The Immutable God: You are not good, but God still loves you
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Are you a good person?
Evangelist and author Ray Comfort thought of a simple way to test a person’s goodness. Look at the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. It’s a pretty simple test. Anyone who has violated them is guilty. Anyone who is guilty cannot be a good person.
But the Ten Commandments are in the Old Testament. Jesus, in the New Testament, didn’t judge, right? He wasn’t about guilt. He even said, “Do not judge” (Matthew 7:1). One popular interpretation is that God in the Old Testament is judgmental where God in the New Testament is loving.
I’ve been writing about how, in both the Old and New Testaments, God is the same eternal, triune creator whose character is perfectly holy, righteous, just, merciful, gracious and above all loving. In both testaments, he acts to judge, bless and redeem all of creation. The human perception of God’s love is deepened when we acknowledge the pureness and consistency of his judgement against us.
Everyone knows how God judges people in the Old Testament. He kills them. When your whole city values raping strangers (as with Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19), that might be a good judgement. When you worship a false god by throwing live babies into a fire (a Canaanite practice warned against in Leviticus 20), death is a good judgement. Even today, in a secular culture, we call for the death of gang rapists and child murderers.
But God is also judgmental in the New Testament. In fact, his judgement against humanity is revealed as even stronger than in the Old Testament. In the same sermon that Jesus said, “Do not judge,” he also said that even being angry at someone and calling them a name is as bad as murder. Looking at a person lustfully is the same as adultery, even if neither you nor the other person are married (see Matthew 5:21-30). Right before he said, “Do not judge,” he accused groups of people of hypocrisy, unforgiveness, sin, materialism and enmity with God.
Then, in Revelation, Jesus himself kills two thirds of the world population and destroys the environment in his judgement against the world for sin. It is in the New Testament that we learn, “The penalty for sin is death” (Romans 6:23a).
But God does not enjoy judging the world. He even said so in the Old Testament where he is best known for being so judgmental. “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live” (Ezekiel 18:32). Then he repeats himself in the same book, “Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die?” (Ezekiel 33:11). And the New Testament agrees. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God lets us live as long as he does to give us a chance to turn to him.
That’s why Romans 6:23b says, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
When I’m honest with myself, I know that I deserve what the Bible says I do. I am not good. In fact, I am remarkably bad. So are you. A God who doesn’t see my sin at least as clearly as I do is no kind of good. He should judge us. Not only does he judge the world in both the Old and New Testaments, his judgement against us is right.
That he sees all our evil and sacrificed his own son so that he could be with us anyways makes his love even more glorious. “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 3:26).
The simple fact is that in the Old and New Testaments (even more in the latter than in the former) God judges you and finds you guilty.
The simple fact is also that in the Old and New Testaments (even more in the latter than in the former) God loves you and offers to take away your guilt.
Simple commonsense compelled me to accept his offer. I pray you will, too.