God Is a Good Judge

The Bible says that God’s wrath is coming on the entire world. But this is out of step with the God that Americans, by an overwhelming majority, say they believe in.

How can the God who is love bring wrath and punishment? Who wants that God around?

God’s wrath is coming because He is the God of love, not in spite of being the God of love. You see, He’s a good judge. Someone recently explained it like this: If you’re standing in front of a judge, accusing the murderer who killed your best friend in cold blood, you wouldn’t want the judge to release him. If he let the murderer go free, you’d say he was a bad judge.

Good and loving judges punish evildoers. This is why we can be confident that God is good.

Evil will be punished. Someday. Payday.

In Jesus Christ, the sins of the whole world have been accounted for. First John 2:2 says,

And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole.

That word propitiation is an interesting one. It means appeasement – that the wrath of God was appeased in the death of Jesus Christ. When you stand before the good, loving, just Judge and confess your guilt, He cleanses you from all unrighteousness because justice must be served, and the price has already been paid – the debt has been collected. Though you are free to go, recognize the liberty you now have is the liberty to walk in obedience to the Word.

How do our feelings of past sin enter into the equation? At this point, we have a choice to make. Are we “victim” or “victor”? We can walk in the defeat of past sins based on feelings, or we can believe what God has said: you have been cleansed from all unrighteousness.

You serve a just, good, and loving God. You’re clean. How you may be feeling has no relevance against what God has said.

Choose to believe God instead of your feelings. When I’m struggling against the temptation to beat myself up for things God has already forgiven, I repeat the words of God in my mind, the verses that contain His message to me.

Excerpted from A Beautiful Defeat: Find True Freedom and Purpose in Total Surrender to God by Kevin Malarkey, copyright Thomas Nelson, 2014.

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Your Turn

Are you a victim or a victor when the topic of your old sin comes up? Does that old baggage feel paid for by the blood of Jesus? If you’ve confessed your sins and asked Christ to be your Savior then it IS paid for and you don’t have to carry that judgement around any more! God is a good judge and He has declared you, through Jesus’ sacrifice, His forgiven and beloved daughter! You’re clean! Take a moment to let that sink in. Thank You, Lord! Come share your thoughts with us on our blog! We would love to hear from you!