A God In Our Image
It was my first time teaching a bible study to such a large group, over 50 people in attendance, and I was pretty excited to see the turn out. The Gospel of John was going to be our undertaking and boy did I underestimate how much work that would be. It wasn't just the amount of work that would be needed to get through the text itself, but also the implications of this on our lives. Many Christians have heard these truths spoken of many times but yet haven't really thought them through. In a world where many people speak Christian, without really understanding it, this makes for a recipe for disaster. Day one would become more of a lesson for me than it was for anyone else in that room.
The text in front of me was John 1 and I was teaching through verse 12, "but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" and it was my next comment that got me in trouble. "We are not all children of God, there are those who can approach God as Father, and those who will only know Him as judge and are under His wrath..." the hand went up, and the objection was simple, "but my god is a god of love, he loves everyone, what do you mean we aren't all his children?" There it was, with that comment my eyes were completely open to what it was that I was up against.
Our world has hijacked God, and they've turned him into a god in their own image. One who doesn't judge, one who isn't full of wrath as well as love. A god who calls everyone a child, even those who don't want anything to do with him. A god who obviously has not been made known through scripture, but rather has been made known to us through our own feelings and what we have determined is acceptable. The only problem is that this god, is really no god at all and yet this is the god many within Christian circles believe in. One that says nothing offensive and supports whatever your evil heart desires.
I wish I was exaggerating just a bit, but one looks around on social media and you'll find out that I’m not exaggerating at all, in fact if anything I’m under selling it a bit. Those who promote this god, know all the Christian language, faith, love, salvation, Jesus, but they have detached it from its foundation and given these words new definitions derived from the culture or their own hearts.
The problems here are many, but the greatest one, in my opinion, is this, a god who is all love without consequences is just a punk and not worthy of our worship and he is not the god of scripture. The God of scripture is an all-consuming fire, who causes all who are in His presence to tremble and fall to their knees even covering their faces as His glory is so great that no human can stand it. He is the God of all creation, who has set up the universe in such a way that there are laws and consequences for not living according to those laws. As it is all of creation is currently under His wrath, all of it groans! It is the fact that we deserve this wrath that puts His great love on display... Because He so loved the world that He sent His Son to save us. His suffering was real, His death was real, and it was a substitute only for those who trust in Him. Have you trusted in Him; do you know this God? For those who don't are still under His wrath... No wrath, then you get no love... But that's not our God, don't make a God in your image, at best you get a punk who is unworthy of worship and even worse you still end up in hell.