Pastor's Column: Sinners in the hands of a loving God

One of the most famous – or infamous – sermons in American history was preached in 1741 by a Massachusetts minister named Jonathan Edwards. The title was “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” It was the quintessential “fire and brimstone” type sermon in which judgment and hell are stressed.

As we observe Easter this Sunday, I think it is the time we can celebrate God’s love. For it was God’s love that was the motivation for his sending Jesus into the world, as we are told in the well-known Bible verse: “For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son into the world...“

But we could then ask: If God loves humankind – including you and me – then what about the judgment Jonathan Edwards speaks about in his sermon? The answer is the cross of Jesus.

It was through Jesus’ death by crucifixion in which both God’s love was perfectly expressed and his judgment of sin fully satisfied. In other words, God’s love was so great that he was willing to be judged in our place, as another Bible verse describes: “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”

I like the analogy I came across years ago that says it is like each one of us standing before a judge for a crime that deserves the death penalty. The judge passes down a guilty verdict, but then steps down from the bench, removes his judge’s robe, and takes the sentence of death upon himself in our place.

With all this said, I believe many people can only think that God is mad at them. If this is the case, we will never progress in our faith, for we will always be trying to win his approval by our actions. But if we simply accept his love and find his forgiveness through what Jesus did on the cross for us, we will be able to bask in the joy of being a loved child of God.

This is all so beautifully expressed in Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal Son. After the son has abandoned his father and squandered his inheritance, he decides to return home. When he does so, his father doesn’t wag a judgmental finger at him berating him for all the wrong he’s done and pain he’s caused, but when he sees him approaching from a long way off, he has compassion for him and runs to meet him, embracing and kissing him. The father even celebrates his son’s homecoming by throwing a party!

If you feel estranged from your Father in heaven, this Easter would be a wonderful time to decide to return home to him. Receive by faith what Jesus has done for you through his death and resurrection, and find yourself a sinner running into the hands of a loving God!