NO CONTRADICTIONS IN GOD

There are some who are confused when they are presented with the character of God as He has revealed it in Holy Scripture. I must remind myself and anyone reading this that as a finite being, trying to examine the Infinite, Eternal, Triune God is WAY above my “pay-grade.” But what I do know and understand thus far in my earthly pilgrimage has been revealed by God. My limited understanding takes nothing away from the perfections of Who He is, has been, and ever will be.

The truth is, human beings have been ruined by sin by trying to put ourselves in the place of God and our moral compass is so completely devastated that only God’s grace can mend us and reorient us to what being fully human is. We struggle with what our confusion has defined as seemingly contradictory aspects of God’s character revealed on the pages of the Bible; things like mercy and wrath, grace and justice, kindness and judgement, righteousness and peace, forgiveness and condemnation, jealousy and love. Some people see these character traits as contradictory. What we need is a revelation from God about Himself. And He has provided that in His Word.

Sin has torqued our capacity to think clearly and sin is not something we can rid ourselves of. We are ceaselessly self-centered, prideful, and arrogant of our assumptions, making idols of our emotions and opinions and violent toward anyone or anything that might intimate that there is anything remotely wrong with us and how we view life. The One who created us fully knows us as we have never known ourselves. God knows what will make for human flourishing, for wholeness of life and knows that we can never get there on our own, ever.

You see. What is broken cannot fix itself. One is essentially dead when they are spiritually dead, separated from Life Himself. A dead thing is incapable of changing its condition. I am paraphrasing C. S. Lewis, “Our help must come from outside ourselves or we have no hope of recovery.”

Back to what seems to many as the conundrums. We only know each of God characteristics because He has revealed them to us. Each and every one of them is perfect, good, absolute and eternal. God does not change.

His love for humanity is a jealous love, but not flowing from envy or the lack of anything. God is jealous for us to become all He knows we can be when His life is being lived in us. God’s wrath does not flow from wounded pride or vindictiveness.

God’s wrath is perfect and laser-focused on anything that separates us from Him, for He knows, even if we don’t, that apart from Him we will never be fully human. His wrath falls on people because they not only cling to things that are not God, but encourage spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical chaos in others. The wrath of God will fall on sin and those who nurture, nurse, embrace and hold fast to what will never make for life, will never heal, will never restore the human soul. But they don’t have to be recipients of Divine wrath.

God’s justice is perfect, and injustice of every kind will be fully and ultimately addressed when time comes to an end and God’s good judgement is exercised for all humanity stands before Him. Sin bears a cost. The wage it pays to the human soul is death, separation from God and all goodness. However, grace is not justice’s opposite for God has no contradictions in Himself.

God understand that human beings cannot restore themselves to wholeness. Only God can deal with sin in all its sinfulness. You see, grace is unmerited favor, unearned and unearnable favor. So, God has done for humanity what humanity could never do. In John’s Gospel, he speaks of Jesus Christ being full of grace and truth.

Jesus Words and deeds exposed the truth of the leprous work of sin in the human heart. There is no hope for mankind if left to itself. Jesus minced no words in exposing sin, arrogance, infidelity, impurity, selfishness, self-indulgence, self-pity, hatred, prejudice and the like. He also fully demonstrated the grace of God, the love of God as He healed the sick, forgave sin, cleansed lepers, cast out demons and even raised the dead.

It is written, “Salvation is of the Lord.” It is not the fruit of human effort. Jesus Christ, Who was without sin, willingly took the sin of the whole human race upon Himself when He was crucified. He paid the full price that justice and righteous demanded of humanity. As God Incarnate, He was the man worth and infinite number of human beings. The Creator is worth more than an infinite number of His creations. He bore the full and just wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race…all of it.

The Apostle John writes in 1 John 4:10, “This is real love - not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” In Psalm 85:10 we read, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” It was on the cross that in Jesus Christ we see the reality of truth and mercy, righteousness and peace united showing God’s character, His holiness, His justice, His judgement, His mercy, and forgiveness. There is and never have been any contradictions in God. If you want to “see” what God is like, look at Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the eye-witness Gospel accounts of His life, death and resurrection. Read the Book of Acts to see new life being lived out. Read the letters of the Apostles to see deeply into the character of God.

I thank God for His wrath against anything that would separate me from the fullness of life He has created me to know. I praise Him for His discipline when I begin to veer off the path. I thank Him for His justice so that I never have to resort to revenge when I am wronged, because He will settle all accounts one day. I can even pray for my enemies because it was while I was still a rebellious enemy of God that Jesus Christ did for me what I could never do. His kindness is relentless and is committed to me becoming my very best self by the power of His life working in me. I am only at peace because the wholeness of life defined by His righteousness has made its permanent home in me. Do I fully understand God? No. But what He has revealed to me has delivered me from sin, death, hell and the grave and caused me to become a new creation with the Holy Spirit living out in me and through me the Life of Jesus.