Oh I thought that God has wrath for the unbeliever. Have to go with Jesus on this one. This gospel you preach reminds me of what I heard in a class: if you want to get rid of all crime legalize everything. In Christianese, this is lawlessness masked as grace and love. Sorry, God is the same God and God has judged sin. Those without Christ are guilty, and God will pour out wrath.
So when do you think that will happen? Not in this life, because God has poured out all His wrath and indignation on Jesus so there is none left. The way that God deals with the unbeliever in this life is with goodness, patience, kindness and gentleness. When the Day of Judgment comes, unbelievers will be judged according to their attitude to Christ. Then they will endure for the rest of eternity the continuing wrath of God.
If you think that God has wrath right now for the unbeliever, you are believing that Jesus did not pay the full price for sin, and that He was not punished enough, and that God still has anger over sin. If God still has anger, then none of us could be saved. You were an unbeliever once. If you believe that God has wrath in this life for unbelievers, how could you have been saved? It is the goodness and kindness of God that leads people to repentance.
And Jesus preached the message of the kingdom, and it wasn't "I love you" it was "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Yup, still will follow Jesus on this one.
Jesus preached this to unconverted Jews. You will not see anything like that in the Book of Acts or any of the Epistles. You are following Jesus as He was in the flesh, but the Scripture says that in the New Covenant, we no longer know Jesus in the flesh. Jesus loves unbelievers as much as He loves you and me. He says to unbelievers, "Come let us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet they will be as white as snow." The way that God draws sinners to Christ are through love, peace, joy, patience, goodness, kindness and gentleness.
And the idea that God just smiles down upon the rapist, or the murderer and wants them to be happy is a gospel I just don't see.
Sin is sin with God. He doesn't distinguish between small or great sins as we do. He laid it all on Jesus and poured out His wrath on Him and punished Him to the max. God is not judging any of these people. He is working through the Holy Spirit to draw them to Christ. God has saved many rapists and murderers and made them into totally new creations. Paul the apostle was a murderer and he was worse; he murdered Christians. Jesus told him that he was persecuting Him. Yet Jesus saved him and gave him the greatest ministry anyone has and will ever have for the Lord. Think about that. Jesus saved a murderer and caused him to write a large section of our New Testament. Who do you think God is? A grumpy fellow in the air with a big stick ready to belt sinners on the head? Or is He a loving, kind and gentle God who is not willing that any should perish but at all, including rapists and murderers, come to repentance?
The biblical way to express God’s love to a sinner is to show him how great his sin is (using the Law—see Romans 7:13; Galatians 3:24), and then give him the incredible grace of God in Christ. This was the key to reaching so many on the Day of Pentecost. They were "devout" Jews who knew the Law and its holy demands, and therefore readily accepted the mercy of God in Christ to escape its fearful wrath. When you use the Law to show the world their true state, get ready for sinners to thank you. For the first time in their lives, they will see the Christian message as an expression of love and concern for their eternal welfare, rather than of merely proselytizing for a better lifestyle while on this earth.
How many have you won to Christ using that method? How many came to Christ in the Book of Acts using the method you describe? Thousands of people came to Christ because of the healing of the Lame man in Acts 3. Do you think that the love and goodness of God in healing sick folks were more convincing factors to draw people to Christ? Do you think that belting people over the head with their sins will convince them? When the Holy Spirit convicted you of sin, did He belt you over the head, or did He draw you with love, goodness, kindness and gentleness?
The forgiveness that is in Jesus Christ is conditional upon "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). It is a gift that God offers to everyone, but individuals must receive it by repenting and trusting in Christ, or they will remain dead in their sins. No one has biblical grounds to continue in sin, assuming that they are safe just because Jesus died on the cross.
Not quite true. We are justified by faith and not by works. If a person is saved by repenting and having faith, then that is salvation by works and not by faith. We come to Christ by acknowledging that we are sinners with no hope of doing anything to save ourselves. Next we acknowledge that Jesus died for us on the cross. Then we receive Him as our Saviour and Lord. The moment we do that we are justified and saved. This happens before we do anything, because salvation is by faith alone. If you are saying that salvation depends on us doing something, then you are right back in RCC theology. That's what they believe. They believe that salvation involves faith and personal reformation of life.
Repentance is a total change of attitude toward God and Christ. It results in a change of direction in the way we live our lives. This happens as the result of Conversion. It does not cause conversion. As soon as a person accepts Christ by faith alone, they are no longer dead in their sins. They are made alive in Christ as a new creation. That new creation is sin-free. As we grow in grace and faith, we find that the sinful nature has less and less influence over us. But from the instant of conversion, sin no longer has dominion over us. A truly converted person will not continue in sin, because he is clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
Charles Finney stated, "God is not angry merely against the sin abstracted from the sinner, but against the sinner himself. Some persons have labored hard to set up this ridiculous and absurd abstraction, and would fain make it appear that God is angry at sin, yet not at the sinner. He hates the theft, but loves the thief. He abhors adultery, but is pleased with the adulterer. Now this is supreme nonsense. The sin has no moral character apart from the sinner. The act is nothing apart from the actor. The very thing that God hates and disapproves is not the mere event—the thing done in distinction from the doer; but it is the doer himself. It grieves and displeases Him that a rational moral agent, under His government, should array himself against his own God and Father, against all that is right and just in the universe. This is the thing that offends God. The sinner himself is the direct and the only object of his anger."
In the period of time when Finney wrote this, the Presbyterian Church of which he belonged was very sin-conscious and judgmental toward unbelievers. Since then, there have been advancements in the knowledge of God, of His goodness, patience and kindness. It is true that God hates sin. that is why He sent His son to die and to take our sin upon Himself. God poured out all His anger and indignation on Christ. Christ suffered more on the cross than we have been led to believe. His suffering was indescribable, hell on earth, and then down in hell itself. He continued to suffer torment until every last drop of anger had been poured out on Him. This then made it possible for John 3:16 to be true, that God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that through Him the world might be saved. Even when we were yet sinners, Jesus loved us and gave Himself for us. That is God's attitude toward the unbeliever. And while it is the time of grace until Jesus comes again, that is the way it will continue to be. But on the Day of Judgment if unbelievers refuse Christ, then their sins return from Christ back onto their own heads, and they then suffer the terrible wrath of God that Jesus experienced while dying on the cross for us.
