[Part 3 of a 3-part series]
People who balk at God’s wrath don’t grasp the intensity of His actual love for real people. Frankly, their understanding of love is lacking. They assume love means accepting what any and everyone wants to do. They don’t like the idea of a God who sets rules and has standards. They think people ought to be able to set their own standards of right and wrong, good and evil. But – they couldn’t live in a society that ran that way – where everyone did what was right in their own eyes. That’s not a society. That’s chaos. Long ago, human beings banded together in groups to develop rules of behavior precisely because it doesn’t work when everyone does their OWN thing.
The real problem with the mentality of the Progressive slogan, “Jesus is perfect theology” is that it diminishes the reality of sin. It neuters it by divorcing it from the sinister and insidious effects of evil. It makes sin a generic kind of less-than-great lifestyle issue. No! Sin is an expression of evil, something that isn’t just contrary to God’s will. It’s cosmic treason. Sin, in all its forms, is nothing less than poison injected into creation. And like poison, some sin acts faster than others – but it all kills.
The same Progressive who scorns the orthodox understanding of God’s wrath thinks it perfectly right to have his own experience of it when evil touches his life. No Progressive walks into their house that’s just been burglarized and thinks, “The poor person who did this. Life must have been so unfair to them.” No — They’re dialing 911, demanding the police come out, take a report, catch the guy, and put him away.
It’s easy to recommend forgiveness, altogether different to practice it. Sin’s easy to deal with when it’s generic and non-specific. It is not so easy when it has a label: Trafficking, Child abuse, Molestation, Slavery, Extortion, Murder. Harder still when a loved one is a victim of it.
The balance point for us in all this is to keep in mind that God’s love and wrath aren’t pitted against each other in some kind of eternal duel. God’s love prevails. While He loves at all times, the expression and execution of His wrath is delayed. That delay is His mercy. God’s mercy carves out a space in time that allows people to turn from that which is the object of wrath. When people repent of their sin, asking God to forgive them, He can and does because of what Christ has done. He takes the just penalty for our sin in Himself. His work on the cross pays the debt of justice. That’s why Romans 3:26 calls God both just and the justifier.
We need to leave the Gospel alone and share it as it is. It is God’s power to save. We do God no favors by trying to edit Him into something more palatable to our age.
The Early Church shut Marcion down because he was wrong about God. Modern Marcionites who say, “Jesus is perfect theology” are no less wrong. Yes, the Jesus of the Bible is perfect theology – But the Progressive Jesus is most certainly not.
Lance is the founding and lead pastor of Calvary Chapel Oxnard where he has served since 1982. Lance & David Guzik co-pastored the church for six years before David planted a church in a nearby community.
Lance & his wife Lynn were married in 1980 and have three adult children and five grandchildren. Lance loves teaching the Bible, History, and Leadership. He holds Masters-of-Arts in Biblical Studies and Ministry.
Lance serves as a chaplain for both the Oxnard and Port Hueneme Police Departments and enjoys backpacking, wood-working, working out, gardening, home improvement projects, reading, and graphic design.
The popular Communio Sanctorum: History of the Christian Church podcast can be found in both audio and video at the Into His Image website along with a growing inventory of Lances teaching.
