Interesting is that many people have a form of believing in God. Some believe He is good and kind too all. Others see him as a hard taskmasker who is impossible to please unless we try really hard and go through all kinds of afflictions. And there are many variations in between. But what is the right view? Even christians who believe in the God of the bible and his son Jesus Christ, often have a twisted view of what God is like. Now I believe it takes a lifetime to get to know God. And even afterwards we grow in our knowledge of him. It is an ungoing journey like all relationships are. Yet I believe there is a basic truth about the nature of God, what He is like, that is important for us to know. Why? Because I believe our eternal destination depends on it. But also our happiness throughout life and the way we view ourselves and others. It basicly affects everything we do. Our whole attitude and take on life.
So how do we know what is the right view? To be honost I do not have an anwer to that question that might satisfy you. I do believe we can know. And I also believe the bible tells us the truth about God. Yet many who read it do not believe. And others do. So what is the key here? It is obviously not a matter of the mind. I can describe my faith in such a way it makes total sense to me, yet you might still not agree and believe what I do. So how can we believe and gain understanding of God that is truth? Many propose there is no such thing as truth. Yet if I ask you to do a simple math we all agree there is only one right answer. It is just foolishness to say one and one together can be two or three or four etc. In the same way God cannot be kind and caring and distant and malicious at the same time. There is only one truth. And I believe it is a matter of our hearts attitude whether we find it or not. Common sense might help as well, yet even the most intelligent among us can believe foolish things. Intelligence and wisdom are two seperate things. They do not always go hand in hand. A child is sometimes wiser in its behavior than a grown up scholar.
What I propose is to be open minded and to put aside all familiar understanding and knowledge you might have, and ask yourself: “What if this is true? What would my response be?” Then afterwards you can still choose to reject it all if you want to. I will not respect or love you any less. But you can never receive anything new if you are predetermined not to believe it. People have seen evidence of things before their eyes, even miracles, and yet their mind reasoned them all away. I hope you will not do that and give yourself a chance of finding truth that is real and lifegiving. It is not about me being right. I am good with believing something that others do not. But for your sake I hope you open up your heart and sincerely ask yourself the question if what I write could be true. No one needs to even know you are pondering this. Just let it be a searching of your own heart.
Apart from the fact that there can only be one truth, let us look at why it is harmful to worhip gods that are not God. In the bible God revealed himself to Abraham as “I AM”. Which basicly means “He who was, He who is and He who will be.” The hebrew for this is JAHWEH. This is the God I want to propose to you to be the only God. (So technically I am a christian. However I prefer to avoid this word “christian” and use the word “believer” instead because of the negative connotation it has for many. Understandably.)
Abraham and his family and race worshiped other gods just like the whole world did. Idols made of wood or stone, laid over with silver and gold and other precious ornaments. These gods were made by people. Do you see the connection with the gods that I described before? The god of taking value from our own accomplishments. The work of our own hands just as these gods were. Attainments that have their source in the ability that was given to us. Yet giving ourselves credit for these things like we generated that ability ourselves. Not honoring the Giver. It really is the same as worshiping other gods. The only difference was that they gave those gods names so they could be identified. We on the other hand often do not recognize our gods. But giving credit to ourselves for what comes from God, our Maker, is really the same as worhiping idols that are made by people. Or worshiping other parts of the same creation that we are part of. Like the sun and the stars. We are basicly worshiping ourselves if we do that. Now that sounds terrible because no one wants to worship one self. Or do we? To worship basicly means to elevate. It is supposed to be an expression of love to our Maker. Submission to him by elevating him above us comes from a heart that loves God and is not some sort of slavish activity. God does not consider outward expressions as worship if our heart is not in it. At the same time we can worship God without it being recognized by others as such because they do not see our heart and motivation for the things that we do. Perhaps that is why we can even deceive ourselves when it comes to who we worship. We tend to look at things from how they appear, without realising the heart that is behind it. Yet we elevate ourselves to the place of God if we do not acknowledge him as our source. This may seem harmless to some, but it is more destructive then we realise. Why? Because another god is another master.
God is the only master in the spiritual realm we can have that has always our good in mind. When we do not submit to him we submit ourselves to another. Even other people. People tend to be whimsical though, approving of someone one time yet rejecting them in an instant if they do or say something that does not please them. Like those neighbours that have always been kind to us. Until you ask them to tone down the noise they make in the hallway. All of a sudden they get mad and do not give us one kind word any more afterward. Forever they now consider you their enemy. While all you did was making one request. People can be whimsical like that. Of course behind that lies their own feelings of rejection. Assuming you do not like them anymore because you had one point of critic towards them. And like I mentioned before, the root of that kind of feelings of being rejected often comes from not knowing the love of our heavenly Father. The one that loves us all the time and certainly will correct us when needed but will never tone down his love towards us when He does that. We just often think He does, and that is also how we treath others many times. No wonder we are whimsical. Yet that means that if we subject ourselves to each other for approval we are submitting ourselves to cruel “lovers”. Since it is only God that gives value, we now have replaced him by “gods” that are not stable and trustworthy the way He is. Now we never know if we will be accepted. We never dare to be truly ourselves out of fear not to be accepted by others. After all, what if they do not like us? It would make us feel worthless. That is the result of not submitting to God as our only god. And not having other gods on the side. So even believers are often in bondage because they still have “affairs” (spiritual speaking) by looking to people to validate them. While only the true God can give us value and thankfully always does.
So when we look to others to give us value we are making them our gods, but we are also making ourselves gods because we try to value others in the same way as we look to them for value and also because we are part of the same creation as they are. We are taking the place that belongs to God alone. But can we truly be our own god? Thankfully the answer is no. We may not acknowledge God as such and sit on the throne of our own lives yet only to a degree. Now I may write things now and then that seem a contradiction to you but you have to see it this way. The truth is like a string on an instument, attached on two opposing sides. It is one string only, yet it cannot produce a proper sound until it has the right tension. It works the same with truth. The different parts of that truth need to be in the right balance, in the right place. Then it will produce a beautiful sound.
Thankfully God protected us from truly becoming our own gods. We gave ourselves the place that God should have by not submitting to him, by not acknowledging him above us. Yet that does not mean we now have all the autority over our own lives. He gave us a free will, even in choosing whether we would submit to him or not. Howewever if He would give us all power over our own lives if we rejected him then we would truly become gods. And if we did, there would be no way for us to ever be saved from our foolish decision to rebel against him. There would be no return. There would be no end to the harm we would do to his kingdom. No end of the discord this would bring in the earth. Thankfully He did not put that much of a responsibility on us. We can treat ourselves as the highest autority in our lives, as gods, but we can never truly become one. This means though that if we will not allow God the highest place in our lives, someone else will have it. Initially it may seem that we gave that place to other people, and to a degree we did. Yet the truth is that there is a higher autority above us to whom we submit when we reject God’s sovereignty. I know this autority is even less popular then God, but he does exist. It is probably one of his greatest strategies to make people believe that he is not even there. If you do not believe your enemy exists then he can do a lot more harm to you then when you are aware of the danger he poses. You probably guessed I am now talking about the devil. Now of course he is no threat to God. He is not fighting with God on an equel basis for who gets all the power. That belongs to God alone. It is true he is an enemy of God, but only because God allows it for his own purposes. Once those purposes are fulfilled the devil will lose all his power that he now still has. I believe that one of those purposes is that God could give us a free will. He could have done that without the devil of course but then we could not be redeemed if we rebelled against him. We would become through and through evil, just like the devil who once was a glorious angel, a servant of God to whom He had bestowed great splendor, became evil itself.
The devil has a free will just as God gave a free will to us. However he started to question the goodness of God. He stopped believing God had his good in mind and became proud of all the glory God had given him. He forgot that God was the source of all his beauty and power. He was meant to be a great blessing to the kingdom of God yet instead he became the downfall of many by dragging them down with him in his rebellion against God. He got convinced that God was holding out on him and that his existence would be even better if he himself had the place of God. Of course he was not thinking straight, because God had made him and sustained his life. So how could he even continue to exist if he would replace God? Yet we are copying his behavior by not wanting God to be above us and trying to take his place. Why? I believe because the devil seduces us into doing this. In the book Genesis in the bible we can read about how God created us and placed us in a garden. In the middle of that garden stood two trees. The only tree the first people, Adam and Eve, were not allowed to eat from was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If they ate from that tree they would know the evil that is the result of not obeying God. It is interesting that is was a tree of both good and evil. This shows me that evil often takes the form of something good. It can hold something that is not even bad in itself. Yet because it is done in rebellion against God it is evil and it temps us to do it because it looks so good. The bible describes how the devil appeared in the form of a snake and started to lie against Adam and Eve. He asked them what God had told them about that tree and then plainly stated this was not true. He lied by saying God was a liar! This was the most vital moment in history up to that point. All of heaven was bending over in full expectation to see what the response of these first people would be against this heinous accusation. The charge that God was not good and was holding out on them. This was their chance to show trust to their Maker. Now they could exercise the gift of free will God had given them. Either by returning his love for them through obedience, which would be the appropriate response to his gift of life, or by blatantly rebelling against his instructions, which would be an utter expression of distrust and dishonor. Taking their eyes from the Giver of life towards his gifts. Even worse to look to themselves. So was it true, this accusation? Was God really holding something back from them? Did they have to do something, to eat from that tree, to become like God? That was the devil’s temptation. They did not realise they already were made in his image. They had even been given the great autority to rule the earth. To subdue and replenish it and to multiply. They had been given the command to reign with God and to create with him. Does that not closely resemble being god? There was only one thing that made them different from God. The fact that He was their Creator and they were his creations. They actually got the blessing of not having to sustain themselves the way God sustains his own being. The blessing of being his children. Loved by a Father that would always take care of them. The blessing that He holds out to each and every one of us. But He gives us a free choice. He is intent on having a relationship with us that is based on trust. And so the devil gave them a chance to speed up their decision to put their trust in their Creator. Would they take it? Unfortunately we all know the answer. Although they had been given the full ability to resist the devil they chose not to. And so many of us to this day have given in to the temptation to mistrust God and not just wanting to be like him, but to be him, which is all the devil wanted. He knew very well that if we gave in to his temptation to disobey God he himself would get power over us. And that is what happened.
When Adam and Eve gave in to the devil’s temptation to mistrust God and to put themselves above him by disobeying his instructions they did not become their own god. Rather they fell prey to the devil’s malicious intentions. When we give in to the temptation to reject God and disobey him we give the devil the place of God in our lives. You submit yourself to what you obey. And we obeyed the devil’s suggestion to rebel. And although our submission to the devil protects us from becoming through and through evil ourselves, which means we can still turn from our rebellious ways in this lifetime, this does mean that he has power over everyone that does not acknowledge the sovereignty of God. And his intentions towards us are not good. Many people live happily unaware of the grip the devil has over their lives. They think that if God exists He is love and therefore all will go to heaven when they die no matter how they lived or what they believed. Now God is love but this does not mean that our behavior and believes do not have consequenses. That would be like letting criminals roaming around freely because the false assumption we should tolerate everyone and therefore their behavior as well. We all agree that crimes need to be contained and though we may have compassion on the offenders and even understand how they came to commit these crimes we will still take action to prevent them from doing it again. Even to the point of putting lawbreakers in prison or giving them the death penalty. What makes us belief God is any different? He would be a fool and not a good protecter of the other inhabitants of his kingdom that do submit to his rule if He would let any rebel in! However there are two kingdoms. If you are not part of God’s kingdom, where those who submit to his rule dwell, then you live in the devil’s kingdom. You may want to review your believes about God if this describes yours. The kingdom of darkness is not a safe place to be in.
Other people do not believe in him at all and think death is just the end which is equally dangerous. You will lose your soul in eternity. Then there are those that worhip other gods which is the same as elevating ourselves to the place of God since those gods are our own inventions. This is the same as not acknowledging God above us or just surpressing his existence, saying He is not there. Others still worship something in nature and thereby basicly worship themselves since we are part or that same nature. Making ourselves gods and again not acknowledging him above us. And others do believe in the God the bible reveals to us. But even many believers are not fully aware of the role of the devil in their lives. His power over us does not automatically end when we convert to faith in Jesus Christ. Our surrender to God must be total. And although we will be saved and go to heaven when we die if we accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord and repent from our sin, we can only be set free from the devil’s influence in our lives to the degree we submit ourselves to God. That means every aspect of our lives. Not witholding anything back from him and having other “gods” on the side, which we often do. These gods can be anything that take the place God should have. It can be other people from whom we seek approval, to get a sense of self worth. But we make ourselves gods as well if we do that. After all we often think it is up to us to give others their worth. Now it is something else to be kind to someone and to help them see their worth. But often we put ourselves in God’s place. Thinking others need our approval. But they do not. They might need your encouragement now and then, but do not assume they need your validation for anything. I know we are probably not even aware we do this so very often. Thinking we are just encouraging others. While in fact we are basicly stating they need our validation.
I think an example of this is the many programs on tv we have these days were people are judged for there skills. There is nothing wrong with a contest in itself, and it is often fun to see people showing their skills. All to often though a sense of worth, or worthlessness, is attached to those judgements and I believe we should be careful with that. Our value does not come from our successes and who even determines whether we are a success?! If the food you made tastes good to you and your family then please do not let some high and mighty shef that is on tv dictate whether your dish was a success or not. Now if a contest like that stretches you to get the best out of yourself then by all means partake in them. But do not forget to have fun in the process! And do not attach your sense of worth to it. Besides, there are probably people out there in the world that never partake of a contest that are better then the winners. Just to give you some perspective. Our lives should not be a contest. Rather it should be a celebration of what was given to us and others. The devil made it a contest though. He thought it was about who is the highest and has the most power. And we see his influence permeate all throughout our society. Whether at work, at school or in sports and politics. So much strive and discord and even wars would be prevented if we did not turn to other people to give us value. If we did not want to have the highest place and be “god”, the highest autority. If God would be the one we go to for finding a sense of worth we are not offended at other people all the time and we will live in love and peace with each other instead of always trying to outrun others.
Now I know the devil can do all kind of wicked things in people’s lives, like bringing sicknesses or creating disasters and curses. There are others that can write better then I about these things. About witchdoctors and mediums and foretunetellers and such and the influence you open yourself up to when you go to these people. All I can say is: do not get involved in anything that is occult. Do not play that ouija board. You get more then you bargained for. The devil is a deceiver. He will dangle something that looks good in front of you. You may even get some good advise a few times from evil spirits, but it will not last. The result will always be darkness and destruction entering your life. But what we do not often realise is that our tendency to put ourselves above both God and others comes from the devil as well and equally leads to destruction. Like the destruction of our health because the stress it brings to always try to please others. And the ruining of our relationships because no one can ever fill the place in our lives that only God can. Not even a spouse. So we are always disappointed in others for not filling our needs. If we reject God above us we have chosen automatically another master. And he will never let us go out of his grip. Only God can and thankfully will deliver us from him. If only we submit.
So how do we get free from the devil’s influence in our lives? From our selfish tendencies to always let self preservation be our motivation in everything we do. Even in our “good” deeds. You may or may not have experienced in your life that when you tried to get rid of some toxic behavior or habit you were not always able to do so. You may have tried not to get angry every time someone annoyed you. And you failed miserably despite your good intentions. Or you tried to get rid of an addiction, again to no avail. Why? Because when we reject God we lose our free will. To a degree anyway. When the first people gave in to satan (the devil) they came under his power. And he is not such a kind master as God is. God is all about freedom. About giving us free choice, the ability to make our own decisions. The freedom of a relationship that is chosen, desired even. He does not start to dominate our lives all of a sudden at any point. He does not take over the wheel. Only when we surrender a certain aspect to him He might do that. Yet never without our consent. Life with God always remains a partnership. If there is any area in your life where you want to experience his involvement more you have to ask him. And then He will come in. Or if someone else prayed for you He will manifest himself in your life as well. The devil on the other hand is not such a gentleman as Jesus. Once you give in to his temptations he barges right into you life. He does not ask for permission. You gave him access by giving in to him and now he brings darkness where ever he can. When you submit to God He actually sets you free. When you submit to the devil he binds you. And the result is that you are not always able to do what you want anymore. His influence permeates your whole life without even realising it. That anger and bitterness, that unforgiveness and stubbornness, addictions, you name it. It all comes from the devil. Now the good news is that you did not generate this evil behavior yourself. You did give in to it, but it was not your own invention. The good thing about that is that you can be delivered from his influence in your life. Now you may never have seen the devil and never heard him speak to you. (Some have by the way.) But he temps us by speaking to our spirit. By giving us certain thoughts and desires. So you are probably not aware of his existence but he is very real. There is a spiritual realm we all live in and that effects us either for good or for bad. It can give you peace or make your restless. Give you joy or depression. Hope or despair. We are living beings with a will and emotions. Yet not all our thoughts and feelings are generated by ourselves. We do choose what we give into, yet when we reject God’s autority over us we become prey to the devil and our will is greatly restricted. We can not do what we want anymore all the time. That is why we need God to deliver us from him. The only way that this can happen is when we surrender to God.
When the first people disobeyed God in the garden they rejected his sovereignty. It was never about “just eating a wrong fruit”. The gravity of disobedience lies in the person of whom we disobey. You might not always have obeyed your parents. Yet you did not go to prison for this. Perhaps you disobeyed the laws of your government though, and you did go to prison for that or at least received some severe warning or ticket. Now what if we were to disobey the God who rules the earth and even the whole universe? How severe would the rightful punishment for that be? I can think of only one answer. Is there a ruler that would not deal severely with someone that did not acknowledge his autority?If so he would not be very wise. He might be compassionate to the rebel that refuses to submit, yet if he would let him of the hook with no consequences he would severely put the order and peace of his kingdom in danger as long as the rebel refuses to submit. Even if he would not be concerned about his own safety that person would be a danger for the other inhabitants. Unless we speak about a ruler who’s laws are malicious. But I am supposing now that the rules of the kingdom are all for the people’s own good and protection. At least I am convinced it is that way with God. He is not like a human ruler that anxiously wants to hold the respect of the people and otherwise loses his sense of self worth. God does not need anyone to validate him. He does not need our submission. We need it though!
So what would be the appropriate consequence for people that broke his rules, which is all of us? Disobedience to the King of the universe, who knows best what we need. Our very Creator. The One who upholds our life and sustains it. Who makes it worth living and determines what is good and what is evil. He knows better what is good for us than we know ourselves. Like children often do not understand why their parents request certain things of them they may not like. Yet it is for their own protection.
Even the evil in our own hearts we often do not realise. But He sees it all. Our self centeredness and pride. Our living for gain and power. Our desire to be above others. Our tendency to keep control. While of course He is the only One that controls the universe. Or is He? I think it is clear to all of us that if He is God and our Maker He should be our ruler right? Just like it is proper that a child submits to its parents. The ones that gave it life. Yet does God really control our lives? It is not just that we should let Him out of respect for who He is, but also it is the most prudent thing we can do since He alone has the wisdom to govern us the way we need to.
When we look at life I think it is questionable to assume that God controls it all. I am not saying that He cannot control it. I am not saying that He does not have all power and ability to control every detail of our lives. I am also not saying that He is going to let things go on the way they are forever. Yet I believe that initially God gave the earth to people. In the bible we read that God ordered man to submit the earth and to replenish it. That means it was our responsibility to take care of it well. Of course God still has all power and He can easily override our decisions. Yet initially He chooses not to. Even when we make mistakes and choose the wrong things. God is not interested in robots. He wants our free love and obedience. An obedience that flows from love, not from pressure. He does not need our submission. Yet He wants it because it is for our own good that we obey. But also because He cannot have a loving relationship with us if we rebel against him. How can you be close to someone you rebel against? That does not work right? And God wants to be so close to us that we will always know how much He cares for us. He is not a distant God. He takes pleasure in interacting with us like any good parent enjoys spending time with their children. In that sense we really are made in his image. Like children initially come from an expression of love so God made us to express his love. We cannot earn anything from him. This also means that we cannot fail him because our existence did not came forth from or depends on our behavior. Yet this does not mean our actions do not have consequences. Now that does not mean that all of a sudden we have to earn our right to stay alive or to be healthy or succesful or anything. Life really is a gift. We do not have to start earning the love of God at any point of our lives. No matter whether we lived a decent and obedient live or whether we rebelled against him in any way possible. Love still cannot be earned. It never can. We might have all kinds of conditions before we show our love to someone but God is not like that. He does not withold his love from us when we disobey. It may feel like it though because as children we do not always understand his dealings with us. His discipline that is for our own good. His ways to get rid of our toxic behavior that greatly damages life on this earth. He will not keep tolerating it forever although He is and has been extremely patient with us. He loves us deeply and that is exactly the reason why He will not tolerate our destructive ways for all eternity. We may enjoy our rebellious living for a moment yet it will always have a destroying effect on us and those around us. But often we are not aware of it.
God’s affections for us are not stronger when we believe in him. He gives life to all. The rain and the sun are for all. Food comes from the earth for everyone alike. Initially. Yet it does not stay this way forever. Our submission to God will effect his provision sooner or later. And I believe that at times it already has. Not out of spite, some selfish anger which we tend to have when we do not get our way. And not because He ever stops loving us because He never will. I believe God will go to any length to get our attention. To show us our rebellion which will seperate us from him for all eternity if we do not repent from our evil ways. He will even bring disaster if that is what it takes for us to return to him. I know this may be hard to understand but God is more interested in our eternal welfare than our temporary comfort. We are often so focused on the moment but God keeps the whole picture in mind. Which is more than just our lives on this earth. And though not everyone will come to him when He takes measures like that and even people may die, you have to keep in mind that one day we will die anyway. And then it will be to no avail. We may have enjoyed life all due to the goodness of God. Yet we will lose our soul forever if we do not come to him in our lifetime. And so God will do what it takes for us to be saved from eternal damnation and seperation from him. His wrath is really his last act of kindness. How severe it may be. I believe God always postpones his wrath as long as possible. Yet in the end there will always be people that will never get saved by returning to him, unless great disaster strikes them. It is God’s last wake up call for the earth. His last attempt to save souls when all his more gentle nudges to our soul were rejected by us. And it hurts his heart more even then it hurts us. Like no good parent takes pleasure in bringing grief to their children. Yet if that is what is takes to bring them on the right pad they will.
God’s heart longs for us all, no matter if we long for him or not. We might be offended by that but keep in mind that is because of our pride. We want to earn things because it fuels our sense of self worth. But what if we all have the same worth? No matter where we are at in life. Whether we have been successful or not. “Good” citizens or not. If we say that our worth comes from our behavior, we would not be worth anything at our birth. Unfortunately many lives are ended before they even come out of the womb because of our low esteem of life. Yet most parents will not agree. Are not babies the most lovable creatures we know? They produce smells and noises that are far from pleasant. But we adore them!
We are the same to God. He looks at us with such compassion. His love really has nothing to do with what we did or did not do. After all He made us. So even our abilities come from him. Therefore it is impossible to earn anything from God. Now this does not mean that out behavior does not have consequences. Yet life is a gift we cannot undo. We can loose it though which may sound like a contradiction. I do not mean that we will ever stop to exist. But the place where we spend eternity depends on our submission to God. In the bible to belief in God means to submit to him by the way. Now death is only the end of our earthly existence. There is another death however which I am talking about when I say we can lose our lives. It has to do with the quality of our life. It is a spiritual death. Basicly “death” is the absence of God’s manifest presence in our lives, whether here and now or in the hereafter. (This does not mean we have te feel him all the time. Often we need to learn how to recognize him in our lives.) We are eternal beings just like God is eternal. Yet the kind of life we experience can vary tremendously. I am not just talking about that one person might be happy and another not in this lifetime. But since God made us to be in relationship with him we should not be surprised if life does not work very well for us and does not give us the fulfillment we so long for if we do not cultivate that connection with him.
The fact that God loves us does not mean we automatically go to heaven when we die. That would be like being forced into a marriage you did not want. God is not going to coerce you to spend eternity with him! Yet this does have a consequence. There is only one way we get to loose the wonderful aspects of our existence, and that is not through our behavior but through the absencse of a connection with God. The same way rebellion affects a child’s relationship with its parents the same way it affects our relationship with God if we ignore him. He does not love us any less but like we have seen earlier He cannot allow us to stay in rebellion if He wants to uphold the morality and peace of his kingdom. Neither would it make us happy if we were allowed to continue in our rebellion forever. We might think it would and again children are a good example here. They probably do not like discipline initially, yet they are more happy when they are disciplined and restrained when needed than when they are given free range in everything. They often need to be told how to behave. There are many things they need to learn and eventually they are thankful for instructions and discipline because it leads to peace and is for their own good. Also they have a need to know that someone else is in control. It gives them a sense of safety. The same way we need God’s instructions and supremacy over our lives. Only then we come fully alive and have peace.
God does not want to punish us. He takes no pleasure in it. And He certainly does not want to be seperated from us forever. After all we are his children, whom He loves very much! Yet in order to have peace and safety in his kingdom, or should I say in his family, He will do whatever is necessary for this. Even if it means that those who rebel against him and never accept his sovereignty over their lives have to be banished. He will not take delight in that at all. On the contrary it brings him great grief. Yet it is the only way to bring peace and harmony in the kingdom. And He will do it for the sake of those that submit to him. But He did not make that decision lightly and He first did everything possible to save those who rebelled against him. He provided a way for them to escape the rightful punishment for their behavior. That probably sounds unfair to you, especially if you consider yourself to be worthy of God and his eternal presence in heaven. Or if you are thinking that if you deserve punishment you will pay it yourself. You do not want mercy. Your pride flares up right away by that thought. If you are not concerned with those things on the other hand it is the best news you will ever hear in your life!
Anyone that is convicted of their own shortcomings and rebellion against God will cling to his mercy with their whole being once they realise they are not able to pay for their own sin. Truth is that none of us deserves heaven. You do not want justice. Because that would mean you would have to be condemned. To be banished from his presence forever. You may think this is not a big deal since you do not want to be with God anyway. Or so you think. However without realising it you already are experiencing a measure of his presence. We all do. The whole earth is filled with his glory. But in order to have fulness of live we need to have a relationship with God. If you die without having submitted yourself to God, to Jesus Christ, you will lose all the glory this life contains. And your soul will long for all eternity to be with God, but then this is not possible anymore. Because it has to be a free choice and once we see God in all his glory after we have died we will all be compelled to bow to him. It will not be a free choice anymore. Hell is the place we then go to. Hell, because we are seperated from his glory forever. If you want to party for all eternity, heaven is the place you want to be. There is nothing more satisfying and exhilarant then to be close to God forever. But how can God give mercy and forgive us if that leads to lasting chaos and strife in his kingdom the way we already experience in life right now? If He forgives rebels and lets them continue to rebel then how can there be peace? How can anyone be safe?
Creator's Joy 