I
have a confession:
I
have an extremely violent nature. A couple of years ago, a good friend gave me
a bug zapper. It looks like a badminton racket (somewhat like a tennis racket
for those who are not familiar with badminton) and it is electrically charged.
You swat the bug while pushing a button and it electrocutes the insect. I love
this thing! I especially love frying wasps and Palmetto bugs (big roaches).
Okay,
maybe “violent nature” was a bit over the top but I use this to make a point.
Many people today see God as having an extremely violent nature or temperament.
Many atheists and non-Christians refer to God’s instructions in the Old
Testament to stone an adulteress, homosexual, disobedient child, etc. as
evidence that God is an angry, cruel, vindictive tyrant and cosmic killjoy.
Is God violent?
Honestly,
the answer is both yes and no. God is Holy and perfect and He created man in
His own image; perfect (Gen. 1:27). When man chose to sin against this perfect,
just, and holy God, He (God) had to deal with the sin but, because He is love,
He made a way to deal with our sin so that we might be reconciled.
“But God demonstrates
His own love toward us, in that while
we were still sinners,
Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, NKJV).
His
love for us is so great, even before He created us, knowing we would sin and
what the cost to redeem us would be, He chose to create us and give us the free
will to accept or reject Him. Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross may seem
to be another example of God’s wrath and violent nature but His wrath and
violence is towards sin, not Jesus or man. God hates what sin does but He loves
the sinner enough to require His Son to suffer His righteous anger for our
benefit. Christ Jesus did not go to the cross unwillingly but willingly. He
paid the price for our sin so that we might be forgiven and spend eternity with
Him.
To
take the penalty for someone else and die in their place is the greatest act of
love we can experience in this world. God loved us so much, “He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16, NKJV).
When
we, as the church and God’s representatives, practice road rage, unforgiveness,
malicious gossip, talking down to the store clerk, bashing the kid in the
McDonald’s drive-thru window for getting our order wrong, and so forth, do we
convince the lost that our God is loving or violent?
