Feel the tension of
Lamentations 3:22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
Do you get the sense that his love is a great dam restraining his own righteous anger against sin and sinners.
Jesus knows this inner tug of war.
Luke 12:49 "I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
Yet we read…
2 Peter 3:9 He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Patience is the prerequisite of the perturbed. God is no simpleton with a singular undiluted emotional state.
The psalmist David, a man after God’s own heart prays…
Psalms 6:1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.
Yet we can be unconcerned about Gods anger, demanding pure comfort from our religion with no hint of tension that would compel us to pursue holiness. We don’t always wish to see the appropriate state of emotional turmoil that God rightly experiences concerning the lack of holy passion in our lives. But we get some sense of God’s internal conversation In Luke 13:6-9 as his mercy and patience wrestles with his righteousness and justice.
Luke 13:6 Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig-tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig-tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ 8 "‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig round it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’"
No matter what we may call ourselves, our acceptance on that final day will be dependent upon holiness in our character brought about by the Spirit. We must produce fruit or be felled.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
As a matter of course God's patience and respect for our free wills, which he designed, lulls us into a sense of complacency: I can always pull of my socks tomorrow. As young (Catholic) kids my friends and I legalistically figured all we had to do to gain the Kingdom is to save about 15 seconds for a quick death-bed repentance.
Poetically, I've always liked the bit about not knowing the day or the hour (Mark 13), but the reality is scary if our socks aren't pulled up when the call comes. “Um, you caught me at a bad time.” My next bumper sticker will say: Bear Fruit or Burn Trees
T
Post a Comment