It seems that many people declare that they would like a religion of love and grace and kindness with no judgment. In our modern world, it seems that many people want a God who gives to all and who could never, not ever, send anyone to hell. We want a spirituality of softness without consequences for wrongdoing.
But, do we? Do we really? The idea of a soft religion feels good to people who are living in soft circumstances. When life is easy, when our greatest hardships include trying to figure out what to stream on Netflix, we do not like justice. But what happens when the tide turns and life gets hard? What do we do when evil rears its head?
Psalm 10:1-2
1 Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.
The psalmist writing here asks the question that we often ask when we see human cruelty. Though our world so often demands a deity without wrath, when the wicked crushes the helpless, we then turn and ask God why. How could you do this?
Psalm 10:12-15
12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand;
forget not the afflicted.
13 Why does the wicked renounce God
and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
you have been the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
call his wickedness to account till you find none.
Look what the psalmist goes on to pray. Rise up, God! Go get them! Put a stop to their evil! Don’t let them think you are not there or that you cannot act! Break their arms so they can’t hurt people anymore!
The next time you find yourself tempted to wish that God would not be a judge too, consider a psalm like this one. You do not want a God who lacks justice. You want a God who acts, who moves, who has a response to the wickedness of human evil.
The big problem is that we want a God who judges evil, just not our evil. We want, in our sin nature, a God who will let us make up our own morality until we do not like others making up their own morality. We want to be the determiners of morality—to be our own little gods. That is the problem with a throwing off of the idea of God as judge.
So, learn from the psalm. God is good. God is just. We want him to be just. So, it is wise and right to get under his rule and to embrace his judgment. Surrender to him as Lord. He is the one who defines morality by his own character. He is the one who sets our limits. He is the one who will rightly judge. We should bow to him, call him Lord, and trust that his justice will reign.
And, we also must recognize that, though I say that we want a certain kind of God, that really does not matter. We do not pick the attributes of holiness. We are not makers of God; God is the Maker of mankind. So, be sure, what we want in a deity is irrelevant when faced with the reality that God is. Thankfully, he also is good.
Pastor Travis Peterson 