Behold the Goodness and Severity of God

Devotional

Day 1: The Olive Tree’s Warning: Grafted In But Not Immune

The image of wild branches grafted into a cultivated olive tree carries both promise and peril. God’s severity broke off natural branches hardened by unbelief, while His goodness grafted in Gentiles through faith. This duality demands humility: no one earns their place in God’s family. The tree’s stability depends not on human merit but on abiding in divine kindness. To presume immunity from consequences or elevate oneself over others is to risk repeating Israel’s error. [23:36]

“Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.”
(Romans 11:22, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you subtly assumed God’s goodness guarantees immunity from consequences? How might the “olive tree” imagery reshape your dependence on Christ today?

Day 2: When the Father Runs: Goodness That Restores Rebels

God’s goodness isn’t passive tolerance but active pursuit. Like the prodigal’s father sprinting to embrace his wayward son, God’s kindness runs toward repentant hearts. This goodness cost heaven everything—the cross proves God would rather die than live without His children. Yet this same goodness refuses to enable rebellion; it interrupts destructive paths with severe mercy. Restoration begins when we turn homeward. [27:35]

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”
(Luke 15:20, ESV)

Reflection: What part of your story needs to trust the Father’s running embrace more? Where is God’s severe mercy redirecting you now?

Day 3: Storms as Severe Mercy: Discipline That Wakes the Drifting

God’s severity often arrives as a loving storm—closed doors, consequences, or crises that jolt us from spiritual sleep. Like a parent restraining a child from traffic, His discipline feels harsh but flows from covenant care. These “storms” aren’t punishment for punishment’s sake; they’re rescue missions to restore intimacy. The question isn’t whether we’ll face them, but how quickly we’ll let them turn us home. [32:10]

“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
(Hebrews 12:6, ESV)

Reflection: What current “storm” might be God’s severe kindness? How could responding with repentance rather than resentment deepen your trust?

Day 4: The Cross: Where Severity and Goodness Collide

Calvary is the ultimate collision—God’s severity toward sin (crushing His Son) and goodness toward sinners (offering salvation). Justice and mercy embrace here: wrath fully poured, grace fully given. To downplay severity makes the cross unnecessary; to ignore goodness makes it powerless. This bloody intersection demands we never trivialize sin nor doubt God’s desire to save. [37:19]

“He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
(1 John 2:2, ESV)

Reflection: Does your view of the cross soften sin’s gravity or doubt God’s delight to save? How might beholding both truths deepen your worship today?

Day 5: Urgent Worship: Holding Joy and Reverence in Tension

True worshipers hold a hymnbook in one hand and a hammer in the other—singing of grace while smashing idols. Joy flourishes when we remember God’s goodness; reverence trembles at His severity. This tension fuels urgent obedience: we share Christ passionately because heaven’s kindness and judgment are both real. Complacency dies when we grasp that souls hang in the balance. [40:45]

“Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.”
(2 Corinthians 5:11, ESV)

Reflection: Does your worship fuel passive comfort or active mission? How might holding joy and reverence together change your conversations this week?

Sermon Summary

Paul calls believers to “behold” the goodness and severity of God in Romans 11:22. Paul’s word means to look carefully, to consider deeply, and to fix attention on something that is very important. God is not one dimensional, and Paul will not allow anyone to hold on to one side of His character while setting aside the other.

Paul uses the picture of a cultivated olive tree to explain God’s dealings with Israel and the Gentiles. God broke off natural branches because of unbelief, and God grafted in wild branches by grace. Paul presents that breaking off as severity, not cruelty. God’s severity is His righteous response to persistent unbelief, because God is holy, God is just, and God does not overlook sin.

God’s goodness is rich and deep. God’s goodness is seen in salvation, mercy, patience, forgiveness, restoration, and every breath granted by grace. God’s goodness is pictured in the father who does not wait with folded arms for the prodigal son, but runs, embraces, and restores the repentant child. God delights to restore those who turn back to Him.

God’s severity must also be carefully considered. God’s severity is seen in judgment, in discipline, and in the final warning that every person will stand before a just God. God’s discipline is corrective, meant to turn hearts around and bring lives back to the right path. God may use a storm, consequences, or a closed door to wake someone up before sin carries that life farther away.

Paul shows that goodness without severity leads to presumption. God’s goodness can be twisted into permission to become casual with sin, arrogant in grace, and comfortable in Christianity. Severity without goodness leads to despair, fear, and a wrong view of God. God’s mercy triumphs over judgment, but God’s mercy never makes sin small.

The cross displays both realities perfectly. Christ bears sin judged and wrath poured out, while God offers salvation, grace, and forgiveness. The cross is where goodness and severity meet, and the cross is where every person must meet God.

Paul calls for humility, perseverance, urgent compassion, and balanced worship. God’s goodness should move believers toward lost people with compassion, while God’s severity should create urgency to tell them about Jesus. God’s discipline should be received as goodness wrapped in severity. God deserves worship filled with joy and reverence, because He is infinitely good and perfectly severe.

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Key Takeaways

1. Behold both goodness and severity Paul refuses a one-sided view of God. God’s goodness reveals His mercy and saving kindness, while God’s severity reveals His holiness and justice toward unbelief. Faith becomes distorted when either truth is separated from the other. [21:08]
2. Severity is not divine cruelty God’s severity is His righteous response to sin that refuses Him. God does not minimize what destroys people and separates them from His life. God’s judgment and discipline show that sin matters because God is holy. [25:29]
3. Grace is power, not permission God’s goodness must never become an excuse for casual sin or spiritual pride. Grace brings people into God’s covenant life and gives strength to continue faithfully. Paul’s warning calls believers to remain humble and dependent on God. [35:21]
4. The cross holds justice and mercy Christ’s cross shows sin being judged and salvation being offered at the same time. God’s wrath against sin and God’s love for sinners meet there without either being weakened. Christ makes clear that mercy is costly, holy, and freely given. [37:19]
5. Discipline calls wandering hearts home God’s correction is meant to redirect, not merely to wound. God may use consequences, closed doors, and hard seasons to expose a wrong path and call a life back to righteousness. God’s severity can be goodness wrapped in a hard but needed warning.

## [39:29]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[19:06] - Behold the Goodness of God
[19:50] - What It Means to Behold
[21:08] - Goodness and Severity Together
[23:36] - The Olive Tree and Unbelief
[25:29] - Severity as Righteous Justice
[26:20] - The Richness of God’s Goodness
[28:40] - God’s Severity Toward Sin
[31:23] - Discipline That Brings Back
[33:01] - The Truth of Final Judgment
[34:56] - The Danger of One-Sided Faith
[37:19] - The Cross: Justice and Mercy
[37:59] - Humility, Faithfulness, and Urgency
[39:47] - Worship With Joy and Reverence
[41:26] - Behold Both and Respond

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Romans 11:22
“Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” [19:50]

Hebrews 12:6
“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” [31:28]

Exodus 34:6-7
“The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” [37:06]

Observation questions

In Romans 11:22, what two aspects of God are believers told to carefully consider, and what does the word “behold” call them to do? [19:50]
In Paul’s olive-tree picture, who are represented by the natural branches and the wild branches, and why were some branches broken off? [23:36]
What examples show God’s goodness in the lives of people, including His response to those who repent and return to Him? [27:19]
According to Hebrews 12:6 and the message, what purpose does God’s discipline serve in the life of someone who is wandering? [31:28]

Interpretation questions

Why is it important that Paul describes God’s severity as a righteous response to persistent unbelief rather than as cruelty? How does that distinction shape the way a person understands God’s judgment? [25:23]
Paul warns Gentile believers not to become proud because they have been grafted in by grace. Why can a strong emphasis on God’s goodness sometimes lead a believer toward presumption or casualness about sin? [35:14]
Exodus 34:6–7 presents God as compassionate and just. How does the cross show that God’s mercy toward sinners does not require Him to ignore sin? [37:06]
If God’s discipline is corrective and meant to bring people back to Him, how might believers distinguish between responding humbly to correction and simply treating every hardship as a direct punishment for a specific sin? [31:32]

Application questions

Which side of God’s character is easier for you to focus on—His goodness or His severity? How might focusing on only that side be shaping your attitude toward God, sin, or other people? [21:46]
Is there an area where God’s goodness has become “permission” in your thinking—an area where you have become casual with sin, delayed repentance, or assumed grace without pursuing obedience? What would humble dependence on God look like there? [35:21]
Have you experienced a consequence, closed door, difficult relationship, or hard season that helped turn your attention back toward God? Without assuming every hardship has the same cause, how might you receive God’s correction with humility and hope? [32:16]
God delights to restore those who repent. Is there a place where you need to come back to God rather than hiding in shame, discouragement, or delay? What would a sincere step of return look like this week? [27:48]
Who in your life needs to hear about both God’s mercy and the seriousness of sin? What is one compassionate and truthful step you could take to speak with them about Jesus? [38:35]
How could holding together God’s goodness and severity change the way you worship—helping you come with both joy and reverence rather than flippancy or fear? [39:47]

Sermon Clips

60s

“But then you think about what they produce together and you understand better why Paul said, behold both. It's because when you behold both, you live rightly, you worship rightly. You serve rightly because you appreciate even more so who God is. Exodus 34 verse six and seven shows God as compassionate and just. You think about the cross, the cross itself is a perfect display of the goodness and the severity of God. Severity, sin judged, wrath is poured out, and goodness salvation is offered, grace is extended. The cross is where goodness and severity meet, and the cross is where we must meet God.”

56s

“It causes me to respond to discipline. If God is correcting you, that is goodness wrapped in severity. Receive it. Learn from it. And what God wants you to do is to return to him. It causes me to worship in balance. I think about how we how we gathered this morning and come together as God's people to to worship him. And I wonder, are are we all beholding the goodness and severity of God as we as we do that this morning? Because when we think about these things, we worship with joy, but we also worship with reverence. You know, worship doesn't become something that we do just flippantly, but it's also not not something we do just out of fear. We understand the privilege we have to come together and sing praises.”

42s

“It's why Paul said, I want you to think seriously about his goodness and his severity because when you think about it, goodness without severity at least presumption. You know, if we only behold god's goodness, we can become casual with sin. If we only behold god's goodness, we can become arrogant in our ways like the Gentiles that Paul warns. If we only behold the goodness of god, we begin to think grace is is a permission instead of power that God is supplying.”

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Shiloh Church of Christ This sermon · AI assistant

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