God is Not Angry with You!

      Religion says, “God loves you, but He’s also angry with you.”  Religion says, “God punishes you when you sin”.  Prior to the cross, it made sense to talk about a righteous God being provoked to anger by sin.  But it doesn’t make sense anymore.  Why not?  Because Jesus Christ “took away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).  Jesus didn’t “cover” our sin, He removed the sin of the whole world, not just the sin of the believers.

And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. 1 John 2:2 (NKJV)

The word propitiation means the appeasing or acceptable sacrifice.  It literally means that Jesus satisfied the wrath of God toward sin.  If the cross was the once and final solution for sin, and you have placed your faith in Christ, then God will never be angry with you again, no matter what you do.  What has God got to be angry with you about since He keeps no record of your sin?   

  that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:19 (NKJV)

God is not keeping a record of your sin.  You sin account has a zero balance!  God is love and “Love keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Cor 13:5).  Everything He does is an expression of His love for you. If the wrath of God scares you, then you have the wrong picture of wrath because there is no fear in love.

1 John 4:17-19 (NKJV)
¹⁷ Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
¹⁸ There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
¹⁹ We love Him because He first loved us.

Isaiah prophesied about this New Covenant that would come through the Messiah.  God swore that He would never be angry with you again.  “For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; For as I have sworn That the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, So have I sworn That I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you (Isaiah 54:9).

You Are Unpunishable!

You cannot be condemned for any reason.  Scandalous I know, but that’s what the Bible says in

Romans 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

God condemned sin in the flesh of His Son (Rom. 8:3).  The word condemnation is the Greek word katakrima which is from root word to condemn or to punish.  This statement from the Apostle Paul is a statement about those who are “in Christ”, it’s to Christians, but it is beneficial to those who are not in Christ, to those who are not yet Christians because many have misconceptions about God and sin. 

Nothing overwhelms me more than the display of the grace of God toward the woman in (John 8:1-11) that was caught in the act of adultery.  Did Jesus punish this woman?  Show me anyone that Jesus punished for their sin.  This story so beautifully portrays the grace of God through Jesus.  Why do you think they brought this woman to Jesus?  Because they knew He was full of grace.

Public stoning was the punishment for her sin, her accusers stood with the stones in their hands, that would soon take her life by this painful death.  The Law demanded her death, yet Jesus just stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger.  What did He write?  You’ve probably heard, as I have, lots of sermons about Jesus writing in the sand, as preachers share their ideas and speculation over what He may have written.  The only problem is that Jesus didn’t write in the sand or in the dirt.  According to verse two of (John8), He was in the temple teaching when the Pharisees brought this woman to Him.  There is no dirt or sand floors in the temple, not even in the temple courtyard.  Jesus was writing on STONE with His finger.  Let’s think for a moment, . . . writing on stones, . . . with His finger.  Sound familiar?  Where have we heard that before?  Mt. Sinai!  God wrote the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone with His finger.   What was Jesus doing?  He was reminding them that there was not just one commandment written in stone, but ten.  His writing on stone was a statement to the Pharisees, “You dare to instruct Me in the law?  I’m the One Who gave it.”   Remember in Exodus, God wrote on stone not once, but twice just like in this story.

As Jesus wrote on stone, one by one the accusers dropped the “stones” they were carrying and went out.  The stone in Biblical typology is the Law of Moses.   The law is holy, just and good but it is completely inflexible, demanding ABSOLUTE COMPLIANCE…….OR ELSE!  Paul said the law was “the ministry of death and condemnation” (2Cor. 3:7,9).   The Pharisees knew that if you broke even one commandment in the Law, you were guilty of all.  By the way, there were 630 commandments in the Law of Moses, not just 10.

 Jesus, the Grace-giver completely disarmed her accusers, they fled as the grace of God drove away the judgements of men.  Grace is that superior to judgement.  No one had to tell her that she needed to place her faith in Christ.  Grace is the atmosphere of Love that makes faith in Jesus the only reasonable response.  Why don’t we see more people placing their trust in Jesus today?  Because we need a greater revelation of His amazing grace.   Listen, if Jesus didn’t punish her, then He won’t punish you.  If it’s not true of the Son, it’s not true of the Father (Heb 1:3).  Religion threatens punishment to compel proper behavior, but the truth is that in Christ you are eternally unpunishable! “The punishment that brought us peace was on him…” (Isa 53:5).  How can God punish twice for one offense?  If Christ took my sins and stood as my substitute, then there is no wrath of God for me.

Nothing about “punishment” is part of our relationship with God.  Jesus took that all away when He was Punished for us on the cross. We are always forgiven. Continuously. Perpetually.   Eternally forgiven and accepted by Him.  His death has rendered us un-punishable! (Not un-discipline-able.)

Many people believe that when they have problems in life it is because God is angry with them for some past sin.  All my life I have heard people say things like, “I had a miscarriage and I believe that God is punishing me for the way I lived in the past.”  Statements like this prove that people have an incorrect view of God.   How did Jesus deal with this woman and her sin?  

Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours?  Has no one condemned you?”  She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”  Which came first, the command to go and sin no more or the free gift of no condemnation?  The church often gets this backwards, we say, “go and sin no more and you will not be condemned”.  But it is the gift of no condemnation that empowers us to go and sin no more.  

When you can begin to fully understand His grace, forgiveness, mercy, and unconditional love, you can know with certainty His attitude toward you is merciful—not anger. I can assure you that no matter what you’ve done in life or no matter how many misconceptions you have about God’s feelings toward you, and no matter what your preacher told you, God will never stop loving you. God is not angry with  you and never will be!