I recently had a great conversation with an unbeliever. He was asking good questions. And, by God’s grace, I think I was able to be helpful.
In one portion he mentioned that he is much more comfortable with a religion that doesn’t have a God of wrath (his words). He mentioned the local liberal Methodist church as a good example of this and the local Roman Catholic church as a bad example.
WHAT HE WANTED, HE REALLY DIDN’T WANT
As we talked it became evident that he wanted a God who was good but who just didn’t punish anything less than good. But you can’t have it both ways. Either God is good or he is not. And if he is good then he must be opposed to all that opposes him, otherwise, he is tolerant of evil.
Of course this option is absurd to every sane person, including my new friend. What most people mean is they want a God who will punish people worse then them and reward people as good and better than them. In other words, they are the standard.
WHAT CHRISTIANITY BRINGS
This is where Christianity crashes through the man-made barricades of safe religion. In order to get ‘in’ so to speak, you have got to line up with and behind all of the ‘bad’ people.
Remember the Scriptures say,
None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. (Rom. 3.10-11)
One function of the Scriptures is to communicate that all of humanity is born, barricaded on the island of depravity. There is no one with the will or the ability to swim to the shore of salvation. The whole lot is bad.
It is almost impossible to swallow the jagged pill of personal badness.
What’s more in order to become a Christian we cannot gloss over or dismiss the fact that God is indeed both good and wrathful. In fact, he must be wrathful because he is good!
This is what the cross of Christ is all about. On the cross Jesus was serving as the sinner’s substitute. He was bearing the full, unmitigated wrath of God towards sinners. He was judged in our place.
The only way to know and experience the goodness of God through forgiveness is to know the wrath and goodness of God through the cross.
Without even a rudimentary understanding of depravity (personal sin) and wrath (God’s anger) Christianity doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The cross remains foolishness and Jesus is of no real value (other than being a quote machine and good example).
WHAT HE REALLY NEEDED, HE WANTED
What became clear as we talked was that he wanted justice in the world around him, forgiveness in his life, security for his future, happiness experienced now, and hope for the age to come. There was a true hunger there. I heard it over and over again. The gospel was the answer to cravings of his life’s narrative.
Where there is pain for hurt caused there is comfort in Jesus who was crushed for our sin. Where there is guilt over sin there is Jesus the guilt offering. Where there is personal weakness there is strength in Christ. Where there is a thirst for revenge there is a King with a scepter. Jesus punctuates every incomplete sentence with his unrivaled awesomeness.
What a privilege it is to hold forth this Jesus in his manifold splendor, knowing that it is God who draws men to himself through the gospel of Christ.
It is this gospel that is such an inexhaustible and strange fountain of humility and refreshment. In it we see our sin and God’s goodness through Christ. It is this that initiates and sustains worship.
I love good questions. This is mainly because I love how the gospel answers them.