LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
God the Judge and the Father
God's working in these end times shows him, among other characteristics, in two different facets.
Eliseo Apablaza
If we look around, we see that evil is increasing in the world to alarming extremes. So we ask: How long will God's patience last for? In the light of the Scriptures, we see that on various occasions in times past, God's patience reached a limit, and then his judgments fell on humanity.
The 'fill' of sin marks the limit of the world
There is a level of sin in the world that God tolerates, but there is another level that God will not tolerate. That's why, when God's judgments are announced, the Scripture usually suggests that sin has filled up the measure, or has reached the determined limit. What is the measure of sin that God doesn't tolerate? We will shortly address this, but first let us examine the instances when that limit was reached, and what the judgments that fell were like.
In the times of Noah, God " saw that the wickedness of Man was great on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart only evil continually. And Jehovah repented that he had made Man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. " (Genesis 6:5-6). The context indicates that the "the sons of God" mixed with "the daughters of men", and had given place to a hybrid race called the 'nephilim ' (giants). This gave place to corruption, violence, and wickedness. This sin marked the first 'fill' of sin and was intolerable to God. He decided to destroy man from the face of the earth, even with the animals, because they also appear to have been involved in man's wickedness.
Later, in the days of Abraham and Lot, God's anger fell once again, this time on the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim. Men had fallen into horrible sins like those angels who "had not kept their own original state" (Jude 6-7). They sinned with those of 'different flesh', (See Lacueva Interlineal New Testament) falling into 'unnatural desires'; that is, unnatural sexuality. That marked an intolerable limit for God. When God established " whether they had done altogether according to the cry " of that sin, that is to say, that it had reached its fill ("their sin is very grievous "), He then acted.
In the days of Moses, we see that God sent terrible judgments (plagues, afflictions) upon Egypt. What was the measure of the sin in Egypt? It was the abundance and perversion of their gods (Exodus 12:12 b), the extremity of their sorcery-represented by Jannes and Jambres who challenged God's power by seeking to imitate Aaron's miracles (Exodus 7:11-12), the wickedness of the Egyptian officers who mistreated the Israelites, and the diabolical hardness of Pharaoh's heart which stubbornly opposed God's voice. All this marked an intolerable measure for God, and that's why he poured out the nine plagues and exterminated the first-born of the Egyptians, even their animals.
In the days of Joshua, we find another 'fill of sin' that unleashed God's judgments. The old inhabitants of Canaan took their sin to an extreme -just as God had prophesied to Abraham ("And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full" Genesis 15:16). What was that measure of sin that caused God to order the total extermination of its inhabitants, and even of its animals? In Leviticus chapter 18 God says to Israel: " Make not yourselves unclean in any of these things; for in all these have the nations which I am casting out before you made themselves unclean. And the land hath become unclean; and I visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomiteth out its inhabitants…" (vv. 24-25). What were "these things" that made them unclean? Incest (vv. 6-18), impurity (v. 19), adultery (v. 20), sacrificing children to demons (v. 21), sodomy and bisexuality (v. 22), and bestiality (v. 23).
These four judgments that we have mentioned here are the greatest that God has sent on humanity, according to that which is registered in the pages of the Bible. In all of them we can see that God has a limit of tolerance. When that limit is exceeded, then he acts.
Now, if we look around us, at the world that we live in, we can see that the measure of sin is approaching. All these sins mentioned above are today galloping around wildly without restraint. The finer sensibility of the moralists from past times that somehow brought control to such barbarism has now been lost. The media is giving wide access and approval to all these depravities. Internet takes the leading role in all this as an instrument of evil, and the limits are reaching their fill. Does it surprise us that God will send his judgments, if the conditions are being fulfilled?
Will the Judge of the whole earth, who is holy and dwells in the holy place, not demand justice?
Sin and flesh under permanent judgment in the church
What then is God doing amid the Church? It is also a judgment, but one of a very different nature to the judgments that will come on the world. The church won't be hurt by the judgments that will come on the humanity (we speak of the church, not of Christianity). Noah escaped from the flood, Lot escaped from the judgments upon Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham was not touched by them, and Israel was not touched by the judgments upon Egypt.
However, the church permanently lives under God's judgments, "for the thrones are set there for judgment" (Psalm 122:5). In the church there are also severe sanctions for sin (Matthew 18:15-17). The Holy Spirit, through Peter says: " For the time of having the judgment begin from the house of God is come; but if first from us, what shall be the end of those who obey not the glad tidings of God? And if the righteous is difficultly saved, where shall the impious and the sinner appear? " (1 Peter 4:17-18). Since the church began, it has lived under the judgments and the discipline of God. Sin is judged (Ananias and Sapphira suffered judgment in Jerusalem), and believers are disciplined to lead them to maturity (the believers committing incest in Corinth). The children in God's house are disciplined, and necessarily so, otherwise they would not be legitimate children.
Since we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Holy Spirit began a demolition work in us that destroys all that belongs to Adam, to the old man, and a work of reconstruction, so that the Second Man, the heavenly be established, according to the image of Christ, who is being formed in us, with an eye toward maturity for the Kingdom. The Father, with the firm hand of a father, disciplines us, and the Holy Spirit demolishes us using the cross and our daily circumstances, in a perfect and patient work.
Discipline that lovingly corrects the believer on account of sins and sinful tendencies, just like the cross that also acts on the seemingly innocuous and even good parts of our nature-breaking our soul, work together toward the same end. This all sounds extremely painful, but its end is the transformation into Christ's image, into a holy and gentle character (Hebrews 12:10-11).
Our blessed God is a severe Judge, but he is also a loving Father. He judges in both his role as Judge, and as Father. In the first case, it is to punish the world with wrath for their sin, and in the second, to discipline the children in His house with love. How terrible it is to have God as an implacable Judge! But what a blessing and joy it is to have him as loving Father!
Let us fear falling into the Judge's hands, but let us not doubt the loving hands with which our Father disciplines us.