farouk
Well-Known Member
@Paul Christensen Divine love is indeed unique: "We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 John 4.19). "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved; ) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2.4-7)It is true that God is totally loving, because He is love itself. Now, in saying that, I am not talking about the type of sentimental lovey dovey approach that is sometimes characteristic of liberals. God hates sin, but loves the sinner. This is according to the Scriptural definition of love - that it desires the absolute best for the universe and everyone in it. Charles Finney wrote an excellent section on The Attributes of Love in his Systematic Theology. The section has come out in a separate book of that title.
God executes His wrath and anger on sin of every type, and often the sinner gets in the way and suffers as a result. Also, He values His Son Jesus Christ to such an extent that He is angry at those who reject Christ. The Scripture says that God is angry at the wicked every day (Psalm 7:11).
But for those who have embraced Christ as their Saviour, God's anger is turned away (Isaiah 12:1).
But God's anger is not the out-of-control rage that a drunken husband arrives home and beats up his wife and children because his supper is not ready. It's not like the road rage we often see on our streets. It is not the kind of anger that seeks revenge.
But God has a set of moral laws, and these involve rewards and penalties, just like our domestic laws. If we abide by the law, we are rewarded with a peaceful life and we are not pulled over by the police, unless it is a routine stop to check for seatbelts, registration, warrants of fitness, or alcohol breath testing. If we break the law, there are penalties which we know all about without me having to mention them here.
A convicted murderer may come up for sentencing, and the judge may love the criminal and personally not want to impose the death penalty. But the judge has to give his judgment according to the law, and in this case, the law requires the death penalty. So the judge has to put aside his loving feelings and sentence the prisoner to death. Judge may hate doing it, but according to law it has to be done. If he didn't, then justice would not be served, especially for the family of the murdered victim. Also, confidence would be lost for the judge if it appeared that because of personal feelings, he was in the habit of allowing convicted murderers get inappropriately light sentences, and such action could bring the judiciary into disrepute.
If a human judge is bound by the law of the land, how much more is our eternal Judge bound by His moral law? He has to act righteously; if not, how would committed believers who had faithfully served Him and made such efforts to live holy and righteous lives feel if they found themselves in heaven next door to Osama Bin Laden who masterminded 9/11 that killed over 3000 innocent people?
The liberals refuse to accept that a loving God would send people to hell, yet they don't seem to object to a judge giving the death sentence to a serial murderer. They imply that if God was a Court judge, a drunk driver who smashed into a car killing a whole family would be given just a small fine because He loved the drunk driver too much to give him a heavier sentence. Of course this is ridiculous, and it is because liberals worship a different god, one of their own imagination, instead of the God of the Bible.
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