Living Love

God loves you. That is the theme of so many songs, sermons, and motivational speeches in the modern world that we start to zone it out. We hear John 3:16 so often we almost forget it's meaning. But God does indeed love us. This point is very important for our understanding of God and Who He is.

But sometimes we feel like God has to love us. Or we feel like even though God loves us, He probably dislikes us. But the truth of the matter is that God not only loves you, He likes you. He made you, and He like the things He makes.

That concept of God not just loving us but liking us, is something we tend to forget. We hear so many Judgement and Wrath sermons at times we forget that God is only punishing us to improve us. He only punishes us because He cares what happens to us. (Heb. 12:6) If God didn't care then we would need no correction.

With that in mind, lets take a look at why God's wrath and judgement are also important. Before we get into it too far, let us ask this question: What is God's Wrath and why is it poured out?

God's wrath is mention often in the Bible. In the New Testament we see it in John 3:36, Romans 1:18, 2:5, 3:5; Ephesians 5:6, Colossians 3:6 and other places. We hear about vessels of wrath that are prepared for destruction, (Romans 9:22) the falling of Wrath upon the sons of disobedience, (Eph. 5:6) and the wrath of God remaining on people (John 3:36). What is His wrath turned upon?


Well, some would say His wrath is upon the person who sins and others would say upon the sin itself. Which is right? If we state that God is wrathful against our nature we must say that those who were born and died before they could realize this and repent (children/infants) would be condemned by their own nature. Either that or God makes exceptions for them and ignores their natures. Both are dangerous in their implications. God does not ignore sin at times and not others. To say he does is to defy His very nature.

So is it then that His wrath is only against sin? If this is the case we run into some other interesting situations. If it is only against sin, then Jesus death should have covered all sins, therefore there should be no more wrath of God. But there continues to be wrath, and will be in the future. (Rev. ch. 16 and 19) And also if Jesus death covered all sin and it is only sin that receives God's wrath, then all sin is covered and no one would be punished. But we see that that is also not the case.

So it is not our nature or sin that is the only recipient of God's wrath. What then? Let's think about this one. God punishes not just sin, but the choice to sin. (Joshua 24:15) So what does that mean? Well this means that God can and does forgive a sinner (like you and me) and that His wrath is poured on those who choose not to follow and obey Him (Eph. 5:6). Therefore, we need to realize that God does not pour out His wrath against those who are unaware, but those who are aware, and have made their choice.

Conclusion

So does this mean once we are forgiven we no longer suffer under our previous sinful choices? No, it does not. What we sow we will reap, even if we are forgiven for the act of sowing. Forgiving a man for breaking your arm will not heal the arm itself. A repentant murder's victims do not rise from the dead. This applies also to our spiritual and emotional sides as well. When we are forgiven by God, we will still live with the consequences of sin. Samson repented, yet his sight was not restored. However his strength was. Whats the difference? His strength was a testament of God's glory, and therefore it was useful to glorify God one last time. We need to have faith that God will glorify His name and take care of us even in the hard times we go through because of our sin.