HUMANISING GOD.
“For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” (1Cor. 2:11)
This verse tells us that it takes God to make God known to mankind. This is due to God being infinite and we humans finite, as such, it takes the infinite to limit himself and bring himself within the perspective of the finite to make himself known, an action of God, known as revelation. Among the many revelations, two of the most legitimate and reliable revelations are His written word (scripture ) and incarnate word (Jesus) and the two are inseparable. Even then, it takes His Spirit to explain what is revealed, because they are spiritual truth, expressed in spiritual words (1 Cor. 2:13). Without this (revelation), humans at their best efforts speculate what God is and isn’t and worse still, ’humanise’ God. This humanising of God is especially so when (among many aspects of God) people talk about, the Love of God.
The question that’s so often expressed (in various ways) is, ‘how is it possible for God who is loving, at the same time be wrathful?’ A fair question, from a human perspective that is.
To answer such a question, one needs to look at what the scripture (revelation of God) says about the love of God. For example, let’s take ’the gospel’, which many who have some understanding of Christianity would say is the good news about the ‘love of God’.
Concerning this gospel, the apostle Paul made a statement: “I am not ashamed of the gospel “ ( Rom. 1:16). Why??? He said, “because in it, the righteousness of God is revealed” (Rom. 1:17). It’s interesting that he didn’t say ‘the love of God’, but, ‘the righteousness of God’.
Reading the book of ‘Romans’ one would discover that the overall theme of the book is ‘God’s righteousness’. It is within the context of His righteousness and His holiness, that He displays His love and forgiveness. Thus, in expressing His love, He took upon Himself the just punishment in our stead through the death of His Son. He did it by putting Jesus forward as “a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:25-26).
Whatever our human understanding of what love is, the Scripture shows that God doesn’t express His love at the expense of, but in the context of His righteousness and holiness.
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