There are many right and wrong ways to speak about God, but in this post I want to mention two of them in relation to God’s judgment upon sin. While one error is far more common than the other, we must avoid them both.
1 We Misspeak about God when we ONLY Speak about God’s Judgment
This is by far the less common mistake today–at least where I live. But some people do make this mistake. They love to talk about God’s judgment and hell and wrath, and in fact, they can be characterized almost only speaking about it.
I once knew a man who almost exclusively wanted to speak about the wrath and judgment of God upon sinners. His favorite sermon was Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” and for him, a vast majority of any modern sermons failed to reach his standard of mentioning God’s wrath and judgment.
I believe the impetus in my friend’s heart was in part due to a discovery of the truth–the Bible does speak of God’s wrath toward sin. Contrary to theological liberalism and universalism, God does have a holy anger toward sin and sinners–Jesus spoke more about hell than anyone in the Bible. Another reason I believe my friend was so passionate about this was due to the fact that many pastors and churches severely under-proclaim this biblical truth and instead overemphasize life-application and love.
But we misspeak about God if we only emphasize his judgment on sin and sinners. We make the same error as those who never speak about it–we misrepresent God, who is a God of wrath and redemption.
2 We Misspeak about God when we NEVER Speak about God’s Judgment
A second, and far more common, error is when we never speak about God’s judgment. If we only speak about God’s love, and only give sermons that are mere ‘life-lessons’ or moralism, then we fail to proclaim the truth about God.
Our God has wrath toward sin and sinners. God raised up men like Zephaniah to proclaim the reality of God’s anger, wrath, and impending judgment (Zephaniah 1-3:8). This is a truth we need to soberly and clearly speak about if we are to right speak of God.
But we must not stop there, because God is also a God of redemption (Zephaniah 3:9-20). And we see the glorious fulfillment of this in the gospel (Romans 3:21-26).
May the LORD grant us the grace and wisdom to avoid these two errors and to proclaim the glorious truth of God’s judgment and redemption.
