Judging the Unjust Revelation 15-16

Why Do We Struggle with a God who Judges? -First, we fail to recognize just how holy God is. I say this a lot, but it’s true. I just don’t think we grasp it. -Second, our culture’s motto is, ‘judge not’ has created a distaste for all things judgment. Live & let live. -Third, I think deep down we worry that He’s overreacting and won’t give us a fair trial? -Fourth, I suspect our ultimate issue is our failure to trust in God’s overall goodness to judge rightly. -Fifth, some skeptics have painted God out to be a moral monster “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion -Sixth, on the other end of the spectrum some romanticists think God is a moral pushover “The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions.” A.W. Tozer -Seventh, some people have a distorted view of love in that for them love means no accountability. 

-Eighth, some people just don’t think they deserve judgment before God 
 “I feel that if God should smite me now, without hope or offer of mercy, to the lowest hell, I should only have what I justly deserve; and I feel that if I be not punished for my sins, or if there be not some plan found by which my sin can be punished in another, I cannot understand how God can be just at all: how shall he be Judge of all the earth, if he suffer offenses to go unpunished?" Charles Spurgeon https://the-demonic-paradise.fandom.com/wiki/Seven_Bowls_of_God%27s_Wrath?file=Seven_bowls.png A Question for Reflection: As it relates to God’s justice, whose heart is yours more like? The believers who praise God for his justice or the non-believers who are infuriated by it. Remember, soft hearts praise God, hard hearts loath him. And even more sadly, instead of softening their hearts under God’s judgments, people with hard hearts often grow harder and disdain Him even more. What Should Our Response to God’s Justice Be? 1. We should commit to celebrate God’s justice more and criticize it less. 2. We should know that if we are continuing to struggle with God’s justice that the deeper issue is grasping the delta between God’s holiness and our sinfulness. 3. We should remember that God’s tribulation judgments are in part a response to believers’ prayers to vindicate His name and come to their rescue. 4. We should rejoice because Jesus proved through his death on the cross that He would much rather offer the world forgiveness than justice. In fact, there’s a name for it. It’s called, The Gospel! “The difference between justice and forgiveness: To be just is to condemn the fault and, because of the fault, to condemn the doer as well. To forgive is to condemn the fault but to spare the doer. That's what the forgiving God does.” Miroslav Volf “The incentive to peacemaking is love, but it degenerates into appeasement whenever justice is ignored. To forgive and to ask for forgiveness are both costly exercises. All authentic Christian peacemaking exhibits the love and justice - and so the pain - of the cross.” John Stott