unprotected

I am continuing my posts on Colossians 3, a key section of the Bible for living as a disciple in the real world, which is, of course, God’s world to begin with.

Col. 3:6-7 (NLT)
God's terrible anger will come upon those who do such things. [7] You used to do them when your life was still part of this world.

Paul pauses here from his “state of the union” address on life lived from natural human desires, or life lived through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Chances are we don’t think much about God being angry. After all, this isn’t the Middle Ages of Martin Luther where he cowered in his tiny monk cell thinking God was just waiting for him to mess up so he could get zapped. But, Luther discovered the God of trust reading from Romans 1:17, where Paul quotes from Habakkuk 2:4.

Romans 1:17 (NLT)
This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, "It is through faith that a righteous person has life."

We are made right with God through connecting with Jesus. The angry God frees us from the consequences of our sin, in this life and in eternal life. What is this all about?

God is consumed with anger when we ignore him and die to his ways rather than follow him and die to our human nature, which is to follow our own desire wherever it will take us. We cannot be trusted with our own healthy living, as Paul has given many examples of what people will live like apart from God. So, if God is so mad, why doesn’t he just get over it? Why doesn’t he just let us live and let live?

First, God's anger is not wrong. He can be trusted with anger because he is in control. It is not like our anger, which we will address tomorrow. God can feel however he wants about what he creates. In a way, I suppose, God has set himself up for frustration because he has given us free will. We can reject him.

Second, God knows what he has in store for us and so it upsets him when we don’t do what is good for us. Follow him. But, notice Paul says, “You used to do them…”

The assumption, thus far, is we are not bound to sexual sin and greed. And if we honestly admit they are sins, struggle with them, repent of them, and open ourselves up for his healing, we are freed from the long term consequences of what we deserve.

Paul’s warning here is when we say sin is not sin, don’t struggle with it, and are not driven to Christ for forgiveness. When sin is not considered sin, we are exposed to God’s righteousness unprotected by Jesus, which is his wrath. To not know God and his forgiveness is to know God's anger, eventually.