Understanding God's Severity: A Balance of Kindness

well God is loving and God is patient and God is kind but is God also severe can we say that any perceptive Bible reader who believes in God's absolute sovereignty is eventually going to ask this question like a listener named Tina hi Pastor John I'm wondering if it's wrong to say that God is severe recently in prayer in a train of thought I was led to use that exact word severe although it seemed to me to be sacrilegious after looking it up in the dictionary it appeared to me that some definitions of the word severe are negative in the prayer I was thinking about God's character that he is loving kind patient and I added severe to the list and like I said it didn't sound right I wondered if serious or sober are better words to name a few examples that I found in the dictionary would be harsh unnecessarily extreme grave I love your thoughts on this Pastor John is God severe [00:00:04]

because we generally expect the attributes of God or the marks of his character to be carried through continuously in all his action for example if we call him wise we don't mean well sometimes he's wise and sometimes he's foolish when we call him good we don't mean well sometimes he's good and sometimes he's bad and when we call him just we we don't mean that sometimes he's just and sometimes he's unjust but if we call him severe that pattern won't work that that's why I think it sticks in her throat what we would mean if we called God severe is that sometimes in some circumstances in response to some things he is indeed severe and other times that severity is replaced by gentleness [00:01:18]

so I would switch the question from is God severe to does God ever act in a severe way are there particular circumstances where um his wisdom his Justice his goodness in fact is severe and are there circumstances where he's not severe so let me give you a couple examples from scripture and then you can decide how to say it in the situation you find yourself um what we find is that whenever God is called severe in a particular circumstance it's described with whatever it is that called forth the severity [00:02:26]

for example in Luke 12 Jesus told a story of a servant who several servants who knew their their Master's will and and some who didn't know it and the master responds differently to different servants let me read it to you this is Luke 12:47 uh that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will will receive a severe beating it's a picture of the final judgment but the one who did not know and did not deserve U did not know what deserved a beating will receive a light beading everyone to whom much was given of him much will be required so yes there will be a severity of judgment and the severity is in proportion to the rebelliousness of the sin [00:03:14]

severity does not Mark God's Behavior pervasively but only occasionally uh in response to particular attitudes and behaviors here's here is the most important important illustration of God's severity in the Bible I think because it it is embedded in a context that gives us a a sense of how relevant it is for us today this is Romans 119 following you will say then so Jesus now says to the Gentiles who are reading him you will say Jewish branches were broken off so that I I a gentile might be grafted in and and the picture is grafted in to the Abraham Covenant of promise [00:04:15]

and then Paul says well that's true they were broken off because of their unbelief but you stand fast through belief through faith so don't become proud but fear that is fear falling into unbelief fear unbelief for if God did not spare the natural branches the Jewish people who did not believe in Jesus neither will he spare you for your unbelief verse 22 note then and that that's a strong word look behold watch hear what I'm saying note then the kindness and the severity there's the word note then so this he's saying saying to us Gentile Christians hey wake up I want you to look at his kindness and I want you to look at his severity [00:04:59]

severity I'm still reading now severity toward those who have fallen that is the broken off branches of unbelief but God's kindness to you provided you continue in his kindness that is keep trusting him keep having faith in him keep treasuring his kindness otherwise Paul says you too will be cut off and even they if they don't continue in their unbelief belief will be grafted in for God has the power to graft them in the reason this text is so important is because well two things one severity is contrasted with kindness so that we can see clearly that sometimes God acts with one and other times he acts with the other [00:06:03]

in other words severity is not an overarching quality of all God's action like justice or wisdom is or goodness but is one expression of his Justice and wisdom and goodness it's it's the Counterpoint of of kindness sometimes one is appropriate sometimes the other and here's here's the second thing that's so important about this text it tells us directly as Christians that we should think about we should think about God's severity it says note well well look well in other words severity really matters we should think about it it should be part of our thinking about God [00:06:50]

verse 22 is a command look note well the kindness and severity of God and he says this right after he gives the command don't become proud but fear so fear there is fearing unbelief fear the failure to rest in God fear uh the failure to enjoy God fear uh not being changed by God's kindness this is so important and so contrary to the way most people think about living the Christian Life they think lots of people think there's no place for fear in the Christian life but Paul in Romans 11:20 explicitly commands Christians to fear to fear unbelief [00:07:39]

and to make it really paradoxical we could say He commands us to fear the failure to be Fearless by trusting Jesus get let me say that again he commands us to fear what the short answer is unbelief but let's say it like this He commands us to fear the failure to be Fearless by trusting Jesus fear basing your fearlessness on Pride base your fearlessness on faith in Jesus and fear every other kind of fearlessness so I would conclude with Tena that when we are giving a a list of God's overarching attributes including severity would probably be misleading [00:08:34]

no those don't include sever in that list but we should say it's one of the ways that God acts in some circumstances and it underlines the need for Christians to fear unbelief one of the main reasons for us to know his severity is so that we should fear the kind of unbelief that God treats so severely and then fly fly to the kindness that he promises to all to trust him amen [00:09:21]