God is Powerful

If you've spent very much time as a human being, you know that our society is a lot more bark than bite. That is, we're not very good at holding one another accountable. 

A student is given detention, but the parent calls in and argues the front office down to a warning. 

You're pulled over for speeding, but somehow get the cop to rip up the ticket. 

A felon is convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison, but he's out in 6 for "good behavior." 

The shopowner doesn't want to press charges because the young mother was only taking the food she needed for her child. 

We live in a world so full of leniency that it's hard to imagine accountability. And you might think at this point that this is a story about mercy. After all, isn't that what it is when you don't get what you deserve? Isn't that one of the things God is so well known for? 

But this is not a story about mercy. 

Because as merciful as the Lord is, He is also a God of judgment. And in all our own grace, we too often forget that. 

Revelation tells us that God's judgment comes hard and heavy. "In one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning, and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the God who judges her" (18:8). 

"She" is Babylon, but let's be honest - it could be any of us. For who among us has not been unfaithful? Who among us has not turned her back? Who among us has not oppressed someone the Lord loves dearly? 

And it doesn't say these things could happen, except that God is merciful; it says they will happen because God is mighty. He's powerful. Plague. Death. Grief. Famine. Fire. ...Power. 

This is the God we so often shy away from, the God we don't want to talk too loudly about. It's the God who turns the world away, who makes them think twice about wanting to follow Him. How can you love a God who is plague and famine and fire? 

How can you believe such a God loves you? 

Well, that, my friends, is not so hard. 

Because listen, if God was all power and judgment and fire and death, there would be no Jesus. There would be no Cross. There would be no grave. A God who is all judgment doesn't have to send His Son to show us the Kingdom. He doesn't have to send His Son to draw us closer to Him. And He doesn't have to send His Son to bear the burden of creation's brokenness, conquer death, and bestow life. 

A God who is fire and famine and death doesn't give us Jesus who is living water, the bread of life, abundance, and eternity. 

And yet, if God is only water, bread, life, and abundance, then we cannot take seriously the gift of Jesus. 

So we must remember what God showed John in Revelation - that He is fire and famine and death and judgment. That, because He is powerful, all of these things come down at once, in a single day. 

But because He is merciful, thank the Lord, we are saved.