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The Severity of God
The Severity of God
“Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off” (Rom. 11:22).
As we have seen in our reading of Genesis 1-5, mankind walked away from God. Now in Gen. 6, we see just how far they have gone: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5).
God’s holiness and righteousness come into focus here as He beholds the evils of mankind. His response: Judgment! They would die in the flood. They DID! ALL but Noah and his immediate family, 8 souls out of the multitudes upon the earth.
“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD”. God told him what was coming and how he could avoid the coming death. “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” (Heb. 11:7). Behold the goodness and the severity of God!
So it is with us. WE have sinned and rebelled against God. God WILL bring all of us to judgment. We have found grace in that He has told us about the coming condemnation and told us how we can escape. He has gone further in that He has provided the very means of such in the giving of His son that we might be forgiven.
Will you respond as did Noah? Will you trust in God’s instructions?
Thus we see the goodness and the severity of God as it pertains to US. Will you continue in His kindness – or be cut off?
Hugh DeLong
