“If there is a God, surely, He’ll just forgive everyone. The idea of judgment is just religion trying to scare people.” Ever heard that? Ever thought it yourself? It seems reasonable, right? Or does it?
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judgment
I was speaking to someone recently and I could see that they were struggling to understand what felt like mixed signals in the Bible. On the one hand, there are verses that speak of believers as being clean, washed of their sins, forgiven, and made holy. On the other hand, there are verses that speak of God being grieved by our sins and disciplining us for them. When the Bible speaks of our forgiveness and cleansing is God just trying to inspire us? Or when the Bible speaks of the ongoing presence of our sins is God just trying to scare us? When God sees His children is He shaking His head in frustration? Or is He graciously looking away from the areas where we still falter? How should believers understand God’s attitude toward them when they sin? Let me suggest that there are two hats that can help us make sense of the Bible’s competing descriptions of God’s attitude toward us.
Most people feel that God is angry and judgmental in the Old Testament but full of love and forgiveness in the New Testament. And they struggle to read the Old Testament as a result. But Jesus constantly quoted from it and Paul said that “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Are we reading the Old Testament the way they did? I think that there are at least three things that can help us reconcile the depictions of God in the Old and New Testaments.
Most people read the Bible for practical principles and spiritual encouragement. When you come to a section like the plagues of Egypt, you find neither. How are you supposed to read sections like this and what can you learn from them?