Tuesday, July 24, 2012

A Study in Job part twenty


Job then calls God the “Watcher of men,” and asks why he was a “target.” It is because the eye of the Lord is in every place beholding the evil and the good, that each of us is a target for eternal justice. God personally witnesses our crimes, and His goodness must seek retribution. He witnessed Hitler’s atrocities, and He will therefore see that perfect justice is eventually done. On that day we will see that Hitler didn’t get away with anything. God will see to it that mass murderers are punished. He would not be good if He allowed anyone who did such terrible things to escape justice. But He is so good He will punish rapists, thieves, liars, fornicators, blasphemers, adulterers, homosexuals, pedophiles, in fact Jesus warned that we will give an account even for every idle word we have spoken. That leaves all of us in big trouble in Judgment Day. Look at Scripture’s warning:

“But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God” (Romans 2:2-11).

Job then asks why God, “Why then do You not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity?” Little did he know how God would graciously deal with his and our transgressions a thousand years later. He would be manifest in human form and, as a perfect sinless man, suffer and die for the sin of the world. That meant that God could legally, once and for all, pardon our many transgressions and let us live.

1 comment:

  1. Yeah about that last part... Doesn't it strike you as a supremely silly and amoral concept?

    I mean, you get a creator who decreed himself that we'd all be sinners because of the sin of one (then decreed that sins should not be hereditary), who is omnipotent and therefore could make sin not hereditary anymore, and that entity has to go through this kludge of a "solution"? He has to sacrifice himself to himself in order to appease himself? Couldn't god say, basically, "well, from now on, all sins are pardoned, and so as not to have to pardon too much, human are not sinful anymore"?

    And even then, even if this charade was necessary, he puts each member the human race in the position of either having to pay for something he's been unable not to do, or have someone else suffer on their behalf.

    that's a sick philosophy you have here.

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