Knowing God

Romans 11:22


Know the kindness and severity of God. Why is it that I do not mind knowing His kindness, but don't want to consider His severity. If you read the Bible, you will see so much of His severity. But that doesn't preach well, and I don't want to hear it. Jesus understood both the kindness and severity of God. He knew it from the start and everything he did was predicated by both of these. I believe that is why Jesus was like He was, compassionate for men while able to confront and preach and teach the difficult things of God. That is why He was able to let the rich young ruler walk away and not chase him down and change His stance because the man rejected His message. The Scriptures teach that Jesus looked at him and him and loved him, but that did not change the truth or the way that Jesus dealt with the truth.


I believe one of the keys to understanding and worshipping is seeing the severity of our sin from God's eyes. But how can we see that if we do not know the severity of God? How does a child learn if never exposed to the rod of discipline? How many of us have heard the words. "Wait until your father gets home!" Now I am fortunate to have had a good father and I know that he loved me. But my behavior was also based on the severity of his response if I did not do as I should.


The severity of God's response is not based on me, but on the sin that is in me. That is why I am so thankful that Jesus came to remove that from me forever. And that brings our the worship in me.