Understanding the Judgement of God

Picture yourself in a large white room of sparkling crystals. Everyone and everything is white. All of a sudden, a person who fell into a muddy, smelly gutter runs into the room. Huge chunks of dirt is left in his tracks and oily mud drips from his clothes unto the floor. How do you feel? You will immediately run to halt the person in his tracks so he doesn’t continue to ruin the beauty of the space. You might as well sack the person, wouldn’t you? That is how it is with holiness and sin.

The Holiness of God

Before we can understand God’s brutal judgement against sin, we ought to understand the Holiness of God. To be holy is to be set apart, consecrated and be unique. God is in His own class called the God class. Imagine you were all-Powerful, all-Knowing, All-Sufficient, Immortal and Omnipresent; how will you feel if someone dared to disobey you? How do you feel when your subordinate, your junior associate, your little child, anyone far below you disobeys you? We have no idea who we are dealing with when we sin. That is why God is to be feared. The angels cry “Holy, Holy, Holy”, because we cannot fathom the breadth and depth of this Being.

The Holiness of God burns against sin. It is to it like a launderer’s soap or a refiner’s fire. This burning is what is known as the Wrath of God. No, the wrath of God is not some angry judgemental being who can’t seem to let things go. This is a holy, righteous anger against sin. The judgement of God purges! Whenever a substance is corrupted beyond recovery, it is subjected to mortality and left as an insignia to all who choose to stand against the LORD. You cannot rebel against God and win.

Does that mean God is willing to destroy, just to keep His “holy ego”? First of all, God cannot be proud. To be proud is to see yourself bigger than you are. God cannot be any bigger than He is. He is bigger than big. He is who He is! Thus, God is not exaggerating His fury against sin. Thinking sin is not a big deal is sin in itself. It is a really big deal, especially since it is against an eternal holy God. Going back to our story, imagine there’s an owner of that all-white space and He had written a notice that no dirt is allowed in. You get it now!

The Mercy of God

It is amazing how this Fearful One is also the Merciful One. Even Lucifer was not outrightly judged the very day iniquity was found in him. He was given time to repent as the time for his judgement was set. In fact, all angelic beings were given the choice to either stand with God or rebel with satan. When satan was reduced to mortality, God in His infinite love allowed that same offer to be extended to men; “do you choose God or you choose to be your own god?”.

The devil did not have a devil. He fathered his own rebellion. In the case of man, we believed the devil and rebelled against God. The question many will now ask is, “why would God allow the devil to tempt man?’. Unlike us, God is fully secure in Himself. He will always give one the chance to choose due to His Love. Love gives us the opportunity to choose, even if the other option is to rebel. Do you understand what I mean? We will be given the decision to choose God everyday, not just in this life but in all ages to come. Once you create the choice for obedience, disobedience becomes an option too. We choose obedience, not because disobedience is not a possibility but because we love Him.

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If you want to understand God’s fierce judgement against sin, look at all Jesus had to go through as your substitute. That tells it all

To be continued…