The attribute of God being considered here is His love. It's an interesting verse because if God is love, then ‘Love’ did not begin with the creation of the universe. Rather, love predates the universe because God predates the universe and He is love.
Read moreKnowing God – #07 THE WRATH OF GOD
Steve Grant
Knowing God
The Wrath of God
Selected scriptures
23 March 2014
“How could He who is the Sum of all excellency look with equal satisfaction upon virtue and vice, wisdom and folly? How could He who is infinitely holy disregard sin and refuse to manifest His ‘severity’ toward it? How could He who delights only in that which is pure and lovely, loathe and hate not that which is impure and vile? The very nature of God makes Hell as real a necessity, as imperatively and eternally requisite as Heaven is.” AW Pink
The wrath of God is not His dirty, little secret. It is an attribute of His that the Bible openly speaks about. The problem occurs when we try to understand the wrath of God in human terms. When people get angry and wrathful, they lose control. Therefore, when people hear about God’s wrath, they often imagine Him in a state of uncontrolled aggression. But this is not the case because God's anger never spins out of control. What's more, unlike human anger, His wrath is always justified.
To know the wrath of God is to be reminded of His holiness and His hatred of sin. Therefore, God’s wrath should make us uncomfortable about sin and motivate us to holy living. More importantly, the wrath of God should fill us with a passion for the lost. After all, the cross reveals the wrath of God against sin which He poured out; not against those who deserved it but against the One who didn't deserve it at all - His sinless Son. So now if anyone rejects His Son, God’s wrath is directed towards them. Because they have rejected the One who bore His wrath on their behalf.
Knowing God – #06 THE HOLINESS OF GOD
The holiness of God is His fundamental and magnificent purity. The standard to which the whole universe will be conformed. As created beings, we find it hard to comprehend the holiness of God. But it is vital that we gain an accurate understanding of it simply because it is the most fundamental of His attributes.
Read moreKnowing God – #05 THE TRUTHFULNESS & FAITHFULNESS OF GOD
It used to be in the past that people had a love for truth; it was held in high esteem. But in our culture today, the very existence of truth (and God) is debated! We seem okay to accept truth as long as it is relative to us. Our feelings have become more important than our ability to think. This is an age, writes Alistair Begg, in which “plausibility is given to every idea, and certainty to none.”
Read moreKnowing God – #04 THE TRANSCENDENCE & IMMANENCE OF GOD
These two attributes of God make His character seem somewhat paradoxical; because while being inaccessibly transcendent He is also intimately immanent. In other words, while being absolutely unlike us and wholly above us, He is at the same time, near us and with us.
Read moreKnowing God – #03 THE OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD
Whilst we don't find the word ‘omnipotent’ in the Bible, we do find the word ‘Almighty’, which is used 345 times to speak exclusively in the context of God’s insurmountable and incomparable power.
Read moreKnowing God – #02 THE OMNIPRESENCE & OMNISCIENCE OF GOD
As Christians we are constantly prone to creating God in our image, to fit him into a box of our creation so that he conforms to our understanding. But the truth is, God is bigger than our ability to comprehend him. So we need to know Him in the way He has revealed himself to us. Reason being, the more we know Him truly, the more we can trust him fully. After all, But if God were small enough for us to understand, He wouldn’t be big enough for our needs.
Read moreKnowing God – #01 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
The idea of God’s sovereignty has to do with His absolute ownership of every corner of the universe for every single moment of its existence. As an idea, it is humbling, mysterious, illuminating and empowering, all at the same time. What’s more, it’s not an easy attribute to get our heads around as Christians have been debating the aspects and implications of God’s sovereignty for centuries.
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