A question to think about.........
In Exodus 34:6-7 it reads The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty go unpunished..........
God, who FORGIVES wickedness, rebellion and sin.....yet promises that the guilty will not go unpunished.
So the question is, How are those apparent contradictory statements resolved?
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Since we are given the freedom to choose and are not puppets. God allows us to make mistakes and feel the consequences...thus the guilty doe not go unpunished. As for forgiveness, if you recognize Jesus as our Savior and ask for forgiveness from sin, then He shows us His grace. That's how I see it anyway. Nice question :)
ReplyDeleteThe guilty- us sinners- have been punished, but the punishment was carried out on our Savior, Jesus Christ. The debt has been paid, we are free from eternal damnation. We have been forgiven through the blood of Jesus- the only perfect sacrifice. The key is though, you have to accept him as your Lord and Savior and live the life of a believer, in order to have the grace and mercy of forgiveness. But if I think about God sending his only Son to die for me, and Jesus giving up his life for me, then how can I repay that? Even living every day for His glory barely comes close.
ReplyDeleteCarin, good point. We do have "free will". Meaning that God does not desire a bunch of robots to love Him. God desires that we freely choose to love Him. Your observation about how we need to ask for forgiveness when we sin is right on the mark, as 1 John 1:8-9 states "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
ReplyDeleteKathy- Your comment hits the bullseye. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, the guilt of all who would ever repent and put their trust in Him was punished. Jesus received that punishment that we deserved.
Good stuff guys. Thanks for commenting.
Kathy you are so right in saying we are forgiven through Jesus. If we look at Proverbs 17:15 we see the great dilemma just as Mike has pointed out.
ReplyDelete"He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, Both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD." (Pro. 17:15)
So how does God our Lord having a perfect nature forgive such people as you guys, me, David, Abraham, or anyone else for that matter??? Looking at the text above, it is clear. It isn't that He is too weak, but it would be against His nature to look over at simply pardon such rebellion. He is an infinitely perfect God, the punishment must fit the crime, much as we know our justice system today. An Eternal, unquenchable punishment must be dealt out.
"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.(Ro 3:23–27)
You, I, and the patriarchs we hear about in the Bible just for examples sake, can have relationship, we are able to fellowship with the one who loves us so because Jesus is worth that much, and He paid it ALL! It is His doing that justifies there is no room for us to brag about what we have done even. God finds His motivation in Himself and not in my ability to keep the Law and obey Him, in this I hope to find rest.
"Thus says the Lord GOD, 'It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.'"(Eze 36:22)