how powerful he is - even to overcome the darkest sin and death itself.
Regarding substitutionary atonement, I'm reminded of the Muslim man who complained that Christians practice cheap grace, that we do not appreciate the importance of submitting to God, that our devotion is too small to obtain God's approval. But we value grace much higher and know that it is far beyond our ability to earn but was bought with the blood of Jesus.
That’s an insight. Lord, let it be both: may your grace be sufficient and our obedience be a worshipful response. 🙏
Amen!
I think I have always differentiated in my mind between the God of wrath in the Old Testament and Jesus, the epitome of love in the New Testament. Honestly, this has made it difficult for me to connect to the Old Testament. I love how Keller described that the wrath and love are counterparts to one another, and co-exist with one another. Understanding the that wrath exists because his love exists and that he willingly chose to bear his own wrath as a replacement for us is powerful.
Also, Stott's quote was enlightening.... to think of sin as not just disobedience, but as substituting myself for God..... Wow. I mean I can lie to myself and justify disobedience in 1000 ways, but there is nothing that I can tell myself to justify putting myself in the position of the Creator of the Universe.
Carissa, I had similar thoughts when reading Stott's quote. I had never thought about sin in such a way - inserting myself where only God belongs... - enlightening for sure.
Definitely a loving God-however, I’ve always had a difficult time relating to God as a “Father”, as my human Father passed away when I was quite young. My memories of my human Father, while mostly lovingly towards me due to my age, I do recall him as being “wrathful” towards my siblings as they were much older than me, and he was also quite ill.
My father’s wrath towards my siblings left such a negative impression on me for most of my life.
It wasn’t until really this past year, that I have finally been able to pray to our Heavenly Father, and that has been a huge blessing. Most of my life I have prayed to Jesus or Our Lord.
I do recall listening to one of Tim Keller’s sermons and he stated that how a person relates to their human parent, especially their Father, can have an impact on how they relate to their Heavenly Father.
How I related to God the Father and as a loving or wrathful Father was a direct result of the relationship I had with my own father, short as was, here on earth. But, my relationship with Jesus, dying on the cross for my sins, was never in question. Always-in awe. Always-grateful. And, why me? Why was I of this kind of love? I am not deserving. But Christ’s blood made me so.
Susan - praise God that you see Him as the heavenly Father He is. We all have our earthly baggage don't we? Our son and the sin of our fathers, on display for all to see.