Have you ever questioned God’s ability to love? What about his willingness to forgive? Have you ever wondered how could he possibly forgive someone who was so sinful, so rebellious against his own law? Does it boggle your mind to even try to comprehend it?
What about the murderer? The drunk driver who kills an entire family? The rapist? The child molester? The Pharisee who persecuted Christians and watched in approval as they were stoned to death?
If you’re like me, you probably can’t help but feel this desire inside you for there to be justice, right?
That last reference, in case you didn’t know, was Saul, who later had a life changing encounter with Jesus and became Paul the Apostle. He went on to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles (everyone who wasn’t Jewish), wrote almost half of the New Testament, and died as a martyr.
This morning, while sipping my cup of coffee, I was taking a few minutes with the Lord, when I felt directed to the book of Jonah. It’s a short book, only 3 pages in my ESV Bible, but it has such a powerful message.
Jonah was a prophet, a gift which was given to him by God and not of his own doing. The problem with Jonah, though, was that he was rebellious. God ordered him to go to the people of Nineveh to call out against them and basically warn them that if they didn’t turn from their wicked ways, He would allow them to be overthrown. Jonah was well aware of God’s great mercy, but his heart was hardened and unforgiving toward the people of Nineveh. He didn’t think they deserved God’s forgiveness, and he didn’t want to deliver that message to them, because, quite frankly, Jonah would have preferred to see Nineveh overthrown. So instead of obeying God, he disobeyed and tried to “hide” from God.
Now think about that for a minute. Jonah…the prophet…who knows God’s power and knows that God is merciful, had a heart of unforgiveness toward the people of Nineveh, and willingly rebelled against God because he would personally rather see justice served than to see restoration take place in their hearts. He would rather see the people of Nineveh suffer than to see them restored through God’s forgiveness to a right relationship with him.
And yet, we question God?
Jonah obviously forgot that he too was sinful. Sin is disobedience against God and his Word. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, and he disobeyed. This is rebellion, and rebellion was at the heart of the very first sin that took place in the Garden of Eden, when Eve and Adam rebelled against what God had told them and chose to listen to the serpent instead.
The point is, we have ALL rebelled. We are ALL transgressors of God’s law, and the Bible tells us that if we break any part of it, we are guilty of breaking all of it. So, even though certain sins are worse than others (murder verses stealing for example), both are equally punishable with the same punishment – eternal separation from God, a horror no person would ever want to endure.
Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, paid the penalty for our rebellion against God’s law by taking upon himself the weight of every sin man would ever commit in one of the most excruciating and agonizing deaths imaginable. This is JUSTICE.
Through this selfless act, he made it possible for man to be FORGIVEN and to therefore dwell in right relationship with their Father in Heaven. This is RECONCILIATION.
But why would he do this? Because of LOVE.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
– 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)
Sadly, many will never accept the great gift that God offers. It is true, that in the case of some of the examples I gave in the beginning that those people’s hearts are so hardened and their eyes so blinded that they will never repent of (turn from doing) the sinful acts they do. God loves them none the less. He still died for them. Yes, I said “he,” because God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are one.
Our pastor reflected in a recent sermon how, as Jesus was dying on the cross, he said…
"Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
– (Matthew 27:46b ESV)
In that moment, as the weight and darkness of every sin of every living person past, present, or future came upon him, Jesus felt the greatest separation from God possible. In essence, God forsook himself. To forsake means “to abandon.”
In an 1877 sermon, Charles Spurgeon quoted Martin Luther as having contemplated the idea of “God forsaking God.” It was something Luther simply could not wrap his mind around to which Spurgeon agreed. I would have to agree as well.
God wants to restore us to a right relationship with him. His love for us is so great that he was literally willing to abandon himself in order to make a way for mankind to be reconciled to him.
It’s a gift that should never be taken lightly. It’s the single greatest gift that has ever been or ever will be given. There is none greater.
