Great post on "Stuff Christians Like" this morning. It's called "#253. Painting God mad."
The world... including far too many Christians... has an image of God as an angry, vengeful, mean old man, just waiting to "get ya" for the bad things you do and forcing you into conforming into good little boys and girls, and what I think this does is that it keeps people running away from God rather than running to Him.
"Prodigal Jon" talks about some of that in this post, and addresses a comment from a previous post in which someone had used an Old Testament example to try to instill the "fear of God" into him. It's a good read, and I won't give away any of the details of the post except to say that, of course, everything changed with CHRIST!
You know, understanding the what the Old Covenant was and what the New Covenant IS has helped me so much in understanding how God views us, loves us and favors us. It's really a bummer that we still tend to see God as angry. This comes from simply lack of knowledge of what Christ has done and exactly WHO Jesus is and what He came to give us. A part of me wants to bash those people who still see Him like that and a part of me doesn't. They're hard enough on themselves (though they won't admit it).
ReplyDeleteReading the Gospels through the lens of ruthless trust in the Good News and in Jesus Christ, the scriptures unlock and are opened. Then we see the glories of the New Covenant God made with us. One of the greatest things is that this Covenant will never end! The mountains may depart and the hills be removed but He swore that He would NEVER be angry with us again! Nor will He rebuke us!
I don't get why we're so hung up on the wrath and holiness of God. Being a sinner, I think pursuing knowledge of God's wrath isn't what you want. ;) You need Jesus, Jesus and MORE Jesus! (Grace, Grace and more Grace!)
Matthew,
ReplyDeleteSame here. Knowing that there is a big difference between the old and new covenants, and that they don't overlap or merge with each other in any way, shape or form, has helped me to understand God and His love for us. Through Christ, everything changed. Like you I sometimes want to be hard on those who just don't "get" it. I guess I just hope and pray that they will be given the same lens to view things with, and that they'll understand the true scope of the New Covenant, and life in Christ.