God's Two Hands
E.A. Johnston teaches that a true understanding of God requires acknowledging both His mercy and His justice, symbolized as God's two hands, to fully grasp the gospel's power to save.
In this powerful sermon, E.A. Johnston challenges the modern gospel presentation by emphasizing the necessity of proclaiming both God's mercy and justice. Using vivid illustrations and biblical examples, he reveals how neglecting either attribute distorts God's character and weakens the gospel's power. Johnston calls preachers and believers alike to embrace the full counsel of God, highlighting the bloodstained Savior who saves from sin through both judgment and grace.
Full Transcript
The gospel of our day has divided God in half and presents the pleasant side of God, which is his mercy, that God is a God of love and our evangelism runs forward on that one track, but that is a deficient gospel that has no power to save a flea, much less a sin-hardened individual, because it is a partial proclamation of God. Yes, God is a God of mercy, but God is also a God of justice, and if you omit his justice, then you negate his character. God, if I may so speak, has two hands, and with those two hands he meets out either mercy or justice.
I've had folks ask me in the past, Preacher, how can God be a God of love and yet still send people to hell? I try to explain these attributes of God this way. I am a father, and I have a daughter, and there are times when she is sad and needs some comforting, compassion, and understanding, and I take my hand and gently pat her hair as I speak softly with love to her. That's the love side.
But if you tried to harm my daughter, you'd feel the force of my fist, as I am trained in martial arts and I know how to fight. That's the justice side. God has two hands, one of mercy, extended out through the calls and pleas of the gospel.
The Apostle Peter declares, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Then there is the hand of God, which holds a sword of justice, ready to cut you down if you don't turn and repent. For in the same breath, Peter declares the justice of God.
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not the old world, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly. Yes, friends, I believe God has two hands, one of mercy and one of justice. And if you, brother preacher, proclaim only half a side of God in your love-only gospel, you do souls harm and make false converts who've never been awakened to their lost condition, who've never been convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit, and subsequently never were regenerated through the new birth.
Yes, God has a hand of mercy and long-suffering, and it overflows with his love. But God, the judge of all the earth, holds a gavel in the other, which he will bring down with force on a common day of judgment. All you have to do is witness his turning Adam out of paradise, his drowning of the old world, his raining hell out of heaven upon Sodom, and witness the pouring forth of all his wrath upon his beloved son as he bore the sins of the people and cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Next time you read through your Bible and preach the better be sure you tell folks about God's two hands.
Then and only then can you tell them about a bloodstained Savior who saves from sin. Let us pray.
Sermon Outline
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I
- The gospel today often presents only God's mercy
- This partial gospel lacks power to save the truly lost
- God's character includes both mercy and justice
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II
- Illustration of a father's two hands: gentle love and protective justice
- God's mercy is extended through the gospel's call to repentance
- God's justice is ready to punish unrepentant sin
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III
- Biblical examples of God's justice: angels, the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah
- Warning against preaching a love-only gospel that neglects justice
- True conversion requires conviction of sin and new birth
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IV
- God's justice is evident in the suffering of Christ
- Preachers must proclaim both God's justice and mercy
- Only then can the bloodstained Savior be truly understood
Key Quotes
“God, if I may so speak, has two hands, and with those two hands he meets out either mercy or justice.” — E.A. Johnston
“If you proclaim only half a side of God in your love-only gospel, you do souls harm and make false converts.” — E.A. Johnston
“God, the judge of all the earth, holds a gavel in the other, which he will bring down with force on a common day of judgment.” — E.A. Johnston
Application Points
- Recognize and embrace both God's mercy and justice in your understanding of the gospel.
- Avoid preaching or believing a gospel that omits the necessity of repentance and conviction of sin.
- Trust in Christ's sacrifice as the fulfillment of God's justice and the source of His mercy.