Tag Christian

The Jesus of Love and Wrath

Todd R 1 Comment

Some people talk about their willingness to accept the God of the New Testament, but not the God of the Old Testament, believing that the NT God, in the person of Jesus, is a God of love, but that the OT God is a God of wrath and judgement.  However, there is plenty of God’s love in the Old Testament, and plenty of God’s wrath in the New, and all of these aspects are part of the character of Jesus Christ, who shows us a perfect image of God the Father.  There aren’t two Gods, but all of His characteristics aren’t obvious at all times.

A good illustration comes from Luke 4:18-19, when Jesus announced His public ministry by quoting Isaiah 61:1-2a aloud in the synagogue on the Sabbath:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
            because he has anointed me
            to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
            and recovering of sight to the blind,
            to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

After reading this, Jesus stopped and rolled up the scroll, and said to those assembled: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  (Luke 4:21)

Jesus announced here that He would be the one to overcome every form of poverty, captivity, blindness, and oppression.  He would be a God of love.  But some of those listening, especially the religious leaders, would have been familiar with the further context of what Jesus was quoting.  Isaiah 61:2 reads, in full:

“to proclaim the year of the LORD’S favor,
            and the day of vengeance of our God;
            to comfort all who mourn”

Jesus didn’t accidentally stop reading in the middle of the verse; He intentionally stopped reading right before a phrase on vengeance.

Isaiah was saying the Messiah would come to proclaim both God’s “favor” and “vengeance,” but why didn’t Jesus read the next part?  The full verse shows Jesus as both a God of love, and of vengeance, but I think He left it out because the vengeance part was not being fulfilled “Today,” but later, which might have been a surprise to people based on their expectations of the Messiah.

Many expected a conquering Messiah that would overthrow Israel’s oppressors, which was Rome at the time.  In contrast, Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem shortly before his death was described in John 12:15:

“Fear not, daughter of Zion;
             behold, your king is coming,
            sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

The people were glad to celebrate Jesus’ arrival, but Jesus came to Jerusalem humbly with no intention of defeating Rome, much less conquering the entire world.  Many Jews were disappointed in this peaceful Messiah, and this was part of the reason He was crucified.  This image of love and humility was the Jesus of His first coming, proclaiming “the LORD’s favor” and offering peace to anyone who will have it.  2,000 years ago, Jesus was focused on winning the spiritual battle for souls.

But Jesus will not always arrive in peace.  Later, in Revelation 19:11-16, Jesus is shown as the conqueror coming in vengeance:

“I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.  His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.  He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.  And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.  From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.  On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”

This time Jesus isn’t riding into the city on a donkey, but the image is similar with the expectation many had that the Messiah would be a conquering king.  This is the Jesus of His second coming, but really the same Jesus just in different circumstances.  Having won the spiritual battle on the cross, in the end He will be victorious in every way.

So, Jesus is a God of love, but He is also a God of wrath and vengeance.  He spoke much of forgiveness during His time here 2,000 years ago, but he also spoke much about how God’s patience will eventually run out and He would come again in a much different way.  He also tells us that if we know Him, we also know the Father, so the Father has the same aspects to His character as well.

What could this separation of Jesus’ mission into two parts mean for us today?

I think it means that the primary purpose of our witness before He comes again is “to proclaim the year of the LORD’S favor” in love.  The church shouldn’t hide any parts of the character of Jesus, including His role as judge, but the mission of His church excludes taking vengeance, because He will take care of that Himself later.  Love is the way we win the spiritual battle, the fight for men’s souls, and mirrors what Jesus emphasized during His first advent here.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:12 that the spiritual battle should be our focus: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

We don’t win this battle in wrath, pursuing vengeance on this world’s sinners (which is all of us).  We win it by following the path He has laid out for us.  In the end, He will be the judge of all.

Bible in a Year: Week of August 5 – 11

Todd R Leave a comment

Fellow travelers:

Below are the chapters to read this week if you’re following along in my Bible in a year schedule, divided into morning and evening readings.  Follow along any way you want: you can just do the evening reading, flip the morning and evening, or read it all.  Whatever works for you and your schedule!  It doesn’t have to be Bible in a Year for everyone.

Monday, August 5
Morning: Acts 17-18
Evening: Judges 7

Tuesday, August 6
Morning: Acts 19-20
Evening: Judges 8

Wednesday, August 7
Morning: Acts 21-22
Evening: Judges 9

Thursday, August 8
Morning: Acts 23-24
Evening: Judges 10

Friday, August 9
Morning: Acts 25-26
Evening: Judges 11

Saturday, August 10
Morning: Acts 27-28
Evening: Judges 12

Sunday, August 11
Morning: Romans 1-3
Evening: Judges 13

Will Green Be Greener in Paradise?

Todd R Leave a comment

Psalm 98:7 declares: “Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it!” In Romans 8:19 Paul adds that “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.”

Pastor James Montgomery Boice connects these ideas and says, “The world will one day be renewed.”  Nature already shows God’s glory, but it also, like mankind, is not yet as it shall be.  Boice adds: “I think of the way C.S. Lewis developed this idea in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In the first section of that book, when Narnia was under the power of the wicked Witch of the North, the land was in a state of perpetual winter. Spring never came. But when Aslan rose from the dead, the ice began to melt, flowers bloomed, and the trees turned green.”[1] Creation shares the hope of mankind – regeneration in a future paradise at the coming of its Lord!

Even now, we get an occasional glimpse of nature that’s somehow better than what we’re used to, and perhaps it is a glimpse of the paradise beyond the renewal of all things.  We were recently in Wales, on Mount Snowdon and a nearby trail in Llanberis, and below are some pictures from that day.  Some of these show the many brilliant shades of green, which seemed more glorious than the greens near our home in the U.S. We don’t often see rocks interact with the greenery like this here.

So, will paradise be even greener than this?  Will it seem like a perpetual winter has finally lifted?  I’m eagerly waiting to find out someday. In the meantime, enjoy these:

[1] From “April 19.” James Montgomery Boice and Marion Clark. Come to the Waters: Daily Bible Devotions for Spiritual Refreshment.  (2017).

Christianity is Not in Decline. Ever.

Todd R 1 Comment
The tomb is still empty!

Too much of what we hear and read in this world is filled with phrases like “post-Christian world,” or “Christianity’s decline.”  Or we could read that we’re “living in the ruins of Christendom.”  However, because Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” our hope is not based on any ruin or decline we see in the communities and world around us.  While other things may end up in ruins or in decline, Christianity does not.  It was not in decline on Good Friday when Jesus died on the cross and it is not in decline now.

The best of the kingdom of God is always in the future, never in the past.  His kingdom is advancing daily.

Today, many will hear the good news of the kingdom of Jesus, and some may hear and be saved!  Also today, none will be snatched out of His hand! (See John 10:28)

Jesus Overcomes Tribalism

Todd R 1 Comment

The Bible is a book for all people, in all times and places, and its lessons hold eternal value.  Yet the Bible was also written in particular times and places and knowledge of those contexts is sometimes assumed rather than explained.  For instance, in the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, we read the phrase, in parenthesis: “(For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)”. We also read that Jesus and His disciples “had to pass through Samaria.”  Hate is a difficult thing to measure or quantify, but the story assumes we know something about how intense the Jews’ hate for Samaritans was.

According to Warren Wiersbe, “So intense was [the Jews’] dislike of the Samaritans that some of the Pharisees prayed that no Samaritan would be raised in the resurrection!”[1]  This hate was so strong that many Orthodox Jews would travel much longer routes around Samaria to avoid setting foot in it.  They thought the dirt itself would contaminate them.  Why all this hate?

One reason for this hate was genetic.  Anyone who reads the Old Testament knows there are many extensive genealogies.  To the Jew, it was very important to know which of the original 12 tribes you descended from and that your ancestors had not intermarried with people of other religions.  But Samaritans genealogies were not pure enough for them.  Much of Samaria was populated with the descendants of poorer Jews left behind by the Assyrians, many of whom had intermarried with foreigners the Assyrians planted there.  So, Jews in Judah looked down on Samaritans because of their mixed genealogy.  The Samaritans were considered “half-breeds.”

Another reason was religious.  When the Samaritan woman said “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship” in John 4:20, she was referring to an alternative Judaism.  Among other differences, the Samaritans had a center of worship on Mount Gerizim, with its own temple.  They even re-wrote parts of the Pentateuch to justify this.[2]  To Israel, Jerusalem was the only center of worship.  Sacrifices to Yahweh were only to be offered there, and every male was supposed to make a pilgrimage there three times every year.  There was to be no rival temple, and therefore the Samaritans (in the Jewish mind) had cut themselves off from the true worship of Yahweh and should be shunned.

John has to write that Jesus “had to pass through Samaria” because doing that was unusual, especially for a Jewish rabbi like Jesus.  But then Jesus went there, simply being in Samaria was a strong statement that Jesus didn’t care for the hateful tribalism.  But not only did He go there, but He interacted with its people, at a time when “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”  Jesus was and would continue to break down these barriers.  In the four gospels, Jesus preached to the Jews first, then to the “half-breed” Samaritans, then to full Gentiles, and the apostles followed the same pattern in Acts.  This sequence progressively illustrated that the gospel is for all tribes of people.

What does this mean for us today?  Hate like what the Jews felt for Samaritans is rampant and if Jesus could overcome that hate, He can overcome any hate.  Any reasons we have for hating, or even disliking people just because of what group or tribe they belong to aren’t good enough reasons. 

But tribal rivalries are everywhere we look: national and regional, political and economic, cultural and ethnic, musical and athletic, and every other dimension we can imagine.  But no tribal loyalty is more important than the obligation to love God and love our neighbor, no matter who they are.

The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3:38-39 –

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Not only does this describe the love God has for us in Jesus, but it also describes the love we should have for others.  Nothing should get in the way, including any religious, racial or other differences.

Jesus overcomes tribalism, and so should His people.

[1] Wiersbe, Warren.  Be Alive (John 1-12) (1986).  P.65.
[2] Edersheim, Alfred.  The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1886).  P. 274-5.