Having a Complete View of God
September 18th, 2009Often it seems people want to have a relationship with God, but do not want to follow His will. Instead of following the Bible, they want to live their lives their own way and trust in God’s love and mercy for entrance into heaven. This comes from a skewed view of God.
Our God is a God of love (1 John 4:8), but He is also a God of light, holiness, purity, justice, and righteousness. His holiness and righteousness demanded that Uzzah pay the penalty of death for touching the ark, even though he did it with a sincere desire to help (2 Samuel 6:6-7). If we only focus on one of God’s attributes, we will have an improper view of God. Those who focus only on His love see a God who lets anyone who lives a decent life into heaven regardless of whether they followed His will or not. (Note that this is a skewed view of God’s love (Hebrews 12:4-11)). Those who only focus on God’s righteousness see a cruel God who wants people to fail. Neither view is accurate. God wants all to enter heaven (2 Peter 3:9), but man does not always do His will.
Many have not considered the fact that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). If God cannot lie and He inspired the Bible, then He must be true to His Word or He is a liar. If the Bible says you must obey the gospel to be saved (2 Thessalonians 1:8,9) and God saves those who have not obeyed the gospel, He is a liar. If God is a liar, there is no reason to trust in His promise of heaven or even that He loves as these are both revealed in His Word.
We must realize that God in His love has given us the Bible so that we would know the will of God. Our God is not only a God of love but a God of purity, holiness, justice, and righteousness and we must see Him in all of His attributes.
