As we have been working through the book of Nahum in our morning services and reflecting on various Old Testament judgement passages as well as passages about the end time from Revelation, you like me might continue to find the concept of God’s wrath difficult to grasp. After all, in the age of the Church, in a peaceful country like Australia we rarely need to consider anything other than God's love. We think of his grace, we walk in relationship with the Lord Jesus, we enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit and embrace the good feeling that knowing God gives us. And quite rightly too! But we must remember the other side of the nature of God. He is a God who will punish sinfulness and act in vengeance towards his enemies and cast those who do not know him away from his eternal presence.
It is this side of God’s character that we struggle to come to grips with. Yet if we were people who lived in the midst of persecution and knew the punishment of those who would kill and torture God’s people, or any other innocents for that matter, we may actually embrace the coming wrath of God. Can a Western Christian ever understand how someone else may gladly say, “they will get their just rewards from God one day” and be glad with that thought? Should not we be like our Lord or Stephen the first martyr who asked for forgiveness for the first persecutors of the Church? Of course, but this is before the persecutors have reached the end of their life – it is while they still have a time to repent.
The reality is of course that God’s age of grace is limited – limited to our life span. This is why it is so important that we come into right relationship with the Lord who did punish sin in the most complete way, in his body on the cross. For those who cannot accept that there must be a punishment that does not include them in the Kingdom of God.
Difficult to grasp, yes! But we must remember that our Lord, Saviour and friend is also Almighty God, creator and rightful judge of all that is against him.
It is this side of God’s character that we struggle to come to grips with. Yet if we were people who lived in the midst of persecution and knew the punishment of those who would kill and torture God’s people, or any other innocents for that matter, we may actually embrace the coming wrath of God. Can a Western Christian ever understand how someone else may gladly say, “they will get their just rewards from God one day” and be glad with that thought? Should not we be like our Lord or Stephen the first martyr who asked for forgiveness for the first persecutors of the Church? Of course, but this is before the persecutors have reached the end of their life – it is while they still have a time to repent.
The reality is of course that God’s age of grace is limited – limited to our life span. This is why it is so important that we come into right relationship with the Lord who did punish sin in the most complete way, in his body on the cross. For those who cannot accept that there must be a punishment that does not include them in the Kingdom of God.
Difficult to grasp, yes! But we must remember that our Lord, Saviour and friend is also Almighty God, creator and rightful judge of all that is against him.
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