03.4. Attributes of God with respect to sinful man
The Attributes Of God With Respect To Man As A Sinner 1.The Wrath Of God The most obvious and terrible attribute of God with respect to fallen man is his holy wrath against sin. Oh how great and fearful is this consuming wrath! Because God is infinitely holy, rebellion against him is deserving of infinite wrath and punishment. How we should tremble at the prospect of an infinitely holy God with infinite power justly holding against us infinite wrath for our sins! There is no degree of punishment and no length of time at which God’s wrath will be exhausted. We are finite creatures, and the only way we can atone for our own sins, the only punishment God can mete out and remain just, is eternal torment. How well has Robert Herrick expressed the terror of the wrathful God in his poem, “No Coming to God Without Christ”:
Good and great God! How should I fear To come to Thee, if Christ not there! Could I but think, He would not be Present, to plead my cause for me; To Hell I’d rather run, than I Would see Thy Face, and He not by.
Psalms 5:5-6; Psalms 7:11; Isaiah 13:9; Nahum 1:2; Matthew 3:7; John 3:36; Romans 1:18; Romans 2:5-6; Revelation 6:16-17; Mark 9:43 2. The Righteousness/Justice Of God
How often we as sinners formulate complaints against God. If we are ever tempted to do this, we would do well to remember one thing: God is righteous and we are sinful. In any conflict, in any disparity of opinion, in any complaint or grievance that we may bring before God, there is only one outcome: God is in the right. Justice is on his side. In all of his actions, in all of his responses to our actions, in all of his governing and dispensing immediate judgment or longsuffering and patience, God is always righteous in all that he does.
Job 4:17; Job 9:2-3; Job 40:1-4; Deuteronomy 32:4; Nehemiah 9:33; Proverbs 17:15; Zephaniah 3:5 3. The Judgment Of God
Because God is just and righteous, he gives a fitting recompense to every creature that he has made. God has a perfect standard - his own holy nature - by which to evaluate everything that his creation does. God judges all of our actions with righteousness, and gives a fitting recompense. If there were any sin that remained unpunished or any good that were rewarded with evil, then the righteous judgment of God would fall into reproach. But that can never be the case. As surely as God is righteous, he will bring everything to a fitting, righteous, and just conclusion. That reality must terrify us as sinners: as surely as God is just, we will not escape the reward for our guilt.
Deuteronomy 32:41; Psalms 94:1-2; Matthew 16:27; Revelation 22:12; Psalms 9:7-8; Psalms 82:8; Acts 17:30-34. The Longsuffering Of God When we consider the righteousness of God, and understand his wrath against sin, the amazing thing is not that he judges sin, but that he forbears so long to pour out his wrath in holy judgment against us. Let us stand in awe of the longsuffering of God, and be led to repentance by it. God will not be mocked: there will come a day when his longsuffering will end, and all who have despised his goodness will find that they have been treasuring up for themselves wrath.
Exodus 34:6; Romans 2:4; Ecclesiastes 8:11-13; Romans 9:22 5. The Hardening Of God A terrible and fearful judgment of God against the sinfulness of man is his judicial hardening. Because man has rebelled against God, it is a just punishment for God to turn us over to work out our own evil passions, to harden us in our sinfulness, to destine us for impenitence and reprobation, to blind our eyes to the truth of his mercy, until we awake at the last day and find that we have been treasuring up wrath. This is a just judgment of God, and if we have been spared it is nothing other than his mercy that has kept us from the same judgment.
Romans 1:28; Romans 9:17-18; Exodus 4:21; John 12:39-50. The Sovereignty Of God Over Evil
One thing that we may learn from the advent of evil into the world, is that God’s sovereignty did not end when his creation rebelled. Evil did not take God by surprise; it was in his plan from the beginning. God is sovereign over evil; he ordains all the actions that evil creatures perform; and yet they remain responsible and he remains righteous. Everything that God ordains, he ordains for a good purpose; and so, even with evil, he is able to turn all things into good. Evil does not frustrate God’s righteous plans; rather, it is the very means that God uses to fulfill his righteous purposes. Oh, let us tremble at this glorious mystery!
Genesis 50:20; 1 Kings 22:19-23; Romans 8:28; Acts 2:22-23; [cf. the entire book of Habakkuk]
“Divine wisdom brought good out of evil, even as the chemist distils healing drugs from poisonous plants.” - Charles H. Spurgeon 7.The Vindication Of God
If there is one word to sum up the truths that we may learn about who God is by studying his relationship to man as a sinner, it must be “vindication”. If there is nothing else we can learn about who God is in relationship to man as a sinner, we may know with certainty that God is always right, even if it means the rest of the world is wrong together. The entire history of the race of mankind will someday come together to declare with unmistakable certainty that God is righteous and his way is perfect. No matter who may bring presumptuous charges against God, as his creatures have been doing from the time of Satan’s fall, in the end God will be vindicated and all who oppose him will be condemned.