All Things Are Not Equal

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“All things being equal, God does desire that no one should perish. But all things are not equal. Sin is real. Sin violates God’s holiness and righteousness. God also is not willing that sin should go unpunished. He desires as well that His holiness should be vindicated…. When the preceptive will is violated, things are no longer equal.” – R. C. Sproul, From Can I Know God’s Will? pp. 22-23.



We no longer have a right to claim God’s favor when we violate His commands. We forfeit all claims on His love and mercy.

As the highest and best being in the universe, God has the right to demand of us whatever He desires. God’s desires are always in accordance with His nature, and He is wholly good. He can no more command something that is evil than He can cease to be God. He cannot because He will not, and His essential desires never change.

God, in some sense, takes “no pleasure in the death of anyone” (Ezekiel 18:32) and does not desire “that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). However, He is “of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong” (Habakkuk 1:13). Moreover, He “will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:7).

God’s nature has both aspects. God has love for all men in some sense, but the sinner is under His wrath.

All things are not equal.

But God gave His Only Son, and Christ has paid the penalty for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). If we trust that what Christ did on the cross, He did for us, then our sins are paid for by Christ. We need not fear the wrath of God when we are in Christ by faith.

All things are not equal.

Comments

Steve Martin said…
There it is, The law/gospel paradigm.

Thanks be to God that He loves and died for the ungodly.

For that is what I am.
March 14, 2011
J. K. Jones said…
We must perish under the law to recieve grace.

We follow the law after we recieve grace because we are thankful for grace.
March 14, 2011
Steve Martin said…
We follow Christ, and doing what the says just naturally follows.

The law was "our custodian until, Christ came". "But now Christ is the end of the Law for all those who have faith."

We follow it, but not because we have to for righteousness sake.
March 14, 2011
Positive Thoughts said…
I need followers. Please follow my blog I will appreciate it. Thanks and God bless you.
March 28, 2011
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