Spankings. Time outs. Groundings. It’s time for some discipline. No more TV. No more video games. No more cell phone. We parents are quite creative with our forms of discipline.

Discipline is an important part of a child’s development. Without it, most kids would grow up spoiled or out of control. We all probably know a young girl with the princess complex. Or the young boy who rampages through everything while their parents sit by watching their cute little boy. News flash – it’s not cute! And your spoiled little princess is annoying.

Despite what some may think, discipline is not mean. In fact, it is an act of love if done consistently, appropriately, and lovingly. And I’m not talking about abuse. Abuse is never rooted in love; discipline is. The heart of discipline desires what is best. As a result, the aim of discipline is to correct what is wrong and to fix what is broken.

As our heavenly Father, God is also in the business of discipline. But how he disciplines his children and the reason for doing it can be very different from how parents discipline their kids. Sometimes we do it out of anger and frustration. God never does. Sometimes punishment is associated with our methods of discipline. It’s not a part of God’s.

Perhaps one of the clearest expressions of God’s discipline comes from the author of Hebrews. Let’s see how he put it.

“And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,

     and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

      and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.’

“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:5-11).”

The first thing that catches my eye is that the entire passage begins by reminding the readers that this is a word of encouragement. Now how many parents tell their children that they should be encouraged just before they discipline them? But that’s exactly what Hebrews says. Why? How can this be encouraging?

Here’s why I think it’s hard for us to be encouraged by discipline. When it comes to human discipline, it often involves some form of punishment, such as the examples I started the article with, and usually doled out in anger. Who would be encouraged by that? No one wants to feel the sting of painful punishment when it’s rooted in seething anger.

But notice what the Lord’s discipline is rooted in. Love! Like a good parent, God does not fly off the handle when he disciplines. His discipline is not harsh. It can’t be. It’s not done out of anger; it’s done out of love.

Yes, the Hebrews passage speaks of enduring hardship, but it doesn’t say that God causes the hardship. It’s more like he uses the hardships we encounter as a way to teach us, mold us, and shape us. It’s like how Joseph in the Old Testament went through a series of hardships with his brothers, Potiphar and his wife, and the chief cupbearer. He went from nearly being killed, to being sold as a slave, to being falsely accused of a sexual assault on his master’s wife, to spending time in prison, and being forgotten for some time by a man he helped in prison. On top of all that was having to live with the memory of a loving father that he surely thought he would never see again.

God used all that Joseph went through for his good and the good of others.. Joseph himself acknowledged as much when he told the brothers who thought of killing him, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good (Genesis 50:20).” And what good came out of all this? Joseph was promoted to be second in charge of Egypt, got married and had two sons, and was reunited with his father.

As good as that was there was something else that came out if that was far more important. Joseph could have easily become embittered by all the happened to him, particularly toward his brothers who sold him into the slavery that started all his hardships in the first place. But as we see in his encounter with his brothers, Joseph had learned to have compassion and humility and he forgave them of all wrongdoing. As a result, he and his brothers were reconciled. What was broken was fixed and what was lost was found. Love, not hatred, won the day. None of that would have been possible without God’s discipline.

Does Joseph’s compassionate, forgiving attitude remind you of anyone? It does me. It reminds me of Jesus. And that’s the point of God’s discipline. As I mentioned earlier, God’s discipline is not like ours, and it would be a mistake to think of it in that way. God doesn’t spank us, put us in time out, or take something away from us that we enjoy. God uses our circumstances to teach us. It’s similar to how Paul describe the Scriptures as being “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).” That’s what God’s discipline does. It teaches, rebukes, corrects, and trains us. As the Hebrews passage above says, “God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.”

And therein lies the key to God’s discipline. He desires that we share in his holiness. Another way of putting that is that God’s discipline is intended to conform us into the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). Jesus was the firstborn of many sons and daughters. As God’s children, he wants us all to grow and mature and to leave behind the sins that once entangled us. Like Joseph, God’s discipline is constantly shaping our character and making us more like Jesus. In that way, we reap a “harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:11).”

When you break it all down, God’s discipline is more evidence of his grace. We do a lot of stupid things. And when children do stupid things, parents can often get irate and lose their cool. But not God. His grace shines through as he patiently and lovingly teaches us and correct us. Through it all, we see the truth that God’s grace “teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:12-13).”

Let’s play a little word association. You know how this game goes. I say a word and you say the first word that comes to your mind. For example, if I said “apple,” you might say “sauce” or “pie.” If I said “cotton,” you might say “candy” or “shirt.”  Or how about “Hitler?” You probably thought “Nazi,” “dictator,” or “evil.”

What about when I say “God?” What word or words come to mind? I’ll give you a minute. Come back when you’ve thought of some good ones. Are you ready? Okay, tell me what you came up with. Oh, that’s right. I’m here and you’re there. Oh well, it was fun anyway.

If I had to guess, the words that probably came to your mind were “love,” “grace,” “mercy,” or “forgiving.” All those are excellent words and accurate descriptions of God, but there’s another one I’d like to focus on. It’s a word that Jesus used to describe his Father. In Mark 10:18, Jesus is involved in a conversation with someone who calls him “good teacher,” which led to this response. “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.”

So there we have it in definitive terms – God is good! Is there any question about it? Apparently so, given how some people attribute some awful things to Him.

For example, there are those who believe that God is responsible for natural catastrophes, diseases, wars, famine, and other awful disasters. How many of us have heard Christians claim that the 9-11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. was God’s punishment for the wickedness of our nation? How many claimed that Hurricane Katarina was directed by God to punish New Orleans for her sins? How about the members of Westboro Baptist Church who have protested at military funerals and stated that God’s judgment was upon America because of the sin of homosexuality?

I find all of this both unfortunate and sad. Part of what makes it so unfortunate is that I used to be somewhat among those who think that way. I never went to the extreme that some believers go to, but I have in the past thought that God would judge our nation for abandoning Him and His moral laws.

Where did such thinking come from? From what I now believe to be a misunderstanding of the stories of the Old Testament. I mean, let’s face it. How many times in the Old Testament do we read about God judging a sinful nation and bringing calamity upon it? If it could happen to them, I thought, why not us?

What I and others had failed to take into account is the God that Jesus revealed. Let me just say it straight. Jesus did not show us a God who brings about disaster on others. Instead, like I’ve pointed out before, Jesus showed us a God who is merciful, compassionate, loving, forgiving, and full of grace. He’s not a God who tears down but one who builds up. He’s not a God who destroys but one who creates. He’s not a God who brings about pain but one who heals.

And that’s the sad part of it. When we attribute these awful things to God, it tends to obscure our understanding of Him as good. And once our understanding becomes obscured like that, our minds start to conceive of God as being good only to those who are good themselves (in our eyes, of course) and becomes a just God who punishes those who clearly deserve it. When it reaches that point, we’re missing Jesus’ own declaration that God is good.  

And he was not alone. Many of the Psalms contain a refrain such as, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever (Psalm 106:1).” He’s not good only to those who are good, for who is good? As Jesus said, only God alone. We need to remember that we’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

But as the Psalmist reminds us, God is good and his love is eternal, even to those who have sinned. And who does that include? Everyone! But that’s the good news; no one stands outside his goodness.

Another sad aspect of losing sight of God’s goodness is when we start to think that God punishes us for something we’ve done by causing us to lose a job, lose a loved one, or lose our own health. That’s not God’s way. As James reminds us, “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows (James 1:16-17).” In other words, God is in the business of giving good gifts, not bad ones. So don’t be fooled into thinking that God is out to get you when terrible things are happening to you.

When we are facing difficult times, we must keep in mind that it’s not a test or a punishment from God. Sometimes bad things just happen because we live in a world that’s been tainted and corrupted by sin. But despite that, God still cares and is still working on our behalf. Never forget what Paul wrote – “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).”

God will never abandon you. He is always working for your good, just as he did for Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Ruth, Peter, Paul, and countless other saints who faced some very difficult situations. And how can we be certain that he is working for our good? Because he is good!

All the terrible disasters that befall mankind should never be attributed to God. There is one, however, who revels in our demise. As Jesus explained, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10).” The thief, Satan, has only one thing in mind, and it’s not our well-being. He is the one who is set on our destruction, not God. As Jesus plainly stated, God, through Jesus, came to give us life. Now that’s something to rejoice about.

God’s goodness, just like his grace, is rooted in his nature. And at the core of his nature is a beating heart of love. He’s passionate about his creation and has nothing but love for mankind. That’s why we are told, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:3-4).” Because of his goodness, God is working to restore the broken and save the lost. That’s the essential grace of God, and he wants us to enjoy it now and for eternity. So when you think about it, there can only be one conclusion – God is good!

If you hadn’t yet read my article from last week, I would suggest that you stop now and go back and read it. It’s a lead up to what’s in this article.

In my own journey of progressive revelation, I went from being a little kid to where it seemed that God revealed himself as a Santa Claus to being an adolescent/young adult who perceived God as one who wanted to be worshipped above all. I then entered my middle adult years with a God who revealed himself (or so I thought) as one who wanted my time, talent, and treasure more than anything.

Looking back on the years of that progressive journey, I see two main things that motivated my relationship with God – fear and performance. My desire to be good, to read the Bible, to tithe, to go to church weekly, etc., was largely rooted in a fear that God would be disappointed and angry with me. And in his wrath, I feared that God might punish me in someway. I wanted to avoid that, so I tried my best to be my best.

During those early adult years, my awareness of the love of God was somewhat limited. I believed how much he loved me was largely dependent on me. If I did what God wanted me to do, he would love and bless me. If I didn’t, well, you probably know the rest. Again, it was performance driven by fear.

That all began to change about ten years ago during the midst of something like a crisis of faith. Like many other churches before, ours went through a split that led to a lot of bitter heartaches, the loss of a minister, the loss of members, the loss of the building, and ultimately, the loss of the church itself. As a result, I began asking God a lot of serious questions about the nature and purpose of the church. In my search for answers, I ended up being led in directions I never intended to go.

God took my desire to understand what he intended the church to be and do and took me far beyond that. In fact, what he did was begin revealing things about himself that I never saw or understood before. He took the revelation of himself that had been slowly progressing throughout my first 40+ years and put it into hyperdrive. What I have learned about God since then has been nothing short of incredible.

I began to see God’s grace in ways I had never known before. In my earlier limited understanding of God’s love, I saw Jesus as the good guy who was pleased with me but I saw the Father as someone who had to be pleased. Jesus was the one who loved me, died for me, and lived for me. He was the one who had intervened on my behalf so that God’s wrath would be satisfied. I was truly appreciative of what Jesus had done because I understood that to be the only means by which God could love me.

How wrong I had been. What God began to reveal to me was that he had always loved me, even in my worst moments. In fact, he revealed that he is love, that’s that is the very essence of his nature. And because he loved me, I could be free of the merry-go-round of performance and fear.

In his grace, he showed me things I had never really noticed before, or at least had never deeply sunk in. He wasn’t keeping a record of my wrongs. He wasn’t counting my sins against me. In fact, he was remembering them no more. The proof – he loved me so much that he gave me his one and only son so that I may have life in him.

Even more, he has promised to never leave me nor forsake me. He’s given me his Holy Spirit so that he is with me everywhere I go and in everything I do. And because I am in Christ and Christ is in me, he is not condemning me. The reality of these truths has brought peace between God and me, though God was never my enemy in the first place. I was just now waking up to that astounding truth. And it was freeing.

It was so freeing, in fact, that it brought about the biggest change of all in my life. The fear of being punished by a disappointed and angry God began to melt away, as did the need to perform in order to keep him happy. God showed me there was no need for it anymore. In truth, there never had been, though it may have served a purpose in my younger days, perhaps keeping me in check from doing some really stupid and harmful things.

I also began to understand parts of the Bible either for the first time or in ways I never had previously. And one of those passages was 1 John 4:18 – “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” Now that God had opened my eyes to the truth of his perfect love, I no longer feared being punished by him. How could I fear the one who loves me as deeply and completely and passionately as he does? God was not out to punish me; he was out to restore me.  He was constantly pursuing me, loving me, and working to set things right where sin had done wrong. It’s as if God was saying to me, “I make everything new (Revelation 21:5)!” He has certainly made me new.

And that is my personal story of progressive revelation. I am confident, however, that my story is not even close to being completely written. For as long as I am in this body and seeking after him, I am certain that God will reveal even more about himself.

I am also certain that my story is not alone. I believe that everyone who has been a Christian for some time has a similar story as mine – one in which the way they understand God is not the same today as it was when they were a much younger Christian.

I also believe the progressive revelation we experience in our personal lives mirrors the progressive revelation we find in the Bible. Just as the way we perceive things as a child changes as we grow older and become wiser with experience and maturity, I see the same thing in the story of humanity as recorded in the Bible. You can see the gradual change in the way ancient Israel perceived God in their younger days from the way they perceived him as they grew and matured. What they understood about God progressively changed as God revealed more about himself as they grew and matured. Their growing maturity enabled them to understand more about God, just as we can understand more about our parents as we mature to adulthood. It’s like Paul said of himself, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known (1 Corinthians 13:11-12).”

That day of knowing fully still awaits us. But that doesn’t mean we can’t know more of God right now while we’re still here on earth. Continue to seek after him. He is a Father of absolute love and grace. He will reveal what you are capable of absorbing. And especially keep your eyes on Jesus. Remember that he and the Father are one; that if you’ve seen him, you’ve seen the Father. Everything the Father wanted to reveal to us is in Jesus. Go to him with open eyes and an open heart. You’ll be in for the ride of your life.

About three weeks ago, I introduced a concept known as progressive revelation. I developed it even more the following week. For the purpose of review, progressive revelation is the idea that God revealed things about himself gradually over time and that his fullest revelation is found only in Jesus Christ. That means that those who lived prior to Jesus did not have a complete picture of God because they had only a portion of the truth.

If you’re like me and have been a Christian for quite awhile, you probably don’t think of God in the same way you did when you were young. As you’ve grown in maturity and wisdom, your understanding of God has likely changed along with you. That too may be a result of progressive revelation.

As I thought about it more, I began to see parallels between progressive revelation in the Bible and progressive revelation in my own life. It’s uncanny how closely they resemble each other. Perhaps you’ve had a similar experience in your lifetime. Follow along on my personal journey and see what you think.

The first thing that jumps out at me is the similarity between how early humanity thought of God and how I did as a child. When I was young, I thought God was a lot like Santa Claus. And like Santa, I believed that “He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake.” Psalm 139 seems to agree. As David sensed about God, “You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways (Psalm 139:2-3).”

However, that’s where the comparison ends. In the famous Christmas song, the next line states, “He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.” The obvious implication is that if you’re not a good boy or girl, if you don’t obey your parents, eat all the food on your plate, do your chores and homework, and treat your siblings nicely, you won’t get gifts. In fact, punishment is what awaits you.

That is exactly what I thought of God. I thought, as did early humanity, that if you don’t obey God’s commandments, I wouldn’t get blessed. I was certain that lightning bolts would descend from heaven upon my head for all the stupid and sinful things I did. It was bad enough getting punished by my parents. It was even worse thinking that God was ready to get me too.

When you think about it, that line of thinking comes right out of the old covenant – the Mosaic Law to be exact. Specifically, it comes straight from Deuteronomy 28, among other places. Deuteronomy 28 spells out in some detail all the ways Israel would be blessed for obedience and all the curses they’d incur for disobedience. It sounds very much like how a parent would relate with his/her little child.

This resembles in some ways a relationship built on fear. That was the dominant theme for me early on. To me, God was someone to be feared and respected. I mean, who wants to get thumped for not doing the right thing.

As I grew up into my teenage and early adult years, my view of God as Santa Claus changed somewhat. That doesn’t mean that I no longer feared or respected God. It just means that other things I perceived about God came into the picture. For example, years of religious instruction taught me that God not only wants my obedience but he wants my worship as well. That’s why it was critical to be at church every Sunday. In fact, missing a Sunday was another way of disobeying and disappointing God, and that was something to be afraid of.

And simply being at church was not good enough. Worship wasn’t just about being there. It was about what I did, said, and thought while I was there. My attention was to be on God and only him during that time. If my mind wandered off to the football game I wanted to watch on tv afterwards, that was a big no-no. Or if I started thinking about what I wanted for lunch, I clearly was not worshipping. Or if I did not dress right, or sing out loud, or take communion properly, I was not being reverent enough. Or even worse, if I started thinking how I couldn’t wait for church to be over with, I was probably doomed for trouble.

That reminds me of how the Israelites had very specific rules and regulations for their “worship.” There were particular sacrifices they had to make, certain ways that they had to handle holy items, such as the Ark of the Covenant, and certain things the priests had to wear and do before they could enter the Most Holy Place of the temple. If things weren’t done right, there was going to be a price to pay.

I imagine the Israelites never dreamt that one day the curtain in the temple that separated the Most Holy Place from everything else would be torn from top to bottom. I imagine the priests of Jesus’ time couldn’t have dreamt it either. And yet it happened (Matthew 27:51). I imagine that they couldn’t have guessed that there wouldn’t be a temple someday, or that there wouldn’t be a high priest, or that sacrifices weren’t required to come near to God. And yet all that happened too. It’s amazing how our understanding changes as we grow and mature.

As I grew into my middle-adult years, the emphasis began to shift a bit again. I became convinced that what God wanted from me more than anything was my time, talent, and treasure. I’m sure you’ve heard that expression before. If I wasn’t putting in my time to pray and read the Bible, God would be disappointed with me. If I wasn’t tithing to the church every week, God was going to be upset with me. If I wasn’t using my talents and gifts to bring him glory, he was going to be angry with me.

As you can see, the fear factor was still present in how I understood God to be. The fear of making God angry, that he might punish me in some way, was still there. It’s not that it controlled me or made me cower in a corner expecting him to strike me down at any moment, but still the thought persisted. I was still relating to him in some degree through fear of disappointment or punishment. Yes, there was by this time a knowledge that he loved me, but it was as if in my mind God was holding a scale. If I did good things that pleased him, he would love me. If I did bad things that upset him, he might punish me somehow. The goal then was to do more good than bad.

This view of God began to change in me about ten years ago. It’s a change that has completely altered the way I view God and the way that I relate to him. And it’s definitely a change that continues to grow and permeate my thoughts and being. What is this change? Well, I’m sorry to do this to you, but you’ll have to come back next week. (Hint: I know this will shock you, but it has something to do with a revelation of God’s grace.) So join me again on my very own personal journey of progressive revelation.

So it all comes down to this. The journey we started in April to discover who God is has revealed a lot about Him. Not that we have learned everything there is to know about God, for that would take an eternity. But what we have learned has been quite amazing. Hopefully, we’ve had some misunderstandings and misconceptions vanish as we have sought Him out.

One of the things we have learned as we have explored together is that if we truly desire to know who God is, then we must turn to Jesus. We’ve learned that if we’ve seen Jesus, then we’ve seen the Father (John 14:9) because he and the Father are one (John 10:30). That he only said the things he heard his Father say (John 8:28; 12:49) and did the things he saw his Father do (John 5:19). That the work he came to do in this world was to reveal the Father to the world (John 17:4,6) because He came from the Father (John 1:1-2), is the only one who has seen the Father (John 1:18), is the only one who knows the Father (Matthew 11:27), and is God himself (John 1:18). We’ve also learned that Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), that all the fullness of God lives in him (Colossians 2:9), and that he is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1:3). In fact, Jesus is in very nature God (Philippians 2:6).

That truth helps to explain what happened on the mountain in which the transfiguration took place. There before Peter, James, and John stood Jesus with dazzling white clothes. And with Jesus appeared Moses and Elijah, the two who perhaps most represented the old covenant law and the prophets. Suddenly, a cloud covered them all and the Father spoke from the cloud saying, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him (Mark 9:7)!” And just as suddenly Moses and Elijah were gone from their sight. Only Jesus remained with his disciples. It was as if God was telling the disciples to leave the law and the prophets behind. Neither could adequately reveal who He was. Only Jesus could do that. Jesus was then and still is today the only one who can show us the true nature of God.

So let’s do what the Father said to do. Let’s listen to Jesus. Who did he tells us his Father is? What kind of God did Jesus reveal?

Jesus showed us a Father who restores sight to the blind and speech to the mutes. He showed us a Father who heals paralytics and lepers. He showed us a Father who frees prisoners from demon possession. He showed us a Father who forgives sinners and doesn’t condemn them. In fact, he hung out with sinners and ate with prostitutes and tax collectors.

He also revealed to us a Father who does not curse anyone with diseases or disasters because of their sins or the sins of their ancestors. He revealed a Father who causes the sun to shine on the good and the evil and sends rain to the righteous and unrighteous. He told us about a Father who raises the dead and gives them life. He told us about a Father who waits patiently for us to return home. He told us that his Father loves His enemies. And more than that, He told us that his Father loves the whole world, so much so that He gave us His Son.

Given all this, does God sound like that He’s prone to violence and destruction? And as you examine how Jesus lived, who is, remember, God in the flesh, can you even begin to imagine him sending plagues, striking down sinners, destroying cities with fire and brimstone, commanding the genocide of a civilization, or wiping out the entire world with a natural disaster? It seems unfathomable, particularly since Jesus revealed a God of grace and love who is willing to forgive even the nastiest of sinners, even while being murdered on a cross.

So if God is not the violent and destructive one, then who is it? Who could it be that is out to destroy everyone he can? I’m sure you know the answer, but let’s listen to what Jesus had to say.

In a discussion with some Jewish people, including some Pharisees, Jesus declared that they belonged to their father.  And who was their father? The devil. And what did Jesus have to say about the devil? “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).”

It can’t be any clearer than that. Satan is both a murderer and a liar and has been that from the very beginning. That’s why he entered Judas (Luke 22:3) and sought to sift Peter (Luke 22:31). They became pawns in part of his master plan to murder the Son of God.

But his murderous and destructive ways certainly don’t stop with Judas and Peter. As Peter warned, perhaps remembering how Satan had sought to sift him, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).” “Someone” is a very inclusive word. It illustrates the truth in Jesus’ statement to the Jews and Pharisees. He is a murderer. He’s out to destroy everyone he can.

His destructive tendencies don’t always result in immediate death or ruination. Sometimes it brings about prolonged pain and suffering. Take as an example the woman who was crippled and unable to stand up straight for eighteen years. Jesus healed her from her painful infirmity, an act of compassion for which he incurred the wrath of a synagogue leader for doing so on the Sabbath. In Jesus’ rebuke of the synagogue leader, listen to whom he laid blame for the poor woman’s terrible condition. “Should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her (Luke 13:16)?” Who caused her suffering? It wasn’t God inflicting her with pain because of her sins or the sins of her parents, as the disciples suggested in regards to the man born blind in John 9. No, God had nothing to do with it. It was none other than Satan, the one prowling around looking for someone to devour. That’s what he’s all about – devouring, destroying, murdering, and lying.

Not only can people be kept bound by Satan with diseases but also by his lies. Like Elymas, the sorcerer who opposed Paul and Barnabas and tried to keep someone they had preached to from becoming a believer. Paul confronted him and said, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord (Acts 13:10)?” Notice what made him a child of the devil. It was his deceit and trickery, the same tactics used by Satan to lead people astray. And notice too that his ways are contrasted with the “right ways of the Lord,” clearly stating that Satan’s ways are the complete opposite of God’s.

In a later letter to Timothy, Paul stated that opponents of Christ need to be gently instructed in the hope that they will repent and come to the truth so that will “escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will (2 Timothy 2:26).” That’s exactly what Satan’s web of lies are – a trap for anyone who buys into them. And once a person is caught, they are his captives, enslaved to do his destructive will.

All the works of Satan are aimed at a single goal – death. That’s what sin brings and sinning is what Satan is all about. As John wrote, “the devil has been sinning from the beginning (1 John 3:8).” But thank God, Jesus came to destroy the work of Satan (1 John 3:8) and “break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil (Hebrews 2:14).”

So there we have it. On the one hand we have God, who is full of compassion, grace, and love, as we find in Jesus Christ. God is the one who seeks to heal what was ailing, restore what was broken, and bring life where there was none. On the other hand we have Satan, who is full of lies, murder, and destruction. It is Satan who inflicts pain and suffering, seeks to devours those he deceives, and brings death to everything he touches.

Based on that comparison and all that we have learned over the last three months, I would like to ask some questions for all to ponder. Is it possible that all the violence, destruction, and death that the Old Testament writers attributed to God was actually brought about by Satan? Is it possible that because of progressive revelation, because they only had a portion of the truth (Hebrews 1:1-2 AMP), because they did not yet know about Satan, the saints of long ago thought God caused the very things that Satan was  responsible for? Could it be that that’s part of why Jesus came into this world – to correct all the misconceptions about God by revealing the true character and nature of his Father and simultaneously destroying all the evil and sinful work of Satan that leads to nothing but death?

If you take the time to prayerfully consider these questions, I am confident that God will reveal Himself to you and guide you into truth. And in that process, be prepared to discover even more a Father who is full of love and grace, both of which are essential for the life He desires for us.

Picture God having this conversation with himself.

“Look at the huge mess down there on earth. These humans have really fouled things up. It’s so ugly, I can’t stand it anymore. But what shall I do? I know. I’ll get even with King Saul. He has really ticked me off with his blatant disobedience. I think it’s time to torment him with some evil spirits. That will teach him a lesson. But what about all those evil Canaanites? Those people are particularly nasty and have really got me boiling mad. I think I’ll tell the Israelites to completely destroy them. That should be a lot of fun. But why should I stop there? I should just go ahead and wipe out the entire world. I mean, have you seen all their wickedness and violence? I’ll spare Noah and his family of course, but the rest have got to go. I just cannot put up with them anymore. Boy, how I wish I had never made them in the first place.”

Can you imagine God having those kinds of thoughts? I sure can’t. It’s not the God that Jesus revealed to all the world, and He certainly would have had ample opportunities to exact some severe punishment on all kinds of people who mistreated His son, if He had wanted to.

Instead, the God that Jesus revealed loves His enemies and shows kindness to them. The God that Jesus revealed didn’t turn away from sinners out of anger but turned toward them out of compassion. The God that Jesus revealed sought to heal, comfort, forgive, and restore people who were lost and broken.

So if God is not the stern, angry, wrathful God who couldn’t stand to look at sin and sinners, then what’s up with all the violent portrayals of Him that we find in the Old Testament? Well, that’s where progressive revelation comes in.

As the author of Hebrews explained, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe (Hebrews 1:1-2).” In other words, as we saw in last week’s article in His encounter with Moses at the burning bush and with Abraham as he was about to sacrifice Isaac, God did not reveal everything about Himself to the Old Testament saints. He revealed only portions at different times. It was only through Jesus that we find the fullest expression of God.

This point becomes even clearer in the same verses of Hebrews in the Amplified Bible. “God, having spoken to the fathers long ago in [the voices and writings of] the prophets in many separate revelations [each of which set forth a portion of the truth], and in many ways, has in these last day spoken [with finality] to us in [the person of One who is by His character and nature] His Son [namely Jesus], who He appointed heir and lawful owner of all things, through who also He created the universe [that is, the universe as a space-time-matter continuum].” Notice that it says that these separate revelations were a “portion of the truth” and that His final revelation of Himself was through Jesus. That’s why I have repeatedly made the point throughout this series that we must always turn to Jesus to see who God truly is.

This opening to Hebrews is a clear expression of progressive revelation, and there are numerous examples of it in the Bible besides what we looked at last week. Let’s take Exodus 20:5 as an example. We’re told that God is a jealous God who punishes the children for the sins of their parents to the third and fourth generation. But about a thousand years later, we learn that God does not punish the children for the sins of their parents. Instead, each person is responsible for their own sins. (Ezekiel 18:20) So which is it? Am I punished for the sins of my great-great-great grandparents or am I responsible for my own?

And that’s not the only example from the Law. In Deuteronomy 28:28, we’re told that one of the curses for disobedience was that God would strike people with blindness. Then we fast forward about 1,500 years to John 9. The disciples encounter a man born blind and they ask Jesus whether his condition was a result of his own sins or his parents’ sins. What would make them think to ask such a question? Obviously, they got it from Exodus 20:5 and Deuteronomy 28:28. The answer they got, however, was not what they would have expected. Jesus tells them that it’s neither the man’s sins nor his parents’ sins that caused the blindness.

Is Jesus going against what his Father said? If so, that’s not the only time. In Matthew 5:38-42, Jesus takes on the concept of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. This idea of legalized retaliation came from the Law itself (Deuteronomy 19:21), and we’re told that the Law was given to Moses by God. But Jesus completely turns it upside down. Instead of getting revenge, Jesus tells us not to resist an evil person and to turn the other cheek.

And then we have the story of the woman caught in adultery in John 8. The Law prescribed the death of those caught in adultery (Deuteronomy 22). However, Jesus, who was the only sinless one in the story, not only did not stone her but didn’t condemn her either.

So again, was Jesus going against his Father? Not a chance. What we’re seeing in all this is more evidence of progressive revelation. What Jesus was doing was showing everyone who is Father really is. He was clearing up misconceptions and misunderstandings remaining from an earlier time when they only had a portion of the truth about who God is. Jesus was doing this by showing that his Father is not someone who wants to stone and condemn sinners but rather loves the world so much that He gave them His only Son (John 3:16). He was showing them that his Father is not someone who strikes sinners with blindness or diseases but rather desires to heal them and restore them (John 9:6, Mark 2:3-12, Luke 17:11-19). He was showing them that his Father is not someone who wants to put everyone to death for disobedience but rather wants to give them life and give it to them abundantly (John 10:10). And he’s definitely showing the world that his Father is not someone who wants revenge against His enemies but rather longs to forgive them unconditionally and without hesitation (Luke 23:34).

What Jesus is ultimately doing is revealing the full and complete truth about God. Moses revealed a God of law, but Jesus revealed a God of truth and grace (John 1:17). That’s the Father who loves us with all His heart. That’s the Father we’re drawn to and want to be close to. And that’s the Father we now know and love.

So if God is not a God of death, disease, and destruction, then who’s to blame for all the violence in the Old Testament? That’s what we’ll explore the next time.

Given the nature of the topic and how much there is to say about it, I’ve decided to dispense with the usual introductory comments and go straight into it. As promised in last week’s article, let’s talk about progressive revelation.

I believe this may be the most important article in this entire series. Understanding progressive revelation goes a long way toward making sense of all those angry, wrathful, violent images of God that we’ve been exploring over the past three months. It also brings to light His true nature even more clearly as we discover a God who is full of love and grace.

Progressive Revelation is the idea that God did not immediately reveal everything about Himself to mankind but instead did so progressively over time as mankind was ready and able to accept it. It’s very similar to how parents increasingly teach their children more as they mature and are able to learn it, comprehend it, and live it. For example, what parent would teach the intricacies of preparing and cooking a meal or the complexities of fixing a car engine to their 2-year old child? It wouldn’t make sense, would it? A 2-year old is in absolutely no position to understand any of it and could get seriously hurt if they tried using sharp utensils, a hot stove, or dangerous power tools. You would be doing them more harm than good. Instead, a loving parent understands their child’s limitations and teaches them things at a level in which they can learn and grow from it.

That is the picture we get of the relationship between God and humanity throughout history. Once Adam and Eve made their choice to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and sin entered the world, mankind’s understanding became darkened by the ravaging effects of sin. From that time until Christ, God began gradually revealing Himself to the world, giving them bite sizes they could consume so that they could grow and learn even more about Him as time progressed.

We see an unmistakable statement of progressive revelation in Moses’ encounter with God in the burning bush. As God is beginning to reveal Himself to Moses, He says, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself fully known to them (Exodus 6:2-3).” And there it is right out of God’s own mouth; He did not make Himself fully known to Moses’ ancestors! So now through Moses He would make more of Himself known to the world. That is progressive revelation.

There are other ways we see signs of progressive revelation in the story of Moses. The ancient cultures of the world at that time commonly held the belief that the gods they worshiped were often angry and spiteful. It didn’t take much to upset them, and these largely agrarian people certainly knew that their gods were displeased whenever they withheld rain and the crops wouldn’t grow, or whenever they sent plagues or war or natural disasters to their land. As a result, the people would offer sacrifices to their gods to make them happy again. If their affliction was severe enough, the sacrifice may have included blood, such as animal or human sacrifices.

We see echoes of this in the Mosaic Law. The first seven chapters of Leviticus spells out the sacrifices the Israelites should make on different occasions. The book even starts by declaring that it was the Lord who told Moses about all these sacrifices. Yet later in the Old Testament, we find God declaring that He didn’t want sacrifices.  For example, the prophet Isaiah stated, “‘The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?’ says the Lord. ‘I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats (Isaiah 1:11).’” David had a similar revelation of God.  In Psalm 51:16,  he announced, “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.” Hosea took it even one step further, letting us know that God didn’t even want sacrifices. “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6).” And Micah records the same sentiment and declares that God requires justice, mercy, and a relationship with Him rather than sacrifices and burnt offerings (Micah 6:6-8).

Why the change of heart? Perhaps it wasn’t a change of heart at all. Perhaps God never even desired a sacrificial system but permitted it under the Old Covenant because He knew that at that stage of Israel’s development, a stage that had been forged by the guilt and shame of sin and the natural thinking that God must be angry with them because of their sins, that that would be the only way He could relate to them in a manner that they could understand. But as time went on, as God progressively revealed more about Himself and Israel gradually grew in understanding, He began to unveil the truth about what He thought of sacrifices. It seems clear from these Old Testament passages that God had no desire for blood sacrifices of any kind and most likely never did.

How can we tell that He never did? By looking at Jesus. As I mentioned in an earlier article in this series, Matthew twice records in his gospel Jesus challenging the Pharisees to learn the meaning of Hosea 6:6, that God desired mercy, not sacrifice. But more than that, we see it even more clearly in how he lived. Not once do we see Jesus suggesting, requiring, or even demanding that people sacrifice to him. Instead what we see is Jesus sacrificing for others. We see it in the countless times that he healed people. We see it in all the moments he brought comfort to those who were in grief or despair. We see it on the night he was betrayed when he washed the disciples feet. And we especially see it on the cross. If ever there was time for God to be angry over humanity’s sins, surely the murder of His son would have been it. But that was not God’s response. Instead, through Jesus, God gave the world the ultimate sacrifice-Himself! And the true nature of God was evident as Jesus cried out through the midst of his suffering and agony, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” This was not the cry of an angry, vengeful, wrathful God but the cry of pure love, the cry of a God who wanted nothing more than to rescue His children from the ravages of sin and restore them with His love, truth, and grace.

Even the apostles saw the truth of God’s progressive revelation. Paul wrote of us being a “living sacrifice” that was pleasing to God (Romans 12:1). Think of what Paul is saying. Sacrifices were almost always something that required the death of something else, whether it was grains or animals. But as we’ve seen, God was not pleased with those. What He is pleased with is us being alive in Jesus and being renewed in him.

Even the writer of Hebrews goes to great lengths to demonstrate that God did not want blood sacrifices. In Hebrews 10, he makes the argument that the sacrifices of the Old Covenant were only a shadow of what was to come and were ineffective in cleansing us from the damage of sin. Instead, those sacrifices only reminded us of our sins. So what was the solution? As the writer explains, “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God (Hebrews 10:5-7).’” The author attributed what was written in Psalm 40:6-8 to Jesus. It’s a beautiful picture that shows us that it was not God who required sacrifices from humanity. It was humanity that needed a sacrifice from God. Sacrifices only reminded us of our sins and filled us with fear, regrets, guilt, and shame. In that state, we could never draw near to God. We were incapable of accepting His love and learning to love Him in return. On the other hand, Jesus’ sacrifice showed us the purest form of love, and only love can reverse the damage caused by sin. We needed his sacrifice so that we could know that God is not angry with us but loves us deeply from His heart.

In all this, I’ve left out a famous story from Genesis 22. In it, God calls Abraham to go and sacrifice his one and only son. The story never even gives so much as a hint that Abraham was shocked by what God was telling him to do. He doesn’t seem to wrestle with it or anguish over it at all. Instead, he just sets out with Isaac to do it. Why? Because like Moses, Abraham lived in a time and place where gods regularly demanded sacrifices to appease them. In Abraham’s mind this was probably not an unusual request at all.  Why would God tell him to do such a thing in the first place? In light of what we’ve learned here, I believe it was because God wanted to reveal something about Himself to Abraham that would correct an erroneous view he held about God. He wanted to show Abraham that He was not a God who required blood and sacrifices. Instead, He was a God of infinite love and grace.

That is an excellent example of progressive revelation. God revealed something more about Himself to Abraham that he did not know before. He did the same with Moses. He did so even more with David and the prophets. But His greatest revelation is in Jesus Christ. As John expressed so well, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17).” What he revealed to Moses and the other Old Testament saints was but a shadow of what He revealed through His son.

So what should we take away from all this?  That to truly understand who God is, we need to continue to look at Jesus Christ. We’ll see more of God’s progressive revelation in Christ in next week’s article. So come back then and grow even more in God’s progressive revelation.

When I was growing up, I remember our family liked to play games. And I don’t mean just sports. I’m talking about family games too, like Monopoly, Twister, Life, Candy Land, Battleship, Uno, and other classics. And when I got in high school, Risk became the ultimate favorite for me and my friends. Nothing like an all-night Risk party complete with pizza for a bunch of teenage guys.

And then there’s the greatest “Who Done It” game of all-time – Clue. I recall that being one of the favorites among our family and friends. There’s nothing like a good mystery, and this game had it all. Who did it? Where did it happen? And what weapon did they use? That was the essence of the game.

If you ever played the game, then you know that the object was to try to gather as many clues as you could to eliminate suspects, rooms, and weapons until you were ready to make your guess. Of course, the other players were gathering clues too so you had to be good at gathering clues quickly. Whoever was the first person to guess all three correctly won the game.

The problem was that players would sometimes make their guess before they had gathered all the clues. Sometimes they might be right, but often they would be wrong. Guessing incorrectly meant you were out of the game. So you had to be pretty confident that you had all the right clues before you put yourself out there on a limb. Making the guess too early could mean that you hadn’t seen the whole picture yet, and that could lead to some very misleading conclusions.

I believe that is what often happens when people read the Bible. We make assumptions about things based on some very incomplete information, and that can be a dangerous thing to do. It can lead us to draw some conclusions about God that end up being totally wrong, and that can end up shaping how we see a lot of things. Let me give you an example.

King Saul was Israel’s first king. He started off pretty good, but he was soon having his share of struggles. According to the Bible, his struggles came from evil spirits sent by the Lord because of Saul’s disobedience. As we read in 1 Samuel 16:14-15, “Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. Saul’s attendants said to him, ‘See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you.’”

Now if you stopped right there and had little knowledge of the rest of the Bible, you would come away with the idea that God sends evil spirits to torment his enemies. In that case, you would be holding a very distorted understanding of God. Why? Because the picture you would have of God would be extremely incomplete. It would be like playing Clue and guessing that it was Colonel Mustard in the billiard room with the lead pipe with only a portion of the clues. There’s so much more to the picture.

As the story continues, some of King Saul’s advisors suggested that they find someone who could play the lyre, which would soothe the king whenever the evil spirit from God began tormenting him. Then one of his servants spoke up and said, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him (1 Samuel 16:18).” That son of Jesse was none other than David, the man who would succeed Saul as king.

David was brought to King Saul and did exactly as he was told. “Whenever the spirit from God came on Saul, David would take up his lyre and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him (1 Samuel 16:23).”

Now let me see if I’ve got this straight. God sent an evil spirit to torment Saul, but then through David drove that evil spirit out. So God was working against Himself? Does that make any sense at all? So does God send evil spirits or not? Again, we do not have the complete picture.

So how do we get the complete picture? As I mentioned last week, we have to turn to Jesus Christ. It was Jesus who said that he came to reveal his Father to the world. And in this case, he answers the question we have about the evil spirit in a couple ways.

First, we turn to a story about a man born blind in John 9. Jesus’ disciples ask him whether it was the man’s sin or his parents’ sin that caused him to be blind. Implied in this question would seem to be that God causes blindness and other terrible calamities, such as evil spirits, because of sin. A close look at Jesus’ answer is quite interesting. “‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.  As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me (John 9:3-4).’”

Notice that Jesus refers to the works of God twice. What works is he talking about? That brings us to the second way Jesus answers the question. He answered it by his actions. When it came to evil spirits, what did Jesus do time and time again? He drove them out of people. It would seem a very strange thing to me that God would send evil spirits upon people only to have Jesus drive them out. And since Jesus is God, that would mean that he would be working against himself.  That seems quite absurd.

When Jesus first publicly announced his ministry, he quoted from Isaiah as his mission statement. Amongst the reasons he stated that the Lord sent him was to “proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free (Luke 4:18).” Who would the prisoners and oppressed be? I would think that would include those who were had evil spirits. So again we see from Jesus’ own words that God wanted to set people free, not put them in bondage to evil spirits. Additionally, we are told that God gives good gifts (Matthew 7:11, James 1:17) and that He doesn’t tempt anyone with evil (James 1:13-14).

What does all this tell us? It tells us that we should be careful about deciding who God is without all the clues. Doing so can cause us to miss that it was Professor Plum in the kitchen with the wrench. Or to be more precise, it can cause us to think that God sends evil spirits to torment people. Once we have all the clues as provided by Jesus and his inspired disciples, we see that Jesus – God in the flesh – came to set people free from oppressive evil spirits and that God is a giver of good gifts, not a bringer of evil.

All this leads us into a concept that is extremely important to understand. It’s a way of comprehending the Bible that’s critical for getting the whole picture. It’s called progressive revelation. What is it? Hang in there. We’re going to get to it, but not until next week. This article is already long enough. So come back next week as we continue to explore the incredible nature of our loving, grace-filled Father.

The suspected killer has been caught. Now he faces the grilling of his life. Across the table from him in the interrogation room is Detective Lenny Briscoe, a veteran cop of the NYPD, and he is not in a good mood. With his voice rising with every syllable he utters, he berates the suspect relentlessly with accusatory questions. The anger is palpable in his face as his veins protrude from his forehead and neck. He is fully convinced of this man’s guilt and he is ready to exact severe punishment.

At the other end of the table sits Lenny’s partner, Detective Ed Green. He’s willing to give the suspect the benefit of the doubt. His approach is much calmer and reassuring. With a subtle move, Detective Green quietly slides in between his enraged partner and the startled suspect to prevent a potential bloodbath. Then in a soothing tone, Ed begins to hold a friendly conversation with the suspect in his quest for truth.

You may have recognized the names of the two detectives from the TV series Law & Order. It was one of my favorite shows for many years. You may have also recognized the tactics being employed by both detectives. It’s what is commonly known as good cop-bad cop.

The good cop-bad cop scenario serves as a perfect analogy for the two views of God that were the focus of my previous article. One view portrays God as two sides of the same coin, as both a loving Father and a wrathful judge. In that view we get the image of God as both good cop and bad cop. Sometimes He’s the good cop and showers repentant sinners with love. Other times He’s the bad cop who can’t contain His anger against His rebellious enemies.

That Loving Father/Wrathful Judge view is only slightly different from the Penal Substitution view. In the Penal Substitution view, we get the image of God the Father as the bad cop and Jesus Christ as the good cop. It’s God the Father we see punishing those who dare disobey Him, while it is Jesus who is protecting us from his angry Father by satisfying His wrath. Neither view is an accurate one. Let’s see why.

The main problem with both views is the image of God the Father as an angry, wrathful judge. Quite simply, that is not who God is. And I say that in spite of the fact that there are many stories portraying Him that way throughout the Old Testament. I mentioned several of them in my previous article. There’s the Flood incident, the Canaanite genocide, the death of Achan and his family (Joshua 7:24-26), the venomous snakes incident in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4-9), and on and on. The stories of God unleashing His wrath against those who oppose Him are numerous.

And yet I still say that is not who God is. How can I say that? What makes me go against the clear revelation of the Bible? First, I don’t think the revelation of the Old Testament is as clear as we’ve been led to believe by our traditional church teachings. More on that later. Second, the clearest revelation of God is not in the written pages of the Old Testament, but is found in Jesus Christ. He is the one who has revealed exactly who his Father is. Apart from him our understanding of God becomes foggy at best. As Paul said, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known (1 Corinthians 13:12).”

It is Jesus who helps us see clearly and know fully. He is the one we need to turn to understand who God is. Take a look at the following verses and see what is being clearly communicated to us. Let’s start by seeing what some of the apostles declared about Jesus.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (Colossians 1:15)

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. (Colossians 2:9)

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4)

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God… (Philippians 2:5-6)

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. (Hebrews 1:3)

These verses are perfectly clear who Jesus is – he is the image of God and the exact representation of His being. In fact, if you want to know God’s nature, you turn to Christ, who is the very nature of God. Even more, as John so eloquently stated at the opening of his gospel, Jesus is God. So to know Jesus is to know God. Now let’s see what Jesus said about himself.

“I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)

“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)

“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?” (John 14:10)

Could Jesus be any clearer? He and God are one and the same. This is a wonderful truth to behold in our quest to understand who God is. To know Jesus is to know God. So we don’t need to try to figure him out through some mysterious means. Jesus reveals everything we need to know about God. How?

“Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John 5:19)

“So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” (John 12:50)

When you pick up the Bible and read the stories about the things Jesus did and said, you can know that this is precisely what God did and said. We don’t have to guess at what God would do or say. We just need to listen to what Jesus said and he reveals it to us. God Himself told us as much.

“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)

There were very good reasons why God was well pleased with his Son. One of the reasons why Jesus came into this world was to reveal God to the world. That was a key element to Jesus’ mission here on earth. That’s why God directed Jesus’ disciples and us to listen to him. And according to Jesus and John, he succeeded in that mission.

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. (John 1:18)

“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.” (John 17:6)

Jesus came to live among humanity so that he could clearly reveal to the world who God is and what He thinks of us. Jesus and John both declared that he accomplished what he set out to do – he made God known to the world. Mission complete.

So what can we conclude from this? Is God a good cop or is He a bad cop? Is He Ed or is He Lenny?  Or is He both, depending on the situation? As the voices of the apostles, Jesus, and God Himself are telling us, the answer lies in Jesus. He is the key. What we see in Jesus is what we have in God. What we see him doing is exactly what our Father does. So if we encounter something in the Bible that is attributed to God and we’re not sure if God would really do that, turn to Jesus for clarity. Examine his life and see for yourself who God is. Since Jesus and the Father are one, since Jesus is the exact representation and image of God, then how Jesus lived his life, how he dealt with suffering, how he engaged the self-righteous, how he encountered those in pain, and how he treated sinners is exactly how God does the same. Otherwise, if that’s not the case, then Jesus was lying when he said that if you saw him you saw the Father. Jesus and God would then not be one, and Jesus did not truly reveal the Father to us all.  But on the other hand, if Jesus is the truth, if he and God are one and the same, if he truly is God in the flesh, then we can be rest assured that how Jesus treated people is exactly how God has always treated people. God is unchanging. His nature is the same yesterday, today, and all the way into eternity. We can be confident in Him.

So with all that in mind, beginning next week we shall start exploring more deeply some of the troubling, nasty images we get of God from stories in the Old Testament and compare them to Jesus. And we will also begin answering some questions that may be nagging at you right now, such as, “Can we then trust what the Bible says?” But until then, may God richly bless you with His love and grace.

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites,Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites,seven nations larger and stronger than you—and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally.” (Deuteronomy 7:1-2)

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:43-45)

How do you reconcile the two passages above? On the one hand it seems that God is giving approval to the Israelites to totally annihilate His enemies.  On the other hand Jesus is telling us that God loves His enemies.  Furthermore, in a parallel passage, we are told that God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked (Luke 6:35). But the first passage, and many others similar to it, certainly don’t portray God that way. So how are we to explain these apparent contradictions? We can’t simply sweep them under a rug. An answer is demanded.

Welcome back to our series, “Who Is God?” After taking a brief hiatus to reflect on our family vacation in Myrtle Beach, I am looking forward to resuming our exploration of God’s nature. It should be a fun ride.

As we continue this examination, we will, of course, look more closely at the Bible and how God is revealed to us in its pages. But in doing so, we cannot ignore some very obvious questions that will arise, such as the ones above. How do we square the image of the loving Father as portrayed by Jesus with the angry, violent God that we often encounter in the Old Testament. Or how do we explain the apparent contradictions of a law that requires sacrifices with later writers claiming that God said He never wanted sacrifices?

Keep in mind that these questions are not new. They have been discussed and debated since the earliest days of the church. So finding answers is not going to come quickly or easily. And we may have to accept that not everyone will agree. In fact, you may not agree with the conclusions I have come to. That’s okay. Just don’t toss me aside as a heretic or something like that. Let’s try to keep an open mind and allow the Holy Spirit to lead us all into greater understanding and truth.

To start, we will take a look at some of the most common ways that people have addressed these questions over the centuries. Then we will examine how I understand it. My thoughts are not unique to me and have been formed by research and prayer. Not only that but my thoughts have also changed over time as I believe the Holy Spirit has led me. Could I be wrong? Sure I could be, but that’s part of the process of growing. So let’s dive in.

In trying to explain the different images of God from the Old and New Testaments, there is a view that is called Penal Substitution. It goes something like this: God was angry with mankind because of sin. Sin was so bad and so ugly, God could have nothing to do with being near sin or being near sinners or His holiness would be tainted. Because of His holiness and His justice, God demands punishment for sin. Therefore, God took out his anger on different groups of people at different times throughout the Old Testament period. For example, there was the worldwide flood event in which God nearly destroyed all of humanity because of sin and violence. There was also the time that God commanded King Saul to wipe out all the Amalekites, men, women, children, infants, and all their animals, because of their sin against the Israelites, God’s favorite people (1 Samuel 15:1-3). And there was the time when God allowed His people to be plundered, kicked out of their homeland, and taken into captivity in Babylon because of their sins against Him. Yes, His favorite people. It just goes to show that God’s anger knows no bounds. He will even punish His people if they offend Him. Just look at what He did to Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11).

The Penal Substitution view goes on to say that the reason Jesus came into this world was to appease the anger and wrath of His Father. Jesus took our sins upon himself and then took the punishment that God’s justice and wrath demanded for those sins. So rather than us being punished for our sins, Jesus bore the brunt of it. He became our substitute. And now that God’s wrath was satisfied at the cross, God is in a position to love us, despite the fact that we still commit sins. The blood of Jesus has washed away the sins of believers, as long as we repent when we sin.

There is another view that takes the different images of God found in the Bible and accepts that all of them are true; they simply reveal different aspects of God’s character at different times. In this view, God is seen as both a Father who loves His children and a perfect judge whose wrath is poured out on sin. So we find a loving Father who punishes His children when they’ve done wrong but restores them with love when they repent. And we also find a God who pours out His wrath on those who persist in a life of sin and rebellion. Since examples of both are found throughout the Bible, this view maintains that God is the same in both the Old and New Testaments. In this way, we see the immutable (unchanging) nature of God.

Both views have been around for centuries and are held by many people. Do either one offer a reasonable explanation about the nature of God? Do either adequately explain why there seems to be some stark differences in the God of both testaments? I will just say that I don’t accept either view but will leave my reasons for the next article. I will, however, leave you with a one word hint as to why I don’t accept either one and why I believe there is a better explanation. That one word is Jesus. So come back for the next article to find out how Jesus reveals to us who God truly is.