Today’s Scripture Reading (August 24, 2019): 2 Samuel 24
The Christian sermon that has
possibly caused the most damage in the Christian World is Jonathan Edwards’s
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Edwards wrote the sermon in the hopes
of terrifying his audience. He wanted his listeners to fear God, to understand
the clear reality of Hell, and that every sinner was leaving their eternal existence
in the hands of a God who could, and would not hesitate, to send them to hell.
So the only appropriate response for any of us, knowing that we are dealing
with an angry God, is to repent of our sins and turn to him. The message is clear;
it is better to play on God’s team than for those who oppose him.
And on the surface, the premise
of Edwards’s sermon makes some sense. But the problem is that we are all
sinners. Even after our conversion experiences, that moment in which we join
God’s team, there are still moments when we don’t do as God would want us to
do. And so we have developed doctrines like “once saved, always saved,” so that
we will not find ourselves “in the hands of an angry God.” The defense of a
permanent salvation has always been that the doctrine is necessary because the
only other option is to live in fear of every time that we mess up, which would
once again result in placing ourselves in the hands of angry God. As one
theologian argued, if you do not accept some kind of a permanent salvation,
then you have to admit that if you make a mistake and then die in a car
accident, your only possible destination is hell at the hands of an angry God. And
maybe that is true if we serve a God who is only angry.
David is on God’s team. But
part of our attraction to the life of David is that he seems to be much like
us. He believes in God, and he places his trust in him, yet he still messes up.
It makes us feel a little better that even someone like David is not perfect.
But it is also interesting that David is not scared of placing his life in the
hands of an angry God.
David has sinned. And sin has
consequences. By the way, that has not changed. We may be forgiven, but there
are usually consequences to our sin. The death of Jesus on the cross paid the
eternal penalty for our sin, but we still have some consequences that we have
to pay. There are amends for our actions that are still our responsibility. So David
sins, and he has consequences that he has to pay. And God gives David a choice.
A long famine, a war, or a short plague. David chooses the plague. And his
reason for his decision is the antithesis of Jonathan Edwards’s famous sermon.
As a sinner, he would prefer to place himself in the hands of merciful God than
in the hands of his enemies who would love to make him pay dearly for his
success.
As sinners, and we all qualify
for that label, we are in better shape, placing our existence in the hands of a
God known for his mercy. And it is his mercy that we should be stressing about
God more than his anger. It is not that God never gets angry. There is no doubt
that God’s wrath, just like the existence of hell, is very real. But we need to
remember that God’s anger is always tempered by his mercy. And his arms are
always open to those of us, and that means all of us, who are sinners.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 28
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