James Spurgeon has posted an article (God Desires to Show His Wrath) on a topic that should send every christian to his knees when it is prayerfully considered and understood.
So often we (christians) magnify God in His attributes of love and mercy and in the process give short shrift to His other attributes, holiness, justice, etc. I know I do this. It's easy to ponder our Heavenly Father loving us, pouring blessing upon us, scolding us at times, and of course showing immense patience with our meager plod toward holiness. I believe when we work to balance our understanding of God's entire nature (as best as sinful man is able to balance it), we magnify God in our hearts and better understand the nature of what it is that God has done for us, what He has saved us from.
God is Glorified in His Just Wrath
We all, every one of us, believer and unbeliever, will glorify God, believers by receiving mercy, unbelievers by receiving wrath. I don't want to glorify God as he pours his just wrath out on me. God's just wrath is too terrible to ponder for long. Though we may think upon it and believe we can plumb the depths of the terror of God's holy just wrath poured out on ourselves or another, we deceive ourselves. Our minds are too small, our knowledge of our condition is so warped by sin, that we are blind to a full appreciation of God's holy and just wrath. As awful as we can imagine it to be, it is more terrible still. Likewise we cannot appreciate the fullness of the glory and joy that a christian will be given in eternity. Maybe I'll plumb the "heights" of that topic in another post.
In prayer I often ask that God be glorified in all that I do. When I pray this I mean glorified in the positive sense, that I be a light to the world, showing myself grateful for the salvation given me and in being obedient to the commands of my Lord. But we see in the word of God that He is also glorified in the Wrath poured out on unrepentant sinners.
Lord, keep me on the straight and narrow, that I may glorify Your name in all my deeds. Amen.
3 comments:
The way that God used the plagues to destroy Egypts "gods" reminds me that God is just at glorious in His wrath as He is in His love. Everything He does comes out as good. Well, at least it does to God and His children.
This is totally off topic but I remembered something today about how God had been preparing me to believe in Him back when I worked at Orchards. One day I was bagging groceries and a Woman handed me a small piece of paper that just said "Thank you" on it. I don't know why, but that really got to me. It made my day! I opened it up and it had the gospel in it. One of the cashiers saw it and got all angry at the woman after she left.
There's something I still have trouble with sometimes. Why did I not understand the Gospel at that time? I guess I think of "being saved" as an understanding of the gospel and a prayer. Maybe i'm wrong about that because in Minnesota there was one night when I prayed, the first night I ever prayed, and I don't think I said or was thinking anything about Christ at the time. I was definitly praying to the God of the Bible though so I think I was saved from Hell that night. Sometimes I get confused about it though, because I didn't think or say anything about Christ. I'm probably just worrying about it too much. It's on my mind quite a bit though.
Gage,
The working of God’s drawing someone to Himself is a fascinating subject.
As to your experience, you "heard" the gospel but did not immediately "believe". Something I don't find in scripture (I could certainly have missed it) is the conversion experience like yours and mine, and many we know. That does not mean it is not real, just not represented in scripture. Scripture recounts many of the "quick" conversions. In Acts 13 Paul and Barnabas are speaking to gentiles and when the gentiles hear the word they rejoice and glorify the word of God and those elect among them believe.
And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. (Acts 13:48)
A somewhat different experience is that of Lydia. We read of her conversion in Acts 16.
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. (Acts 16:14)
Here we see a "worshiper of God" who has her heart opened by God to hear what Paul was saying.
These seem like miraculous instantaneous conversions and we wonder sometimes at our own gradual conversions that seemed to accrete over time until they finally reached some critical mass and we find our selves believing but maybe we can't point to a specific moment and say "that's when it happened".
I no longer fret over this because I know who my Lord is, I know the truth. God opened my heart just as He did Lydia's and you know what? That's miraculous! I didn't open my own heart. God takes out the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19). I didn't seek God. God drew me to himself when I was looking the other way (Romans 3:11, John 6:44). I didn't decide to hate my sin. God showed me what sin really was and how it wronged Him, and my new heart of flesh broke and I cried out to God (Acts 2:37).
Was that the miraculous moment? The whole thing is miraculous to me so I don't sweat the "moment"? I think you could point to many who can point to the "moment" in their lives but some of them are deceived, counting on an experience that was false. We can only count on the continuing presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives, transforming us from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18). I see that in you, as I know you see that in yourself. That's what counts. God ordains our experiences and uses them to his glory. Why should we continue to sin after conversion? Some sins may be immediately taken from us and I praise the Lord! Others we struggle with our entire lives and I praise the Lord again because He gives us the strength to endure temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13).
So, God may draw us slowly and he may remove sin slowly but He will be glorified in doing it. Trust in that!
Gage,
you said:
The way that God used the plagues to destroy Egypts "gods" reminds me that God is just at glorious in His wrath as He is in His love. Everything He does comes out as good. Well, at least it does to God and His children.
Didn't you hear? That's the MEAN God of the old testament. We have a new God now that's all love and ever so nice. Nothing to fear.
Or maybe there is (Matthew 10:28).
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