God's Kindness and Severity

 Many people believe in a god that they have made up in their own minds. It is not the God of the Bible. Yes, they take elements from what the Bible says about God, but they leave out a lot of what the Bible says, because they don't like those parts. We must not do that. When we do, we are worshiping a god that doesn't exist, except in our mind. That doesn't do us any good. We must be sure we are believing in the One True God. The only way to do that is to accept all that the Bible tells us about God and get to know Him in a personal way. That is what He wants, and that is what is best for us. Paul shows us two aspects of the nature of God that are basic to our understanding of Him. God is both kind and severe. (Romans 11:22) He tells us to consider God's kindness and severity. His severity is against those who have fallen away from Him in unbelief. His kindness is toward those who believe and continue in His kindness. If we are not faithful to the Lord, we will be cut off. That seems harsh, but it is true because of God's nature.

God is love, so He treats us with kindness and grace. However, God is holy, so He hates sin, and He must punish it decisively. This leads to us seeing God's kindness when He shines His grace upon us, giving us more that we deserve, at times. He is very kind to us when we trust Jesus as Lord and Savior, because He forgives our sins and gives us eternal life. The problem comes in when we reject God, even after He has been kind to us. When we will not surrender in faith to Jesus as Lord, but we go our own way. Then, God will be very severe to us. Like I said, He must punish sin, but also, He uses His severity to bring us to repentance, so we will return to Him and trust Jesus. Therefore, His severity even has an element of love in it, at least until the last breath of our life. If we don't believe in Him and trust Jesus before we die, we will experience His severity forever. God doesn't want that for anyone. That is why He inspired Paul to tell us to consider God's kindness and severity. I pray we will all do that today.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Romans 12-15.