I enjoyed the service, and the change was nice even though
it was not the flavour of church I would like on a regular basis. In fact it made me even more grateful for my
community at BSCC.
So why am I telling you this? Well something during the service, if I’m
honest, disturbed me. One of the prayers
that were said went like this:
“…we acknowledge and
bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time most
grievously have committed, by thought, word and deed, against thy Divine
Majesty, provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us…”
When I read this I was pretty shocked. If we have accepted Jesus into our lives and
tasted true salvation by confessing with our mouths and believing in our hearts
(Romans 10) then does God still get angry with us? When we as Christians sin, which we all do (1
John 1:8-9) then does God turn into an angry and aggressive Dad looking to
punish at every slip?!
The Bible is pretty clear: we are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and might (Duet 6:5), but the truth is that we have all love other things more than God. This is what sin is…it is dishonouring God by loving other things over Him and acting on those preferences. That’s why the Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of His glory (Romans 3:23). Sin defames God and He can’t simply sweep it under the carpet and ultimately because He is a just God, our sins need to be dealt with…punished and corrected.
But the love of God offers us a solution in the very person
of Jesus, for He came into this world and took
the punishment that we deserved. When Jesus died on the cross, He absorbed the
wrath of God (Romans 3:25) and He took the punishment that needed to be paid
because of our failings (Galatians 3:13).
So is God angry with us?
If you have accepted Jesus into your life then quite clearly: No. Jesus ABSORDED the wrath of God, He didn’t
just cancel it or divert it (1 John 4:10), He took it.
The fullness of God’s wrath was completely put on Jesus so that you and
I might know His love, compassion and mercy so that we never need to come to
Him fearing punishment or rejection.
So...don't give into the lie that God is angry. As Thomas Paine says 'Belief in an angry God makes a cruel man.'
