Letting God Get His Mind Around Us

[HKHaugan]

Letting God Get His Mind Around Us

Just as there is a difference between God’s wrath and man’s wrath there is also a difference between God’s judgment and man’s judgment. But first we need to revisit the whole issue of wrath. After that we will look at judgment.

God’s wrath is born out of His Holiness and perfection. It is not a planned wrath but rather the reaction of His sheer power of perfection and holiness that cannot but reject sin and evil. It is His nature to be wrathful toward anything evil and its resulting behavior. God is the way He is. He will not and cannot change. He was the same before Creation as He will be after Jesus’ return when there will be a new Heaven and a new earth. In Him perfection and pure holiness are more powerful than their opposites, sin and evil. They arrive later on earth’s scene, after Creation, and are in total contradiction to His nature.

In stark contrast man’s wrath is born in pride, fear, malice, revenge, vindictiveness, hate, irrationality and uneven application. Man’s wrath is the result of sin. It is the imperfect extension of his aloneness, fear and pride. Sin is the spiritual disease of the individual mind, and heart choosing to think, analyze, decide and act apart from God. The devil used this process to lure, tempt and persuade Adam and Eve to accept it as their way to live. This process opened the floodgates of evil spirits, the devil’s conspiratorial tools to separate mankind from God and in turn to separate people from one another until their destiny is total isolation from God and an eternity of fear and aloneness for each person.

This isolating condition and its violent internal damage is described in vivid detail in Genesis 3. The massive torrent of evil began with man’s willingness to compromise with the evil one, then rationalize and justify the process. In their momentary flirtation with the devil, they and all their succeeding descendants were burned. They experienced fear for the first time and found themselves hiding from God and looking for someone to blame for their isolated condition from which they found they could not escape. The escalation of sin and evil enveloped all of mankind from that point on. The wrath of God was experienced in guilt, aloneness and separation on every level, never understanding why.

The whole Old Testament can be viewed as man’s inevitable journey into the pit of Hell. Also however, in its pages the blurry vision of a yet-to-come single deliverer, a Messiah, progressively emerging within the thorny thicket of man’s chosen self-destruction to offer release from that awful inevitability. On the horizon of this lost wilderness the deliverer appears. He becomes a clear picture of the actual presence of God, Jesus the Messiah, God the Son. His appearance, life and teachings make up the enthralling personal portrait presented in the New Testament.

There too, the greatest historical achievement in history is recorded, the neutralization of God’s wrath by the sacrificial shedding of the perfect Son of God’s blood. He took the punishment, the judgment for all mankind’s sin, the wrath of God and bore its penalty, the death sentence, in our place. This He did for all humanity in mind, heart and body through perfect faith in His Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 1:18-3:20 is the summary of the depths of the fall of mankind into the lost wilderness east of Eden far from God’s presence, a wilderness from which we have been rescued by Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf.

The only way we can avert the wrath of God is to receive the grace and love of Jesus Christ by accepting Him as our personal Savior and Lord by faith. It is then and only then that the human mind, heart and spirit have the ability to identify not only the love of God but that which prevents that love from reaching us within. We must realize the depth that sinful fear and pride have taken us and then receive the relational lifeline the Lord throws to each of us for the rescue. Anything less will only end up in aloneness, isolation from forgiveness and love as well as alienation from the One person who gave His life so that we can be whole again.

When Jesus asks us to take up our cross He means to accept Him by faith day by day in repentance and thanksgiving. In His forgiveness He frees us from the burden of our personal sin and we are enabled to bring His name before the world for its release. How much we have been given and how much we have to share.

Romans 2-3:20 Judgment

In this very long passage Paul has been inspired to hold nothing back. The opening of his letter is a blanket statement of the truth of the Gospel of God in Jesus the Christ, its inclusiveness of all humanity and the Roman Christians’ part in it. But there is an urgency in his message. They and all others who will receive this letter must understand the plight of the world, as they know it. It is doomed to destruction by the deliberate sin and evil that has brought it into its present condition and is in direct opposition to God’s nature.

As Paul launches into his exposure of God’s wrath he specifies the attitude and behavior that has brought it to bear on the world. You can sense his compulsion in every word. It was absolutely necessary to expose it because of what will inevitably come as a result, God’s judgment, the finality that occurs if there is no change in mind and heart. God has concluded and stated ahead of time, for our sake, there will be a day of judgment (Matt.12:36) when He will judge men’s secrets (1Cor.2:16). Jesus makes this very clear in Matt.25:31-46 where He uses the Parable of the Sheep and Goats to picture the event. Further He says, “Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us (Lk.16:26 Message Bible).” His words have to be applied and now.

Paul is only forcefully stating what Jesus has already proclaimed. There is such a vast gap between God’s Kingdom and the world that the devil has captured and shaped. “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned (Mt.12:36-37)." “He that rejecteth Me and receiveth not My words, hath One that judgeth him; the Word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the Last Day (John 12:46).”

The hinge verses for this entire section, Romans 1:18-3:20, are 1:18-19 and 2:28:29.

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
...and...
“A man is not a Jew [believer] if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew [believer] if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.”

In between these two passages lies the laundry list of attitudes and behaviors that guarantee final separation between God and humanity and person from person. What is it that has influenced Paul so deeply? Note the words ‘attitude’ and ‘behavior.’ One, attitude, is directed vertically and the other, behavior, horizontally. Ch.1:18-32 centers on behavior and Ch.2 centers on attitude. Behavior is derived from attitude. The combination of attitude and behavior---the invisible and the visible, the spiritual and the physical---was the Cross Jesus bore, the wrath of God carried to its ultimate and irreversible judgment, death. This is why Paul told the Corinthians that he would know nothing among them except Christ and Him crucified (1Cor.2:2). He does the exact same in his letter to Rome. The Cross casts its shadow over all Paul’s writings.

Thus Paul’s warning that a day of reckoning, a day of judgment, a day that finally separates God and His people from the dark abyss that awaits the ones who want to have the final say about who they are and what they do with what they have been given in mind, heart, body and spirit.

So self-assessment is the value Paul is teaching here in Chapters 1-3:20.
“A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup (1Cor.11:28).” I'm sure Paul had Ps.26:2 in mind: “Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind...” There is an attitudinal and behavioral position to be examined before God. Spiritual conviction is part of God’s grace. “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test (2Cor.13:5)?”

Judgment is an ability of God has given to us as His images. Separated from Him it does great damage. What validates judgment is its authority. Is it God and His Word or me? When do we pull back and let God judge? When are we legitimate when we speak in judgment for Him? The prophets sent to proclaim His judgment. When are we to be prophetic? When judgment is His the Holy Spirit takes over from that point. And we are privileged when we realize in humility that He is sharing His nature with us.

Negative judgment--- Attitude is centered in individual assessment outside the Word of God. It is based on imperfect perception, relative cultural conditioning and uneven emotionality. The result is fear-based judgment that leads to destructive behavior, e.g. insecurity arising from our needs to fit in, be number one, feel good, look good and survival, thus hurting others.

Positive judgment---allowing God and His Word to be the judge. Attitude---in personal terms it begins with self-judgment. Am I guilty of the same thing I criticize in others? If I see a control issue am I guilty of the same thing in myself? In relational terms it is being humble before God in the presence of others with the truth in the Word as our behavioral guide.