on the nature of God and sins

I am writing this in a response to an entry in my friend's blog which can be found here

This is the citation from my friend's writing which I would like to address:

"My point is this language allows wars, killings and the use of force to defend the dignity of the religion if threatened. God (not capitalized because it loses my respect) in both text is described as vengeful and destructive. Holy Bible describes god’s anger when he swept out the whole mankind except Noah. This is not justifiable for whatever grave sins human has committed (it is said that god is forgiveful BIG JOKE). Another example is Sodom and Gomorrah incineration (can be found in Quran text as well). I find this god’s character, if not followed, interpreted extensively by both religions. No wonder, it incites so much vengeful character in both congregations."

First of all, it is about the nature of God. The bible, as Christians accept today, consists of two major parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. I have seen that many people tends to see that the "God" presented in the Old Testament and the "God" of the New Testament to be "two different gods", the basis of this is that, as mentioned in my friend's blog, someone could see the nature of God in the Old Testament to be vengeful, cruel, and so on and so forth. However, in the New Testament, it seems that we can see "a more plausible nature of God in term of His love towards humanities." Is this really the case? Are there really "two gods" in the bible? Of course the answer is no. There's only one true God and from the perspective of the completeness of the bible and of course with an assumption that God exists (note: the discussion the existence of God will be set aside first for now), I would like to present my argument from Christian's point of view.


How could we “reconcile” these two somewhat “contradicting” nature of God? The Bible should not and must not be interpreted parts by parts, rather as a whole. So, what is the whole Bible all about? The whole Bible only tells us one thing, from the beginning in the book of Genesis to the end in the book of Revelation, on the great redemptive plan that God has on humanities and the restoration of the Kingdom of God. The New Testament itself is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, the completion of God's great redemptive plan which is manifested through Jesus Christ that came down to earth, became human in order to bear all of our sins and iniquities.


We could start from the Old Testament first. In the Old Testament, the first covenant from God was given to Abraham (Genesis 22:17-18):

"I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

This is the God's covenant to Abraham so that his descendants will be blessed (one of them is mentioned here is take possession of the cities of their enemies). God also made similar covenant with Isaac, and then Jacob which from him the 12 tribes of Israel were born.


In Exodus 19: 4-6, God’s purpose for Israel is mentioned:

“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

Israel was chosen to be God’s treasured possession, kingdom of priests, and holy nation. God’s purpose in bringing Israel out of Egypt is that they would worship Him and become a holy nation for Him. Through them, His blessing should reach all the nations of the world. God also wanted to show through them to the other nations (which at that time still worship other gods such as Baal) that He is the one and only God, and no other gods beside Him. God helped Israel in their conquest of Canaan. This is also to fulfill God’s covenant to Abraham: “Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies.”


However, despite that all the greatness that God has shown to the people of Israel, the people of Israel kept turning away from Him and adore other gods. Israel has failed to fulfill the God’s given role: they failed to spread the Word of God to other nations, they failed to stay holy but rather they turned away to other gods.


God’s covenant with Abraham is then fulfilled through Jesus Christ, which is the “offspring [on which through Him] all nations on earth will be blessed." Thus, the final fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan was written inside the New Testament. I will now turn into answering the question on the problem of sins and then conclude the discussion on the nature of God:


Secondly, it is about the question, is it justifiable for God to, for example, swept the whole human kind in the story of Noah's flood? Perhaps we could start the discussion by defining “sin”. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God (Westminster Shorter Catechism). God is holy and His divine holiness sets Him apart from us, it covers all aspects of His transcendent greatness and moral perfection, and is characteristic of all His attributes, pointing to the “Godness” of God at every point. Therefore, the core is that God’s purity cannot tolerate any form of sin. “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). One example on how God could not tolerate sin is shown in Numbers 15:32: “they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day” and the God ordered for that man to be put to death. Even to the chosen people of Israel, God could not tolerate sins. This shows how grave sin is in the eyes of God.


In the case of Noah, God has given the mankind the time of 120 years to repent, but none turned back to God and “that the every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 5: 6). Only Noah and his family found to be righteous in His eyes and thus God flooded the earth and saved only Noah’s family. In order to answer the question on whether it is justifiable or not for God to do this, we need to understand the nature of sin itself which is totally intolerable for God which is holy.


These two points show the justice and love of God. God’s justice is shown by His intolerance against sins. God’s love is shown through His Son Jesus Christ which

“being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2: 6-7).

God’s intolerance against sins, all of His anger, was cast upon Jesus on the cross. Jesus bore all the consequences of our sins so “that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Quoting Heidelberg Catechism,

“God is indeed merciful, but also just; therefore his justice requires, that sin which is committed against the most high majesty of God, be also punished with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment of body and soul, [and the only mediator is] Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

However, there's still one last question which perhaps remains. Could we understand God fully and thoroughly? Unfortunately for our own state, the answer is no. Why? If we could really understand God (in term of one-hundred-percent-certainty), what kind of God is that? Won't it be just a god that we created thus we can understand it very easily? But our mind is so much limited and could not (and will not in our current state) grasp God's fully. Adding to it, it's also because of all our logic and our mind has been polluted by sins, as Apostle Paul put it in Romans 3:23: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God".


Of course this short text would not be able to answer all of your questions, but it will be good if we have the heart to listen and learn from others. I am also learning and seeking for the truth, I am open for discussions and I would like to further hear other’s view on this matter as well :)