Sometimes as Christians, we can have a very lop-sided view of God, for we equate His mercy and compassion with His love, and pretty much cast out His holiness and wrath as something that no longer applies. This is completely in error, for our God is love, and is just and perfect in all His ways, which includes His righteousness, holiness and wrath. The God we serve and worship today as New Testament believers, is exactly the same God who made Himself manifest to the Old Testament believers too!
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Revelation 1:8
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
James 1:17
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Hebrews 13:8
As mentioned previously, everyone who comes to salvation in Christ comes in the same likeness, and that is as a guilty sinner condemned to the wrath of God against sin. This is not the opinion of any man, but of God, for He gave His Law that everyone should stand guilty before Him, leading all who believe to the saving grace of Christ crucified (Rom 3:19 , Gal 3:24).
What is more, as guilty sinners before a Holy, Righteous and Unchanging God, we must be totally aware of His attitude towards man in His fallen, wicked and unrepentantly sinful state.
God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day.
Psalms 7:11
For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You. The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
Psalms 5:4-6
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
These references to Scripture are not intended to beat up sinners with, nor is the descriptive list in the verse above an exhaustive one, intended to point self righteous fingers at some particular sin or another. Rather these passages have been included to show that, regardless of how righteous we may be in our own eyes, we are sinners before God, and have no right to enter His presence and Kingdom whatsoever. If we are to do so at all, it is solely by His hand, by His choice, and by His provision. For He is a Just and Righteous Judge who cannot overlook our sinfulness, for to do so would be to deny the very Justice He promises.
He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.
Deuteronomy 32:4
From this place of accepting the true character of God Almighty revealed through His Word, and understanding that He is not the One who is ever going to change, the whole Gospel message begins to make sense. For it is only when we begin to understand these things, that we can begin to see the reason God had to do something to save us, rather than just change His mind towards us, which in itself would mean that He is no longer unchanging, which in turn would bring His Eternal Perfection into question.
The amazing thing about the Gospel is that through Jesus Christ the Messiah, we have revealed to us Almighty God who so loved those He has created, He sent His own Son directly into creation to bridge the gap between the perfection of God and sinful man. By His own will, and through His own blood, Jesus Christ paid the price acceptable by God, that would clear the penalty of sin for all who would choose to accept this sacrifice, and put their trust in Him.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:16-18
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Romans 3:23-26
Therefore through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the Cross, a divinely planned exchange takes place, wherby the penalty for sin that is rightfully ours is placed upon the shoulders of Christ instead, and the Righteousness of Christ is imparted to us as if it were our own. This is the miracle of the Gospel message, and is found absolutely nowhere else!
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21
To even begin to understand our salvation in Christ then, we must come to terms with the true nature and character of the Unchanging One we dare to call Father. For we cannot truly claim to come into an intimate and personal relationship with God the Father without recognising Who He actually is. Nor can we claim to stand in His presence without acknowledging the enormous price that was paid upon the Cross by His own Son, in order to cleanse us from our sin and declare us to be justified before God in the first place.
Sourced from: HeartCry!
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