Grace Or Cuilt?
How do you picture God? Loving or punishing? Forgiving or judgmental? Mark Twain was a leading humorist of his day, but he also had his dark, pessimistic side.
In one of his angry essays on religion, Twain described the biblical God as a malevolent monster who made people blind by poking out their eyes, made people deformed by making one leg shorter than the other, and then laughed about all the cruel hardships he had inflicted.
Painters have also added their unique visions to our perceptions of God.
Michelangelo’s The Creation of Man, a huge fresco that adorns the ceiling of Rome’s Sistine Chapel, shows God as a bearded, muscular elderly man who, surrounded by angels, extends his hand toward a reclining nude Adam.
Centuries later, William Blake’s work The Ancient of Days shows
God is a bearded, muscular young man who uses an engineering device to measure the world he is making.
From what did your image of God come?
If your earthly father was warm and loving, that may help you have a positive image of God. But for people who have suffered through parental abuse, picturing God as a loving heavenly father can often be difficult.
None of us will ever have a complete picture of God until we get to heaven. Even Moses, who had a direct encounter with God, never saw the Creator in all his glory.
In this life, the best way for us to gain an accurate picture of God is by studying the clues the Bible provides for us. And as the two verses in Deuteronomy show, this process isn’t always easy.
Before Moses left the people he had led for four decades, he once again explained the laws of God to them. It was during this instruction that he called God both “a consuming fire” and “a merciful God.”
How could both of these things be true? A review of the preceding books of the Bible repeatedly answers this question. When God’s people turned against him and his commands, his anger and judgment were fierce.
But when his people recognized the errors of their ways, repented, and returned to God in sincerity and submission, his grace and forgiveness knew no limits.
It’s the same for us today. It’s not God who is changing, it’s us.
God, you are both a consuming fire and a merciful father Help me live my life in such a way that it’s your mercy I see.