Long time no post: Misconceptions and the Epic Story
Here's a copy of a response I posted to someone else's journal. I thought it may be of interest to anyone who happened to drop by this blog:
It is actually a common misconception that God is different, or at least demonstrating different qualities in the Old Testament compared to the New. His mercy is evident in both as is his severity (If you want to do some checking on your own, see Biblegateway.com and do word searches on "mercy" and "kindness" to see many results about God from the OT. A search of "wrath" brings up a number of results from the NT.)
Anyway, let's look at the world from the standpoint of conventional wisdom. Take a king for instance, seated on his throne in any kingdom of the world you could imagine. As any king, he will face opposition. There will be dissidents, possible traitors to the crown. There will be lawbreakers in the land, people murdering and stealing. What kind of king would he be to allow rebellions and lawbreaking to go unanswered? How long would his kingdom last?
Now consider this: God as the creator of the universe has every right to assert himself as king over his own creation and in fact he does. What we call "sin" is actually a breach of any moral law he set in place over his creation (see Exodus 20:1-17 and Matthew 5:21-30 for examples of God's law). At its heart, each sin is an act of rebellion against God's natural order. As humans, we trample over this law often, and many times without intent. So where does that put us? Well, God’s word to us clear: Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The consequence for sin is death; the king putting a traitor to death. In the Old Testament, God directed his people to sacrifice animals. These animals acted as the substitute for the people who had sinned, taking on the death they deserved (Hebrews 9:22). In the New Testament, Jesus is the final sacrifice made on behalf of everyone for all time. Here’s a verse of prophecy written about Jesus hundreds of years before he came: Isaiah 53:5
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” The peace this verse talks about is peace with God, as in the end of a rebellion, the cessation of hostilities. Here are a couple verses talking about our (former) status as enemies of God:
Romans 5:9-11 “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
Colossians 1: 19-22 "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [talking about Jesus here], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation-"
Here’s a really good one, but it’s longer, so I’ll let you check it on your own:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%202:1-10;&version=31;
Okay, so what is the point of all this work that God is doing? He has made a way for our punishment to be removed and replaced with eternal life, but why? It is because God is relational. He wants to know you and he wants to know me on a close friendship level, and anyone who will choose him, seek to know him. I mean, we humans blew it in the first book of the Bible just after creation, and God has been working to restore that relationship ever since. So why not offer this reward to everyone across the globe, why save only the few who choose to accept Christ? Does not the very nature of love teach us that love must be a voluntary choice and not a mandate, not something to take for granted? So he leaves us with the final choice of whether we will follow him or not. Talk about freedom.
It is actually a common misconception that God is different, or at least demonstrating different qualities in the Old Testament compared to the New. His mercy is evident in both as is his severity (If you want to do some checking on your own, see Biblegateway.com and do word searches on "mercy" and "kindness" to see many results about God from the OT. A search of "wrath" brings up a number of results from the NT.)
Anyway, let's look at the world from the standpoint of conventional wisdom. Take a king for instance, seated on his throne in any kingdom of the world you could imagine. As any king, he will face opposition. There will be dissidents, possible traitors to the crown. There will be lawbreakers in the land, people murdering and stealing. What kind of king would he be to allow rebellions and lawbreaking to go unanswered? How long would his kingdom last?
Now consider this: God as the creator of the universe has every right to assert himself as king over his own creation and in fact he does. What we call "sin" is actually a breach of any moral law he set in place over his creation (see Exodus 20:1-17 and Matthew 5:21-30 for examples of God's law). At its heart, each sin is an act of rebellion against God's natural order. As humans, we trample over this law often, and many times without intent. So where does that put us? Well, God’s word to us clear: Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The consequence for sin is death; the king putting a traitor to death. In the Old Testament, God directed his people to sacrifice animals. These animals acted as the substitute for the people who had sinned, taking on the death they deserved (Hebrews 9:22). In the New Testament, Jesus is the final sacrifice made on behalf of everyone for all time. Here’s a verse of prophecy written about Jesus hundreds of years before he came: Isaiah 53:5
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” The peace this verse talks about is peace with God, as in the end of a rebellion, the cessation of hostilities. Here are a couple verses talking about our (former) status as enemies of God:
Romans 5:9-11 “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
Colossians 1: 19-22 "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [talking about Jesus here], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation-"
Here’s a really good one, but it’s longer, so I’ll let you check it on your own:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%202:1-10;&version=31;
Okay, so what is the point of all this work that God is doing? He has made a way for our punishment to be removed and replaced with eternal life, but why? It is because God is relational. He wants to know you and he wants to know me on a close friendship level, and anyone who will choose him, seek to know him. I mean, we humans blew it in the first book of the Bible just after creation, and God has been working to restore that relationship ever since. So why not offer this reward to everyone across the globe, why save only the few who choose to accept Christ? Does not the very nature of love teach us that love must be a voluntary choice and not a mandate, not something to take for granted? So he leaves us with the final choice of whether we will follow him or not. Talk about freedom.