Judgment and love Dilemma

There is a theological tension.
A tension within God during the OT covenant times!
We see in the Prophetic writings, an inner turmoil of God.
You see, God is compelled by his nature, both to judge sin and to save his beloved people.
It is an illogicality in theology!

God desires judgment with an intention to save!
He has an agony of decision, we see this in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and other prophets.
His own nature he demands judgment yet he will not judge because his is holy. He is love.

The resolution of this is the cross of Jesus Christ.
Where the Judge is judged.

Amen

“I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man.”—Hosea 11:9.

Hos 6:6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
Hos 6:7 Like Adam, they have broken the covenant– they were unfaithful to me there.

Matthew 9:12-14: “But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The Christian of Grace

Post 5 of 6 in a series about Judgmental Christians.

We looked at how we can reach out in love and respect in the last post.

The key word for today is: Grace.

Think about it are we more concerned about being RIGHT than we are about being RIGHTEOUS?

I hope NOT. When we are like this we are very legalistic…we are like the Pharisees. We forget the true goals of the faith because we are too concerned over something silly.

When we truly understand the Gospel and what it is all about, we should be humbled.
Humbled by the message of Jesus.
And humbled by how we are portraying that message today ( the lack of!!!!)

We need to embrace not abandon the broken, the needy. Imagine yourself, once you were lost and in need of Grace and Mercy.

Where is our heart and perspective for the needy. Where is our evangelistic primer?
Where is our heart?
Is our faith so shallow that we are not sharing Christ’s mercy?

Let me leave you with this:
We can not give out something we have not received.

Is our church in a state of so much pride and arrogance that we have forgotten about grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love?

This has got to CHANGE.

There is an answer…

All men have a bend towards sin, but there is an answer…

from Unchristian by David Kinnaman:

“No one goes to heaven because of what they do or do not do. Every human
sins, and we all deserve Hell for that. But Jesus freely offers everyone his
grace.
…homosexual behavior is sin, but it is no different than if I sleep with someone
other than my wife or even momentarily have a sexual fantasy. God created
sexuality, it is good, but it can expressed in wrong ways. Every one of us, gay
or straight or whatever, expresses sexuality in wrong ways. It all comes down
to what you do with Jesus.” (pg. 108)

I just finished chapter 5 of Unchristian called “antihomsexual.”
It was another hard chapter and humbling chapter to read.

I really had not put too much time or thought into the what the culture, as a whole, thinks about Christians relating to the topic of homosexuality.

Christians have
A. been wrong, too conservative, and mean
B. left people with the wrong idea of what we believe about homosexuality
C. left people with the wrong idea of how we should treat homosexuals
D. hurt people
E. wrong priorities

What we really believe is that homosexuality is a sin, yes, but it is no worse than any other sin.
And Jesus still loves and has mercy on homosexuals, just as he has had mercy on us and forgiven us of our sins.

Bad perception due to real problems within Christianity:
Christians have displayed a special and bad image for the sin of homosexuality. It is “the big one.” And Christians have irrationally fought harder against the issue of homosexuality than any other sin/issue.

We have come across as arrogant, uncompassionate, self-righteous, inconsistent, and uncaring to homosexuals. Our method has been ineffective, stupid and dumb. We have repelled young outsiders from church because of this issue. When this happens, it is apparent that we have lost sight of what is really important! Jesus Christ as their answer and salvation!
Stop fighting the sin and show the love, grace, mercy and compassion that Christ would!

Think about it. Homosexuality is a sin, but it is only a sin! You also sin!
We are all sinners. God’s gift of grace is what is important! Regardless of our sin, God still loves us.
Don’t avoid relationships with people because of their lifestyle. Make relational connections with homosexuals. Stop preaching at them and going to political war with them. Treat them as HUMANS, treat them as friends. It is sad I have to say this! Respect. Love. Grace. Show them Jesus. Build on real relationships.