How is it possible for the following to both be true:
- God is always loving, gracious and merciful to sinners
- God is always just, lawful and hates sin
What is dryness but the absence of moisture.
What is cold but the absence of heat.
What is darkness but the absence of light.
In
what way is rain or sun violent? Because, by their nature, they destroy
(respetively) dryness, cold and darkness. We could say the Sun had
clobbered the darkness, or banished or scattered it, but that wouldn’t
be correct, technically, since there was nothing there to be clobbered
or banished or scattered. The Sun “annihilated” darkness just by
infusing it with what it lacked: light. — pauper frater, As Iron Sharpens Iron
This is a very interesting sentiment. In the comments following this post, with regard to the “sheep and goats” parable of Matt 25, I responded:Without quoting it here, please refer to Matt 25:31-40. I’d point out
that “all nations” receive the same speech from Christ. It we ourselves
who either obey or disobey Christ and by our lives approach already
self-defined as sheep and goats.
When we approach the Judgement
Seat of Christ, it’s not as if all nations will be hoping to deepen
their relationship with Him, and He not with them in return. He wants
us to want Him. Those who already have the relationship with God will
desire more of Him (sheep), and those that don’t (goats), won’t.
“Come,
you blessed” vs. “depart from me you cursed” can (and I think should)
be seen in relational terms like everything else. Come into the deeper
relationship the sheep desire, depart into the non-relationship the
goats desire. The blessed and cursed reference their state as read from
the Book of Life (again, they bring this baggage with them). Christ
isn’t blessing or cursing them in the moment–they are already in that
state when they approach.
Notice it says “these will go off to
eternal punishment” as opposed to “I command you to be punished even
though you’d rather be anywhere else.” He’s making a statement of fact
regarding their own nature as they approach Him and desire to recoil,
not a juridical command of eternal retribution.
Christ did not come to Judge the world but to save it. As the original post says, God will always (IMHO) be merciful.