None of us like bad news, and it's
natural to avoid it. Maybe that’s why so
many don’t read the Bible; they feel that it’s all doom and gloom. The fact is: The Bible is full of bad news
and good news.
First the bad news: Human beings are
sinners. Our sin separates us from a
holy and righteous God, provokes His wrath, and causes us to ultimately suffer death
and eternal separation from Him. (Romans 3:23; 1:18; Colossians 3:6) More bad news: We are without excuse. As a result of our wickedness, we have
suppressed the truth about God made known to us, and are deserving of His
righteous wrath. (Romans 1:16-32) That's
pretty hard to swallow; but it's not the end of the story. There is good news.
Now the good news: We don't have to
pay the high price of our sin ourselves. Jesus paid it for us. Although He lived a sinless life, because of
God's great love for us (John 3:16), He sacrificed His Son to atone for our sins.
We can be redeemed from our sin by
accepting the free gift of eternal life that comes through faith in Jesus
Christ. And if that weren't enough, God
even supplies the faith for us. “For by
grace have you been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves— it is
the gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
It's surprising to see just how many
churches and clergy edit the news as reported in the Bible, and rewrite it so
that it will be more palatable to its congregants. Case in point: The Committee on Congregational
Song of The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) recently voted to exclude the popular
modern hymn “In Christ Alone” from their hymnal. Why? because it included the line “Till on
that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.” Apparently recognizing the popularity of the song,
the Committee asked the hymn's authors for permission to change the end of that
line to “the love of God was magnified” in order to be included in their
hymnal. The authors refused to make the change.
The Committee, it appears, couldn't bear
the idea of God's wrath … so the song was left out of the hymnal.
It's disconcerting to see Christians
devalue the great love of God in the name of a “loving god.” There is no question that the good news of the
Gospel centers on the love of God; but, to deny God's wrath eliminates the need
for the good news. It also minimizes the
culpability of sinners, denies the justice of God's punishment, and trivializes
God's love for us. (“But God demonstrates
His love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” - Romans
5:8) In the process, Jesus becomes just
a nice man who suffered an unjust punishment.
Sadly, the basic concepts of sin and
atonement are foreign in our time, even within certain strains of liberal Christianity.
But they are Biblical. The Bible is unequivocal about the nature of
man and the consequences of our sin. God's
wrath, however, is not the end of the story. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the
great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us
up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so
that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2: 4-7; John 3:16; 1 John 1:9;
Romans 5:8) It's that simple. But, it's offensive to a lot of folks … even in
the pews and pulpits of the church.
Sin is not a popular notion in a
therapeutic society. People don't like
the idea that they are sinners. And the
idea that we would suffer eternal damnation because we deserve it is even more
offensive. We want to embrace God's love
without taking into account His wrath and justice. We want the benefit of the good news without
acknowledging the bad news. We are
naturally inclined to reject the God of the Bible. But this shouldn't come as a surprise—we're told
as much in the Bible! We prefer to take
from the Bible … like going through the line of a cafeteria … picking what we
like and fashioning a god that seems more palatable than the one the Bible
presents. But a god of our creation is
no god at all. He is simply a customized
construct designed to make us feel better about ourselves. Such a creature is not worthy of our worship. The true God of the Bible is!
Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel