Indignation
God shows his anger because some knowledge of him has been made clear
to them. Yes, God has shown himself to them. There are things about him that
people cannot see – his eternal power and all the things that make him God. But
since the beginning of the world those things have been easy to understand by
what God has made. So people have no excuse for the bad things they do.
(Rom. 1:19-20)
"And you
discovered that your boyfriend had been sleeping with your mother?" The
audience snickered. The teenage girl on the stage ducked her head at the burst
of attention. The mother was a middle-aged woman in a too-tight black dress,
sitting with her arm intertwined with the skinny one of a boy in a sleeveless
T-shirt. She waved to the crowd. He grinned. Talk-show host Christy Adams
wasted no time. "Do the two of you really sleep together?" The
mother, still holding the hand of the boy, looked at him. He grinned, and she
smiled.
"Yes."
She went on to explain how she'd been lonely since her divorce. Her daughter's
boyfriend hung out at her house all hours of the day and night and, well, one
afternoon he plopped beside her on the couch and the two started talking and
one thing led to another and the next thing she knew they were . . . Her face
flushed, and the boy shrugged as they let the audience complete the sentence.
The girl sat
expressionless and silent. "Aren't you worried what this might teach your
daughter?" Christy inquired. "I'm only teaching her the ways of the
world." "What about you?" Christy asked the boy. "Aren't
you being unfaithful to your girlfriend?" The boy looked honestly amazed.
"I still love her," he announced. "I'm only helping her by
loving her mother. We are one happy family. There's nothing wrong with that!"
The audience erupted with whistles and applause.
Just as the
hubbub began to subside, Christy told the lovers, "Not everyone would
agree with you. I've invited a guest to react to your lifestyle." With
that, the crowd got quiet, anxious to see who Christy had recruited to spice up
the dialogue. "He's the world's most famous theologian. His writings have
long been followed by some and debated by others. Making his first appearance
on the Christy Adams Show, please welcome controversial theologian, scholar,
and author, the apostle Paul!"
Polite applause
welcomed a short, balding man with glasses and a tweed jacket. He loosened his
tie a bit as he settled his small frame in the stage chair. Christy skipped the
welcome. "You have trouble with what these people are doing?" Paul held
his hands in his lap, looked over at the trio, and then back at Christy.
"It's not how I feel that matters. It's how God feels." Christy
paused so the TV audience could hear the "ooohs" ripple through the
studio. "Then tell us, please, Paul, how does God feel about this creative
tryst?" "It angers him." "And why?" "Evil angers
God because evil destroys his children. What these people are doing is
evil." The strong words triggered a few hoots, some scattered applause, and
an outburst of raised hands. Before Christy could speak, Paul continued.
"As a result, God has left them and let them go their sinful way. Their
thinking is dark, their acts are evil, and God is disgusted."
A lanky fellow
in the front shouted out his objection. "It's her body. She can do what
she wants!" "Oh, but that's where you’re mistaken. Her body belongs
to God and is to be used for him." "What we're doing is
harmless," objected the mother. "Look at your daughter," Paul
urged her, gesturing toward the girl whose eyes were full of tears. "Don't
you see you’ve harmed her? You traded healthy love for lust. You traded the
love of God for the love of the flesh. You traded truth for a lie. And you
traded the natural for the unnatural . . ." Christy couldn’t restrain
herself. "Do you know how hokey you sound? All this talk about God and
right and wrong and immorality? Don't you feel out of touch with reality?"
"Out of
touch? No. Out of place, yes. But out of touch, hardly. God doesn’t sit
silently while his children indulge in perversion. He lets us go our sinful
ways and reap the consequences. Every broken heart, every unwanted child, every
war and tragedy can be traced back to our rebellion against God." People
sprang to their feet, the mother put her finger in Paul's face, and Christy turned
to the camera, delighting in the pandemonium. "We've got to take a
break," she shouted over the noise. "Don't go away; we've got some
more questions for our friend the apostle."
How does that dialogue
strike you? Harsh? (Paul was too narrow) Unreal? (The scene was too bizarre)
Outlandish? (No one would accept such convictions) Regardless of your response,
it’s important to note that although the script is fictional, Paul's words aren’t.
God is "against all the evil and wrong things people do." (Rom. 1:18)
The One who urges us to "hate what is evil" (Rom. 12:9) hates what is
evil. In three chilling verses Paul states: "God left them and let them go . . ." (Rom. 1:24) "God
left them and let them do . . ."
(Rom. 1:26) "God left them and allowed them to have their own worthless thinking . . ." (Rom. 1:28) God is
angry at evil. “Go,” “do,” and “have.” All without God.
For many, this
is a revelation. Some assume God is a harried high-school principal; too busy
monitoring the planets to notice us. He's not. Others assume he’s a doting
parent, blind to the evil of his children. Wrong. Still others insist he loves
us so much he can’t be angry at our evil. They don't understand that love is
always angry at evil. Many don't understand God's anger because they confuse
the wrath of God with the wrath of man. The two have little in common. Human
anger is typically self-driven and prone to explosions of temper and violent
deeds. We get ticked off because we've been overlooked, neglected or cheated. That’s
the anger of man. It’s not, however, the anger of God.
God doesn't get
angry because he doesn't get his way. He gets angry because disobedience always
results in self-destruction. What kind of father sits by and watches his child
hurt himself? What kind of God would do the same? Do we think he giggles at
adultery, or snickers at murder? Do you think he looks the other way when we
produce television talk shows based on perverse pleasures? Does he shake his
head and say, "Humans will be humans"? I don't think so. God is
rightfully angry. God is a holy God. Our sins are an affront to his holiness,
and we’re without excuse.
In some of the
most arresting words of the Bible, Paul says, “God shows his anger because some
knowledge of him has been made clear to them. Yes, God has shown himself to
them. There are things about him that people cannot see – his eternal power and
all the things that make him God. But since the beginning of the world those
things have been easy to understand by what God has made. So people have no excuse for the bad things they do. (Rom. 1:19-20,
italics mine)
In other words,
we’re without excuse because God has revealed himself to us through his
creation. The psalmist wrote: "The heavens tell the glory of God, and the
skies announce what his hands have made. Day after day they tell the story;
night after night they tell it again. They have no speech or words; they have
no voice to be heard. But their message goes out through all the world; their
words go everywhere on earth." (Ps. 19:1-4)
Every star is an
announcement. Each leaf a reminder. The glaciers are megaphones, the seasons
are chapters, and the clouds are banners. Nature is a song of many parts but with
one theme and one verse: God is. Hundreds of years ago Tertullian stated: “It
was not the pen of Moses that initiated the knowledge of the Creator. . . . The
vast majority of mankind, though they had never heard the name of Moses, to say
nothing of his books, knew the God of Moses none-the-less. . . . Nature is the
teacher; the soul is the pupil. . . . One flower of the hedgerow . . . one shell
from any sea you like . . . one feather of a moor fowl . . . will they speak to
you of a mean Creator? . . . If I offer you a rose, you will not scorn its
Creator.”
Creation is
God's first missionary. There are those who never held a Bible or heard a scripture.
There are those who die before a translator puts God's Word on their tongues.
There are millions who lived in ancient times before Christ, or live in distant
lands far from Christians. There are the simple-minded who are incapable of
understanding the gospel. What does the future hold for the person who never
hears of God? Again, Paul's answer is clear. The human heart can know God
through the handiwork of nature. If that is all one ever sees, that is enough.
One need only respond to what he is given. And if he is given only the
testimony of creation, then he has enough. But, “to whom much is given, much is
required.” (Luke 12:48)
The problem is
not that God hasn't spoken, but that we haven't listened. God says his anger is
directed against any “thing” and any “one” who suppresses the knowledge of
truth. God loves his children, and he hates what destroys them. This doesn't
mean that he flies into a rage or loses his temper or is emotionally
unpredictable. It means simply that he loves you and hates what you become when
you turn from him. Call it holy hostility. A righteous hatred of wrong. A
divine disgust at the evil that destroys his children.
The question is
not, "How dare a loving God be angry?" but rather, "How could a
loving God feel anything less?"
Grace,
Randy
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