God Is Not Angry 1/4

Описание: August 1, 2010. "God Is Not Angry". After the terrorist attacks of September 11 some Christian leaders suggested that the attacks were a manifestation of the judgment of God upon a sinning America. These Christian leaders were voicing a widespread, but false, assumption among Christians - that God is angry because of sin. The terrorist attacks were attributed to God because it was assumed that God is angry with America because of sin. God is not angry with America, or with individuals, because of sin. In fact, God is not angry at all. The reason that God is not angry is because he has already done something about sin. When we suggest to people that God is angry because of sin we are presenting a view of God in the light of the Old Testament Law. However, something happened between the Old Testament and the New Testament that changed everything in man's relationship with God. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross was God's method of dealing with the sin question once and for all, forever. In Romans 4:15 Paul says, "The Law works wrath." This is the King James version. Another translation makes this thought more clear: "The Law can produce only retribution." Under the New Covenant we are not relating to God through Law, but through grace. Paul says in Romans 10:4, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes." God is not interested in retribution but in reconciliation. In fact, the reason Jesus Christ suffered on the cross was to end the system of retribution and make reconciliation a reality. God is not trying to scare everyone away from Him because they have sinned. He wants everyone to embrace Him because He has made a remedy for sin. His remedy for sin was to judge it completely in the body of Jesus Christ on the cross. Isaiah 53 describes how God dealt with our sin by the death of Christ: "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him...the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all... it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief...he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied..." The Message version of Isaiah 53 contains this beautiful statement, "...it was our disfigurement he carried, all the things wrong with us." The cross was God's method of dealing with everything wrong with us. Isaiah 54 is written in the light of Isaiah 53. Here is Isaiah 54:9-10 from the Message translation: "This is just like the days of Noah for me; I promised then that the waters of Noah would never again flood the earth. I'm promising now no more anger, no more dressing you down. For even if the mountains walk away and the hills fall to pieces, My love won't walk away from you, my covenant commitment of peace won't fall apart. The God who has compassion on you says so." As Christians we do the world a great disservice by failing to present God in the light of what He has already done through the cross of Christ. Because of Jesus, God is not angry. Now He is looking for reconciliation, not retribution.