God is My Best Friend

Ask someone you know, "What is God like?" and chances are they will answer that God is loving. Good answer. God is love (I John 4). But God is not ONLY love. God is also vengeful and just (Psalm 5:5). God has attributes or what John Calvin liked to call virtues (because attributes seem to assign something to God and we cannot assign anything to God). However, God is not more of one attribute than another. In other words, we can say that God is love and just. He is fully love and fully just. He is not mostly love or mostly just. He is perfectly just and perfectly love. God and His attributes are perfectly one. Pretty heady, I know. And to be honest, I don't fully understand it.

Throughout history, there have been many attempts to define God. Usually, these definitions end up in error because some theologian decides to present God is being more of one attribute than the other. This might sound like some kind of hair-splitting theological course, but the problem is that when the Church accepts these doctrines without question or examination heresy usually follows!

For instance, the 19th century rationalists and modern liberal theologians focus on the immanence of God. In other words, "God is my best best friend." However, many ignore the wrath of God. I heard a prominent pastor on an radio broadcast say recently in response to a question on preaching sin, "No. No. You can't say that word. You are going to hurt too many people." The funny thing is that when a preacher does proclaim the sinfulness of mankind it AMPLIFIES the LOVE OF GOD!

Paul amplified the holiness and love of God in Romans 5 when he wrote, "God demonstrates His own love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." We can't ignore the just and holy nature of God. We miss the point of the cross if we do! If God is our best friend, than who needs Jesus Christ?

You see, God is made favorable to us because God presented Jesus Christ as a "sacrifice of atonement". God is only our friend because his justice has been satisfied through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Is there any greater love than this? Is there any greater exercise of justice than this great act of God?

So, yes, God is love. He loved you so much that he gave his one and only son that you might be reconciled with his holiness. Do we have a true understanding of holiness? We can talk more about that later.

If you are planning on being at the 9:15am service this week. Read through Leviticus 16:1-22 and Romans 5:7-11 as well as Romans 3:23-28. Ask God to speak to you about his holiness through His Living Word.