Original Entry Date: July 10, 2007
5 I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in anger and fury and great wrath. Jeremiah 21:3-7
I believe that the modern day evangelical church has a misconception about God.
Especially in the church growth movement, we have transformed God into this gentle giant, jolly old man or some God who is desperate for love. Sometimes it seems that we view God more like Santa Claus and less like the Sovereign King. It appears to me that we have thrown out the warrior God of the Old Testament and replaced Him with the New Testament God who is much softer, gentler, and nicer. What we have failed to realize; however, is that the God of the Old Testament is also the God of the New Testament. Nothing has changed about God unlike what we seem to tech in our churches.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
The God of War is still the God of love. The God of grace is still the God of wrath. And the God of judgment is still the God of mercy.
The dilemma comes in trying to create a balance between the two.
An over-emphasis on the Old Testament view of God as an angry God of wrath leads to neo-fundamentalism, hatred, and legalism. This view creates a man who believes he is justified in his prejudices, hating others who do choose his lifestyle and judging more than loving.
Similarly, a lopsided focus of the God of grace in the New Testament manifests itself through wimpy spirituality, emasculated manhood, a Jell-O Jesus, and some les-than-true-watered-down savior who we shape into our mold.
The Bible says that before Christ we were “enemies of God” and “objects of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). Jeremiah 21:5 tells us that when a man rebels against God, God will declare “war against you (NASB)” pouring out his “anger and wrath and great indignation.”
Does that sound like a Jell-O Jesus, gentle giant or Santa Claus to you?
Heck no!
God is always good (Mark 10:28) but He is not always safe. In fact some of the most unsafe places in the world are the same places that God seems to work in the most radical ways. Sometimes the most dangerous places in our lives are the same places where we experience God like no other moments in life. God does not stand there like the prodigal Father crying, waiting and longing for you (Luke 15). Yes, he is there and yes, He is waiting but when a man consciously turns from God, the horrible and frightening love of God declares war against the sin that a man pursues. God doesn’t wait around crying over the non believer. He did that on the cross (1Peter 3:18).
Instead He declares war upon his sin.
The war over a man’s sin was won at the cross, but the battle over individual souls and the sins of those who walk in disobedience rages on with God on the front lines.
Trust me when I say that you do not want to turn your back on THIS God. Instead, listen to the words of Paul when he admonished believers to, “work at your salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).”
