11 Oct It is What It Is (Discovering the true character of God…because He is not a car-wrecking, cancer causing Creator, but a loving, life giving Lord!) part 11
Over the last few weeks we began to discuss “11 Charactersistic Concerning the Character of God”:
1. You can’t create God in your own image (Rom. 1:25).
2. Heaven Yes…Hell no!
From there we gave you “3 Hell Happenings”:
- Hell was not originally created for man (Matt. 25:41).
- God will respect your will all the way to Hell (Matt. 25:34,41).
- It’s not sins that send one to Hell, it is a sin that sends one to hell (John 16:7-9).
3. Sin ruins the view.
This week we continue our series with…
4. Will the real God please stand up? (John 10:10)
If we can put aside our Sunday school and church answers for just a moment and answer honestly…if you look back at the Old Testament, God looks a little cranky! He dealt with mankind in what appears to be a pretty harsh fashion. I’ve had a number of people come to me over this issue in confusion. “Pastor, which is it…the tough God of the Old Covenant or the tender God of the New?” Please allow me to explain:
6 Nice Nature Necessities:
- In the Old Covenant, sin had not yet been dealt with.
God could not gently deal with mankind from the inside out like He can do with His children in the New Covenant. Now we can be led by the Spirit (see Romans 8:17). In the Old Covenant, mankind still had the nature of the devil (see John 8:44) and therefore harsh outward discipline was necessary. If you are a parent you can understand.
When your child is young you discipline (not punish, discipline is for children, punishment is for criminals) through spanking with instruments (see Proverbs 29:15). You, as a parent, provide outward controls with the goal of when your child is older and out of your direct oversight, that child follows the inward controls that have been instilled in him or her (see Prov. 22:6, 6:22)! That should help us see the Biblical difference. God never changed, however the nature of man did.
Once again in the Old Covenant, God’s people were not born again and shared the nature of the devil. Sin had not yet been dealt with. In the New Covenant, even when God’s sacrifice for sin had just entered the earth, the Bible tells us, “Peace on earth, good will toward men” (see Luke 2:14). The Greek word translated “good will” is the word “eunoia” which is a Greek compound word “eu” meaning “good, well or prosperous” and “noia” which means “mind or thinking.”
In other words, simply with the entrance of Jesus, God’s future lamb was slain for our sins (see Rev. 13:8). God’s way of thinking began to change about us. God is love (see I John 4:8) but He is also holy, righteous and just. In the Old Covenant God deeply loved His children, but had to deal with them harshly at times because He is just and sin had not yet been dealt with. However in the New Covenant, God poured out all of His wrath and anger upon Jesus as He bore our sins (see I Peter 2:24). His holy demands for justice were satisfied as Jesus bore our sins and all of its foul offspring…sickness, pain, fear, worry, poverty, etc. on the cross (see Isaiah 53, Gal. 3:13-14)!
God poured out all of His wrath on the sinless Jesus Christ and His anger and justice was satisfied (see Isaiah 53:11). God is no longer mad at mankind (see II Cor. 5:17-21)! God is no longer mad at me! God is no longer mad at you! God is madly in love with you!
Will the real God please stand up?! He did…in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ as He stood on the cross as our substitute!
Your God is not a car-wrecking, cancer-causing Creator…but a loving, life-giving Lord!
Join us next week as we continue our series…