Sanctified By Glory and Fire

I have been struggling lately in the issue of God’s wrath versus God’s Grace. They are both very evident in both the New and the Old Testament. It talks in Revelations about how the earth is going to see a wrath from God that has never been seen before, but it also says in Colossians that every one of our sins was nailed to the cross with Jesus and we have atonement for said sins.

I look at it like a father who loves his children, but still holds them accountable for their actions. Obviously a fair father wouldn’t just let their kid be disrespectful to his/her mother, or get away with stealing from the local gas station. Does he still love that child when it’s all said and done? Of course! Correction still has to happen, however. This is the balance of life I think, learning from correction and learning from forgiveness. I was listening to a song by Delirious last night and one of the lyrics was “Sanctified by glory and fire”, we are atoned by the glory of his love and the fire of his correction.

I will be honest, I still struggle with the idea of how his forgiveness/wrath is played out. Does Adolf Hitler face judgment for the millions of lives he was responsible for taking? Or were his sins nailed to Jesus’ hands just like mine? It is confusing stuff. I am reminded of the story of Jonah. Jonah refused to obey God and deliver his message to this city, so God had him swallowed by a whale. In three days, the whale spit him out, and as he was sitting on the beach God, in essence said, “I am going to give you another chance, go give the same message to this other city.” Jonah obeyed, and gave this intense message about how God was going to destroy their city in 40 days because of their lifestyles. The city fixed their lifestyles and the bible says that God’s wrath passed over them. In effect, this really encompasses what I am wrestling with in my head. His wrath is evident and real, but the choice is in our hands. In effect, he gave both the city AND Jonah another chance at it. Jonah could have given up on his Lord and walked away from that whale with his tail between his legs, but he chose to correct himself.

Anyway, I am not even close to having stuff figured out, I just heard a message last night on the subject and it’s been going around in my head all day. It’s good for me though, because I feel like God is bringing correction in my life that is necessary. It’s too easy to just keep going through life, taking the easy route. I feel like true liberty comes from accepting that what needs to change, and not taking it lightly…oh and feeding the poor ;-)

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