A SHOUT or a Whisper?

“DO NOT TAKE REVENGE, MY FRIENDS, BUT LEAVE ROOM FOR GOD’S WRATH, FOR IT IS WRITTEN: “IT IS MINE TO AVENGE; I WILL REPAY,” SAYS THE LORD.”

Romans 12:19

“O Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
    for with the Lord is unfailing love
    and with him is full redemption.”

Psalm 130:7

 

So what’s the problem here?

One verse is in bold, ALL CAPS, and large font size while the other is much smaller font, lower case and not bold.

I did it because I wanted to somehow represent how each of these verses, and in turn the character of God, often ‘plays out’ inside our head.

It is often a thundering, booming, fearful voice that shouts, echoes and reverberates in our head the verse from Romans.

If we hear the verse form Psalms at all it is barely audible, just below a whisper and hardly something that grabs our attention.

Both verses are true. That is not the point.

Sometimes we only hear what we perceive is the judgment voice of God and completely miss His words of compassion and mercy.

In our heads, it is as if one bellows while the other comes across as nothing more than a hushed tone or in inference.

God exacts vengeance on His enemies.

God will judge the unrepentant sinner.

But God looks at the believer and He sees a man or woman cleansed and justified through the blood of His Son.

He or she is righteous before God because of Christ.

Sometimes when we sin – and believers do – we forget about the work of the cross and we start amplifying the vengeance at the expense of His redemption.

Pastor made a statement on Sunday that addresses this question when he said:

“If you present a God who is only as good to you as you are to Him – you’ve got a problem.”  

That is true.

And the problem that you have is it removes God’s grace out of the equation.

It puts me on the same level as God – and if that happens it is either a very puny god or quite an over-inflated view of myself.

Maybe both!

God’s mercy, His grace, His compassion and His love for me is far, far, (infinitely) greater than I could ever imagine.

So the next time, you as a believer have a screaming voice of vengeance and judgment in your head, silence it with the mercy, and cleansing work of the cross!