In the last issue we considered the “Gospel According to the Reader’s Digest,” based on the Unitarian definition of God, quoting the late Christopher Reeve. “The Unitarian,” he said, “believes that God is good, and believes that God believes that man is good. Inherently. The Unitarian God is not a God of vengeance. And that is something I can appreciate.”

How is a God pressed into this kind of human mold superior to no God at all?

We would first suggest that God should be consulted as to what He believes about man. This is readily accomplished when we accept the authority of the Bible as the authority of God over us. So, in contrast to the Unitarian belief, let us consider the Biblical teaching of God and the relationship between God and man.

• That He alone is God. That besides Him there is none else.
• That this God is the perfection of holiness. All His ways are truth and righteousness altogether.
• That this God is eternally self-existing, without beginning or end. He is not bound by the time frame He created for the world.
• That this God, in the begin ning, was the exclusive Creator of the heaven and the earth, and of all that it contains (Genesis 1:1).
• That He made man in His own image, thus set apart and over the rest of creation.
• That Adam was good (even perfect), in the day he was created.
• That Adam was commanded not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and forewarned that death would result from eating this forbidden fruit.
• That the eating of the forbid den fruit was the first cause of both sin and death in the world.

Further, let us consider what the Bible teaches about human nature.

• That the entire human race is directly subjected to a sinful nature and to death as the result of Adam’s sin. From ourselves, we have no more power over sin than we have over our physical death.
• That there is none righteous, no not one.
• All we like sheep have gone astray.
• All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Finally, we are also confronted with the consequences of our sin.

• That the wages of sin is death.
• The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
• That we must all appear before the judgment seat of a righteous God.
• That the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all nations that forget God.
• That those under the curse of sin, depart into everlasting fire, at the command of God.
• That God takes vengeance in flaming fire on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now it is commonly thought that the idea that God will judge the world, and especially the teaching of eternal hell, would be contrary to the love of God. But we must keep in mind that the loving God loves righteousness and hates its opposite—wickedness.

The Bible reveals a God who is not only loving, but a God who is good, indeed perfect in character.

Now perhaps by some stretch of the imagination, you could visualize a federal judge who so loved criminals that he would throw every case out of court and set every criminal free. However, there is no way that such a judge could also be good. For if he were good, he could not possibly ignore the laws against criminal acts. In fact, you would soon realize that his professed love for murderers and rapists proves that this judge does not love the victims or the righteousness of the law.

On the other hand, the judge who loves justice will judge impartially every case that comes before him. As you learned to know such a judge, and observe his good work, you could soon sense the seriousness of the crime by the just sentences imposed. If one case got a $50.00 fine plus $200.00 restitution, you would know that the offense was comparatively small and justice was rather easily satisfied. Now, if another defendant gets multiple life sentences with no possibility of parole, you would not accuse the judge of being unloving. You would realize that a truly heinous crime had been committed.

Likewise, we can gauge the reality of the wages of our sins in two areas. First, is the fact of physical death. Our death is a witness that sin is as real as it is portrayed in the Bible. Death may seem a long ways off, but death finally claims the very last of every generation. We are not going anywhere. This holding cell called earth, may be a pretty pleasant place, even while death rattles her sabers, and snatches another 140,000 people away every day. And those unprepared will face the terror of eternal judgment.

Secondly, we are to gauge the reality of our sin by the law of God, Without the righteous standard of law, sin is easily underrated. You can fly in a plane at 36,000 feet at 600 miles an hour, with hardly a sense of even going anywhere. But remove the wings and rev those same engines to 600 MPH on the ground. What do you have? A terrifying deadly menace, destroying everything in its path, until that plane is itself destroyed. Likewise, if we line sin up with the law of God, we see how terrifying and destructive it is.

The fact is, sin may not seem very deadly. Yet it is constantly working death in us. That is why we take you on to the only possible remedy for sin.

• Even as the only possible life for our flesh is in our blood (no circulating blood, no life).
• Since the wages of sin is death, there is no forgiveness of sin apart from the shedding of blood.
• That forgiveness of sin centers exclusively on the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross.
• That there can be salvation in no other name than in Jesus.
• That the grip of the bondage to sin must be broken.
• That this breakup of sin happens only in our repentance from all sin.
• That the salvation that tran spires at repentance and faith in Christ is followed with bap tism and formal identity with the people of God.
• That the new Christian is not only forgiven, but washed and set. free from those sins.
• That the new Christian, having received the Holy Spirit, now lives in active pursuit of the will of God, and that by faith righteousness now displaces the former lusts in which he ignorantly lived.
• That the new Christian uses the Bible as necessary food for his soul.
• That he now regards the teachings and commands of Scripture as the path of life.
• That the new Christian now welcomes adversity and trial, as a necessary component of vitality in the faith.
• That the new Christian now confesses his faith in Jesus Christ. He yearns to see others come to that same salvation he received through the precious blood of Christ.
• That the new Christian lives in reverence toward the God who saved him and lives in accountability of the day when Jesus comes again.

SUGGESTED BIBLE READINGS Genesis 1-3; Isaiah 53; Exodus 20; Romans 5-8; Acts 1, 2; Matthew 25

-Lester Troyer