JUDGING GOD

God is not a man who has somehow acquired great power, wisdom and authority. Instead He is Deity, the supreme supernatural being who is far superior to man and who has a perfect mind and heart. He wills only from His perfect being. Unlike other life forms such as plants and animals, man was created in God’s, own image according to Gen. 1:27.  

Scripture also tells us that, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it” according to Psalm 24:1. So all that exists is God’s personal property. We are not our own! Everything exists for God’s purposes. Humans have this illusion concerning their independence from God. Most believe that as they make their own choices, those choices shape their environment and control their own destinies, and that through their own efforts they provide for themselves, will and do as they please apart from any outside help or intervention. This is an illusion though, because in general we have no control whatsoever over the most basic factors of our life. The scriptures teach us in Proverbs 16, that man makes his plans but in the end it is God who directs his steps and wills the results. Our human tendency often times puts us at odds with God, who is judge over all the earth according to Genesis 18.

 

Some might ask, what right does God have, to decide whether our behavior is worthy of reward or punishment? Primarily it is, because He created us. Some Scientist tell us that humans evolved through a process of mutation and natural selection. If this were the case, there would be no standards of behavior that were more right than any other. Life would simply be a what evolves, with the outcome determining who was most fit to survive.  But God has revealed in the Bible that He is the great intelligence that created the universe and everything in it. Whether we believe it or not is our choice.

 

The apostle Paul expresses this principle in his letter to the Romans: “Indeed, o man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay?” Romans 9:20-21. satan would have us believe that God is a selfish liar who wants to maintain His power and exclusive privileges, keeping mankind from the truth. Satan wants us to believe that God desire to Lord over us as satan himself would love to do. He would like nothing more than that we disobey God as Eve did the day the he deceived her with his lies.

 

The Bible however presents a totally different picture. It reveals that God is love, who longs to offer His grace and mercy to us, even if we reject it. His judgments are an expression of His love to His creation, not a desire for control or revenge or an expression of malevolence. “He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth” Psalms 96:13. God promises in this verse that He will not pervert justice, and falsehood will not be able to prevail in His judgment. Some of the resentment that people have towards God and His judgments’ stems from the misconception that God is judging every little thing that we do and that the trials, pain and tragedies that we experience are God’s punishment for our transgressions. In actual fact, God is continuously shielding us from the worst consequences of our own actions. He nailed our judgment to the cross by sending His Son to take our judgment on Himself and pay for all mankind’s sin. If man does not accept that payment, then in the end he will in deed die a sinner’s death and be separated for eternity from his creator who loved him enough to make a way of escape.

 

God is holding back His wrath on us.  This is represented in the Book of Revelation as it speaks about the “four angels… holding back the four winds of the earth” Revelation 7:1. This world has suffered enough from sin, and the judgment is simply God’s way of bringing it to an end.  We usually think that judgment is all about our deeds and behavior, but actually when you think about it, God is being judged as much as anyone. At the very beginning, soon after creation in the Garden of Eden, the accusations were against God. satan cast them himself. Eve believed those accusations and disobeyed what God had told her not to do.

 

So maybe man’s issue is not so much about, “what right does God have to judge him”, but rather, “what right does man have to judge God”? Because that’s what people do when they consider God’s laws and the gospel message, and rejects them.

 

Loving on you today!

Bren