wahlau's online hut

irene wrote today in her blog about God being angry when one sins. I choose to reply here, since i have been also thinking about this, and want to clarify it to people who visits this place (is there actually any, i wonder? )

Her statement/idea was as following:

"What about those people who keep on sinning and their hearts become
 hard and they grow cold and fall away? Does God get angry with them?"

it is very simple and logic for us. You do something bad to me, over and over, and you know the consequences - i am going to be very angry with you some day, when it finally go over my limits. I will only consider about forgiving you, if you promise to be nice and perhaps must also bear the consequences of things you have done wrong, bla bla this and bla bla that.

well, that is very human. Not gonna hide or lie about that.

But does God do the same? Christians will say no. I mean, the condition part. How about He getting angry with me when i sin over and over? What Irene said is definitely what most of us would think: "How can God not be angry when we sin? He hates sin!"

as how i understand and know God so far, what mentioned above are not wrong. We definitely will expect God to be angry or sad or disappointed, when we as His children fall again and again instead of growing up. In the bible you will also find places saying how God turns His face away when isrealites sinned against Him, or how God shows His anger on countries or people who had done great sins (those are also favourite bible passages non-christians will quote to question us). One part that is missing here, to come back to our topic here - why and what He is angry with.

Why is not really a difficult question. God hates sin. Sin is not something you will find in His attributes. He cannot condone sin nor accept people who sinned (that is why we need salvation).  Fine, so sin is bad bad thing. here is we usually conclude and link to the answer of what - so God is angry with us when we sinned.

This part is exactly where i would like to explain. When someone did wrong things to you, would you be angry at him? Yes you think so. But how often do you realise, that you are actually angry at what he did, and not the person he is? Similarly, when God is angry, is not you suddenly become an ugly dude that chinese would say "ç?‡ä½ ä¸?顺眼“ (cantonese for "you look ugly/non-appropriate anyhow"). Nor is God so angry, that He will not talk to you anymore. You might ask now, then why on earth is He angry?

He is angry because the relationship can be broken again. You relationship with Him. He cannot accept you and condone the wrong doing at the same time. The expression of anger here, is a way to show us why God wants us to have salvation. If we are saved, as you might read from Irene's blog, our sins are forgiven - in the past, present and future. So if you are born again, but sinned later, the records are actually known (of course, He knows everything right?) and are also marked as "forgiven" too. So why worry? Why keep thinking that God can be angry and decide to dump you until you come back crying asking for forgiveness?

The only worry i would have, is people who continue sinning as if they are not saved. That means, no sense of repentance at all. I usually explain that as "a sign for doubts of salvation". If a person really understood his salvation, he will not fall into this category. He might still on and off fall, and make mistakes that can put him back to good old days, but if he remembers the covenant he made with God, and ask Him to forgive him, things are settled, because he has salvation.

Only when he has never really understood his decision made to follow God, and refuse to live towards a life planned by His will, then it does not matter if he continues to sin. Sin does not even bring any conviction to him. I am more concerned and worried about such cases - blacks sheeps like this bring christianity more and more doubts to both non-christians and christians. Still, God will only be angry and sad on things he has done, and not on him. God's love applies eventhough you choose not to follow Him or even to go against Him.

Thank God for being angry, but at the same time willing to forgive us. This assurance should allow you to break away from your doubts and worries, and rest peacefully in his arms while enjoying joy and peace.