Imbedded in my childhood memories, are many instances of being disciplined for wrong doing. I would break the law, violate a parental command, tweak one of the many school rules, and find myself on the receiving end of a scolding or beating. (In my day, beatings were allowed, even encouraged.)
After much thinking, I can only remember one discipline injustice. One morning, a small group of boys threw snowballs to knock down icicles on the house beside the school. The principle, without good evidence, or sincere confession, slapped every school boy in the face. I deserved my slap, maybe more than one slap. But I sort of felt bad for the slackers who were not part of the fun (the snow balls, not the slaps). I have learned from personal experience and years of observation that the violation of rules—lawlessness—should not be overlooked. To do so is to put mankind in jeopardy.
Since becoming a student of the Bible, I have also learned that each violation of any level of any law (If we declare something right or wrong, as long as it doesn't violate God's ideals for right and wrong, God adds that law to His Laws. We often make our own lives much more difficult in this process. The "many Jewish laws" around God's Law is one example of this.) is an offense against the holiness of Almighty God. A wrong may be against an entire nation or just one person; it is always against God.
This took a while to sink into my thick head. I wanted to see my wrongs as against Bob or Sally or my boss, but not against God. I love God. I want to please God. I also sometimes chose to do wrong. My dilemma was solved as I grappled with, and began to understand, God's view of sin, of all sin.
I would like to begin this morning by establishing a firm foundation of truth that we must not lose sight of as we study God's universal response to sin. The apostle John wrote:
1 John 4:7 . . . Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. {8} Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. {11} Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. {16} And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
If we hear nothing else John wrote: "know that God is love."
Now, you might struggle with the concepts I'm about to share with you, but decide before I begin to cling to this one solid truth: God is love! God is love. God does not just do loving things. God is love!
Our struggle will be grasping that God's nature, actually being love, is unlike human experience. At best, we might be able to do love. But we are not love. And so, we will want to impose upon God our nature, being able to love, rather than accept that God is indeed love. Keep this truth in mind: God is love.
The Scriptures clearly teach that God's wrath is not a random blast against whatever it is that God doesn't like. God's wrath is a purposeful and holy response to sin. Because He is holy, God hates sin. Because He is just, God must punish sin. Because He is perfect, God cannot look the other way.
And so, we find ourselves confronted with, and comforted by, the gospel message, the Christ of the Cross. The Cross is God's response to sin. At the Cross, we learn that God loves the sinner while hating the sin(s) that separate us from Him. God does what you and I fail to do, consistently separate the sin from the sinner. And we further struggle when we impose upon God, our inability to separate sin from the sinner.
Please join me in Romans chapter one as we look for insight to help us discover life-changing truth regarding our relationship with sin, with God, with other sinners. Paul clearly defined the universal nature of God's wrath:
Romans 1:18 . . . The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness [that is, "all sin"] of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness....
Through the Cross, and the message of the Gospel, God displays His wrath against all sin.
"All sin" in this instance means "all sin." Jesus became sin. Jesus became our sin. The One who knew not sin, stood in our place, sin-bearer for mankind. And how do we respond? By faith, and with joy for salvation. Or by continuing to sin, rejecting the truth that God is, and that God hates all sin.
Please notice that God's wrath against sin is against the sin of people, people who have done what is wrong, or not done what is right. God's wrath is not against a vague or nebulous concept of sin. Jesus died for my sins. Jesus died for your sins. God's wrath is as a laser, a precise cutting away of sin, a cutting away of each individual sin.
Once we understand that God's wrath is not a random lashing against the things He doesn't like, we are confronted with our nature as sinful creatures. Though made in God's image, we choose to live apart from God:
Romans 1:18 . . . The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, {19} since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. {20} For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Perhaps we don't worship stone idols, but we have replaced God with our life passions. We've displaced God's truths with human wisdom and insights for living. Instead of service unto God, we make busy with family, hobbies and careers. Furthermore, our sinning suppresses what we know about God. Even what is plain to us is lost beneath the weight of our sins. At this truth statement, we cry, "Foul!" claiming that we didn't know.
But we do know. And the more we learn about mankind, the more clearly we recognize God's fingerprints upon His creation. As a college student, studying anthropology, I learned that NO people group has ever been discovered that did not have a god-concept. And every people group lives by an innate sense of right and wrong. All people are aware of wrongs that violate what is right. Paul explains that NO ONE is collateral damage of God's wrath.
I love when the sciences confirm biblical teaching, promoting Bible words to the level of truth statements. The Bible teaches that we are all aware of the existence of God. Anthropology confirms biblical teaching: people inherently know there is a God, that they are not God, and that sin is wrong doing.
Sure, some god-concepts are a bit weird. And some communal behaviors are repulsive to other people groups. But please note that all people are aware of God, or at least, aware of a god-concept. Further, we're all aware of sinning. Guilt, the voice of the conscience, is God's fingerprint upon the soul of every person.
When Paul spoke of man's sinful nature, he spoke in universal terms: all people, all people at all times. You see, our nature as humans is flawed. Because of our human blood line, we are born sinners. Because of our humanity, we choose sin. Notice the downward spiral into sin as they reject God and then replace God:
Romans 1:21 . . . For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. {22} Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools {23} and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Idolatry appears to be a foundational sin. We reject God. We reject God's truth. And we choose to worship, to make first, self or created things. Or we redefine god in terms and images that satisfy our selfish desires. And we worship our imagined god. In either case, we sin. We walk away from the revealed God.
That we sin is the cause/need for the Cross. That we sin reveals/explains God's wrath. God's wrath is God's perfect response to sin—mine, yours, and all sins.
There is comfort in these truths. Confession immediately restores the tender fellowship we share with God. We are again "one with" Him. Punishment for the believer, completed in Christ, feels like the natural consequences associated with our sinful choices. And real hope is on display for men and women, boys and girls caught under the weight of sin and guilt. There is a better way to do life.
This is not a comfortable section of Scripture. We learn that we're all the same. We're all sinners, desperately lost and in need of help. But there is real hope. God is love, and He is consistent. God hates all sin. God loves all sinners. And God never wobbles, sometimes hating the sinner. That is what the Cross is all about. God is love.
