In the last letter of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, God sends a last message of warning to a dying planet – Revelation 14:6-12. This message is given by three angels to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a serious message – the consequences are life and death – but it’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.
In Revelation 14:10, we can read that there are those who shall “drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation.” In my last post, I noted that all of us understand what “wrath of God” means through our worldview and our worldview is tainted by an enemy that wants us to distrust, even hate, God. What’s the solution?
In that post, shared something one of my favourite authors had to say on the subject and here’s the rest of her observation:
“Jesus came to teach men of the Father, to correctly represent him before the fallen children of earth. Angels could not fully portray the character of God, but Christ, who was a living impersonation of God, could not fail to accomplish the work. The only way in which he could set and keep men right was to make himself visible and familiar to their eyes.” (White, God Made Manifest in Christ)
We are invited to swap out our lenses for a different pair of worldview glasses: To see everything through the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.
What does that mean on a practical level? It means coming to rest or trust that everything God does, including whatever his wrath is, comes from the bottomless well of his love, grace, and compassion. At the end of the day, we have to come to the point where we can say, “I don’t always understand who you are but God but I will trust you because I know that you always do the most loving thing that can be done.”
Can you do that?