Hellfire and Brimstone

I had to have one of those tuff conversations with my son last week. He got busted doing something he should not have been doing. Of course I found out about it and had to sit him down and talk to him. At first he said he didn’t do anything. Then he said he did something but didn’t want to tell me because he was afraid he would get in trouble. Then he told me he was embarrassed and didn’t want to tell me. Finally, on his own and after many tears, he confessed what he had done. During this whole process I assured him that I was not mad at him. I simply wanted to talk to him about it. I wanted to answer any questions he might have. And I wanted him to understand that although I wasn’t mad at him and he wasn’t going to receive any punishment, what he did was in fact wrong and shouldn’t happen again.

Two things stuck me during and after our conversation. First I was reminded of all the times I’ve lied when I’ve sinned. I’ve lied to others and I’ve lied to God, as if you can really do that. I thought about all the great men in the Bible that lied to and tried to hide from God. We lie and hide because of fear. Fear of the consequence of our actions. I came to the realization that my son’s first instinct is to think of me in terms of punishment. Yes, there should be punishment for actions. But at the same time there should be grace and forgiveness. Now, by no means am I comparing myself to God, but I do believe He uses instances like these to give us a small glimpse of what He is like. He is able to dish out any punishment He pleases, and we deserve it. But instead, if we go to Him, He comes to us with love, grace and forgiveness. I could have severely punished my son for his actions, he deserved it, but I realized that instead of punishment he needed relationship.

And that brings me to the second thought I had. I thought about all the people out there that won’t set foot inside a church because of the fear of the consequences of their actions. They are so far from God that they 1) can’t imagine God accepting them, and 2) if He does except them, what form of punishment is God going to cast down upon them. And if that doesn’t get them then there is the fear of how others in the church will view them. There are broken people out there that have no hope of becoming whole because of fear; fear that has been put into their head from Christians and the church. Because the God that I read about is not known as a god of fear, He is a god of love.

If my son continues to view me only as a father who only dishes out punishment I have no hope of training him to become the Godly man I know he is. There will always be a great chasm between us. In the same way, if people only think of God as a person only interested in dishing out punishment they’re going to stay away from Him and the church. Trust me when I say that God is much more interested in having a relationship with you then punishing you. Yes, there are eternal consequences for your actions, but we must first give people the opportunity for relationship. Let’s present the God of love instead of the God of punishment. How do I know He would want us to do that? Because He did it. When we deserved nothing more then an eternity in Hell, He sent Jesus. He had every right to send punishment, but he sent love. God is love. No matter who you are or what you’ve done, God is love.