When asked to explain judgment, I try to make it personal. I ask the person if they have ever made anything they really loved and enjoyed. Then I explain, it is like the dinosaur I made in 3rd grade: we were asked, by our teacher, to take some clay home and make a dinosaur replica as a “show and tell” for our oral reports. I took that clay home, open my Encyclopedia Britannica and selected the Brontosaurus. I spent a week making the best looking dinosaur I could ever imagined. It was beautiful! I became very protective of it – from the small little head, down long sweeping neck, all the way to the far-reaching tail tip that I had curled around the body. A boy in my class was not happy at me for some reason and wanted to hurt me. He threatened my clay dinosaur. Oh… No, you don’t! I made it! It was mine. I became very protective of it. Then the teacher wanted to recycle the clay, "Uh, no way!" I invoked the right of creation... Trying to delay the outcome. Didn't work.
I wanted to protect my creation and I wanted to delay the inevitable outcome of the destruction of my creation. You see, God has the “Right of Creation” and He loves His creation…
While there is much evil in the world, there is even more that is good. God delays deserved punishment, because if he did not, the race of man would immediately be extinct. Paul begins 2 Thessalonians with a word of thanks to God about the Thessalonian saints. He is thankful that they have evidenced a growth of faith and of love toward one another. He expresses his admiration of their perseverance and faith, even in the midst of persecutions. Paul states that their faithful endurance is itself evidence that God’s judgment is righteous—it is right, it is just, it is fitting. This passage serves as a commentary on the rightness of God’s judgment as it pertains not only to the Thessalonians but to us as well, and it offers grounds for encouragement.
There are two groups of people under consideration in this text. There are the wicked—enemies of God and of God’s people. These afflict the saints (v. 6); they do not know God (v. 8); they do not obey the gospel (v. 8); they do not believe the truth (v. 11); and they will be punished with everlasting destruction when the Lord comes (v. 9).
God spares sinners so that may be led to repentance. He is "not willing that any should perish—but that all should come to repentance." In subduing the hearts of sinners, God's great argument is his kindness. If God instantly punished every man according to his transgressions, we could no more be exhorted to "count the long-suffering of God salvation." Thus God teaches. So also is his practice. A right view of the divine forbearance and mercy breaks every heart that ever is broken, bows every will that ever submits. "They shall look on him whom they have pierced—and mourn."
The sufferings of unsaved men are often used by the Holy Spirit to cause them to realize their needs of salvation and to turn to Christ in repentance and faith. The sufferings of Christians may be the means of developing a stronger dependence on God and a more Christ-like character, if they are properly “exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11).
Thus, God is loving and merciful, even when, “for the present,” He allows trials and sufferings to come in our lives. He bears long with us. He is slow to anger. He is the God of patience. Long-suffering is of his very essence. Man may exist without being kind, and gentle, and forbearing. God cannot.
I wanted to protect my creation and I wanted to delay the inevitable outcome of the destruction of my creation. You see, God has the “Right of Creation” and He loves His creation…
While there is much evil in the world, there is even more that is good. God delays deserved punishment, because if he did not, the race of man would immediately be extinct. Paul begins 2 Thessalonians with a word of thanks to God about the Thessalonian saints. He is thankful that they have evidenced a growth of faith and of love toward one another. He expresses his admiration of their perseverance and faith, even in the midst of persecutions. Paul states that their faithful endurance is itself evidence that God’s judgment is righteous—it is right, it is just, it is fitting. This passage serves as a commentary on the rightness of God’s judgment as it pertains not only to the Thessalonians but to us as well, and it offers grounds for encouragement.
There are two groups of people under consideration in this text. There are the wicked—enemies of God and of God’s people. These afflict the saints (v. 6); they do not know God (v. 8); they do not obey the gospel (v. 8); they do not believe the truth (v. 11); and they will be punished with everlasting destruction when the Lord comes (v. 9).
God spares sinners so that may be led to repentance. He is "not willing that any should perish—but that all should come to repentance." In subduing the hearts of sinners, God's great argument is his kindness. If God instantly punished every man according to his transgressions, we could no more be exhorted to "count the long-suffering of God salvation." Thus God teaches. So also is his practice. A right view of the divine forbearance and mercy breaks every heart that ever is broken, bows every will that ever submits. "They shall look on him whom they have pierced—and mourn."
The sufferings of unsaved men are often used by the Holy Spirit to cause them to realize their needs of salvation and to turn to Christ in repentance and faith. The sufferings of Christians may be the means of developing a stronger dependence on God and a more Christ-like character, if they are properly “exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11).
Thus, God is loving and merciful, even when, “for the present,” He allows trials and sufferings to come in our lives. He bears long with us. He is slow to anger. He is the God of patience. Long-suffering is of his very essence. Man may exist without being kind, and gentle, and forbearing. God cannot.
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