Why Punctuate God's Severity

 

Why Punctuate God's Severity?

 

Romans 11:22, Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

God’s severity and goodness denote the fact that God is both just to those who fall away and loving to those who trust Him. God’s “severity” towards fallen Israel with His “goodness” toward believing Gentiles are the continuing focus of this article. These concepts must be understood nationally and not individually. 

 So....

What are the Specific Implications of the Severity of God?

Again the “severity of God” refers to His strict, exact justice and His unwavering intolerance of unrepented sin. This features how God’s love does not negate His holiness, and that rejecting His grace ultimately brings decisive dire consequences. Such a perception of God is not an isolated facet or singular event; it is His essential nature. This is how He really is!

What is the Biblical Foundation for this Persuasion about God? (Romans 11:22)

Again, the concept originates in Romans 11:22, where the Apostle Paul indicates: “Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you...” –Martyn Lloyd-Jones

The Greek word for “severity” is apotomia, literally pointing to ‘cutting off’ or ‘harshly cutting out’. God does not grade on a curve! This idea refers to God withdrawing His blessings and severing a nonfaith-based relationship with those who stubbornly reject faith and persist in tenacious defiance—unbelief. It does not matter if these actions are intentional or inadvertent…whether these peoples meant it or not. God is not obligated to remain generous to those who gamble—take wicked chances by ignoring his kindness!

Now whenever, we discover anything about God’s nature, then we will likely find that trait repeated or illustrated in other places in the Bible! God explicitly uses the word “severity” in Romans 11:22, pointing to His strict justice towards unfaithfulness. Throughout this passage we have concrete examples illustrating this holy strictness against people’s rebellion and sin.

But this is not the only Bible Illustration of this overlooked divine quality—severity:

• The Flood of Noah: God destroyed the ancient world with a massive water cataclysm because wickedness was great in the entire earth (Genesis 6:5-7; 2 Peter 2:5).
• Sodom and Gomorrah: God literally rained fire and brimstone from heaven, turning these wicked cities into ash heaps as an example and warning to those who would live ungodly. As the Judge of the entire world He created, He will do right (Genesis 19:24-25; 2 Peter 2:6).
• Nadab and Abihu: Aaron’s sons offered strange fire before the Lord, and fire went out from the Lord and unapologetically devoured them both (Leviticus 10:1-2). God decisively rejects the sin of unbelief and disobedience.
• Uzzah Actions: God struck Uzzah dead on the spot for putting forth his hand to stabilize the ark of God when the oxen stumbled (2 Samuel 6:6-7). In this manner, God warned of His strictness and inspired respect for His unbending character!
• The Exile of Israel: God broke off natural branches from the olive tree due to unbelief, showing that unyielding rebellion brings severe removal (Romans 11:20-22).

This uncompromising and rigid nature of God may be pervasively ignored or temporarily reduced in its significance by many, but God desires for His people to think of Him in this way to avoid cheapening the Gospel and to reduce our inclinations to take chances with faith.

What are the Central Concepts of these Expressions? This notion is deeply essential to the Gospel message.

• God’s Exact Justice: God does not merely overlook sin, unbelief, or wrongdoing. His holy nature demands that sin be addressed, which certainly requires payment or punishment. 
• Our Need for Discipline: Rather than just a final punishment event, reminders of God’s severity can serve as corrective disciplines meant to turn us back to a righteous course of action. 
• Jesus, Our Atonement: The “severity of God” is perhaps most profoundly demonstrated through the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. God’s severe justice regarding sin was undilutedly and un-mitigatingly poured out on Christ at Calvary, permitting God to offer “kindness” to us sinners instead. 

But Why Such Strictness or ‘Severity’ Still Today? What is the Purpose of Reflecting on God’s Severity?

We must understand that dwelling on this attribute of God is not meant to inspire crippling terror, but rather to inspire fitting reverence and devotion in us at the heart level regardless of the timeframe. This is a timeless facet of God’s very essential nature! Recognizing His severity is meant to: 

1.     Emphasize the gravity, significance, and pure seriousness of our sin.

2.    Create a deep appreciation for the extraordinary mercy found in God’s incredible kindness. We need to deeply treasure God’s goodness far more than we do…a great deal of complaining will stop immediately if we realize just how gracious God has been to us believers.

3.    Encourage believers to remain humble and faithful rather than becoming arrogant or self-reliant. A discipline existence instead of a permissive lifestyle takes shape!

While these are serious implications, even our natural world recognizes the beauty and marvel of an uncompromising presentation.

·       Uncompromising illustrations in nature merge absolute scientific truth with raw, unyielding artistic media—where tools like pen, ink, or direct elemental exposure reject artificiality and demand total fidelity to the ecosystem.—Vintage Nature Landscape

• Rigorous Naturalism gives us artists like Michael Rothman who depict ecosystems with uncompromising scientific accuracy, capturing the exact biological truth of flora and fauna without sentimental alteration.—Inspirational Art Group
• Structural Taxonomy issues classic compendiums like Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel reveal the uncompromising geometric symmetry and design embedded intrinsically within microscopic and macroscopic organic life.—Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel

An uncompromising natural world operates strictly on God’s physical laws, biological necessity, and unbiased creative reality rather than people’s feelings. Nature does not negotiate, show moral favoritism, or bend its rules for comfort. The natural world operates on God’s exact physical laws, remaining entirely indifferent to human desires, moral ideologies or beliefs, or the never-ending search for security, meaning, or contentment. It functions through God’s predictable forces like gravity, thermodynamics (physics and chemistry studies that show how energy moves and changes), and intelligent design (divine cause rather than undirected processes like natural selection). God’s absolute nature is manifested in His created dynamics. Gravity and thermodynamics are testable, mathematically consistent physical forces rooted in God’s very real empirical scientific nature; these laws point directly to our Creator. Yes, this is where real faith meets real science!

This lack of compromise certainly forces us all to modify, focus, grow, and struggle as we thrive daily. So, the concept of divine “severity” is not so strange after all! Additionally, there is no need for ordinary people to seek individualistic solutions because they perceive this fundamental idea of God fails to be relevant and practical!   

Beloved, when fundamental notions about God and life are abandoned, foundational frameworks in real viable science, inspired philosophy which is basically Christian apologetics, or even serious cultural shifts naturally follow. These shifts lead to the replacement of old certainties (time tested truths) with new unproven theories, substantially altering how people understand reality, truth, and meaning. Child of God, there are ample reasons why God’s balanced nature is set forth to grip our attention!

 

God is Severe

God is Severe

 

Romans 11:22, Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

God’s balanced nature is set forth to grip our attention! He wisely pairs severity with goodness, indicating God is both just to those who fall away and loving to those who trust Him.

God’s “severity” toward fallen Israel with His “goodness” toward Gentile believers who continue in His faith is the focus of our meditations. These concepts are addressed on a national and not an individual scale.

An Appreciation of the Biblical Context Would be Helpful!

Picture an olive tree where unbelieving branches were broken off and believers were grafted or inserted in their stead. The Believer’s Bible Commentary affirmed,

“11:21 If God did not hesitate to cut off the natural branches from the line of privilege, there is no reason to believe that He would spare the wild olive branches under similar circumstances.

11:22 So in the parable of the olive tree, we see two great contrasting facets of God’s character—His goodness and His severity. His severity is manifest in the removal of Israel from the favored-nation status. His goodness is seen in His turning to the Gentiles with the gospel (see Acts 13:46; 18:6). But that goodness must not be taken for granted. The Gentiles too could be cut off if they do not maintain that relative openness which the Savior found during His earthly ministry (Matt. 8:10; Luke 7:9).

It must be constantly borne in mind that Paul is not speaking of the church or of individual believers. He is speaking about the Gentiles as such. Nothing can ever separate the Body of Christ from the Head, and nothing can separate a believer from the love of God, but the Gentile peoples can be removed from their present position of special privilege.”^[1]

Matthew Henry (1662–1714), the British minister and commentator wrote,

“This is called here severity, v. 22. God laid righteousness to the line and judgment to the plummet, and dealt with them according to their sins. Severity is a word that sounds harshly; and I do not remember that it is any where else in scripture ascribed to God; and it is here applied to the unchurching of the Jews. God is most severe towards those that have been in profession nearest to him, if they rebel against him, Amos 3:2. Patience and privileges abused turn to the greatest wrath. Of all judgments, spiritual judgments are the sorest; for of these he is here speaking, v. 8.” ^[2]

And Dr. W. W. Wiersbe devised,

“It is worth noting that, according to Bible prophecy, the professing Gentile church will be “cut off” because of apostasy. First Timothy 4 and 2 Timothy 3, along with 2 Thessalonians 2, all indicate that the professing church in the last days will depart from the faith. There is no hope for the apostate church, but there is hope for apostate Israel! Why? Because of the roots of the olive tree. God will keep His promises to the patriarchs, but God will break off the Gentiles because of their unbelief.

No matter how far Israel may stray from the truth of God, the roots are still good. God is still the “God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Ex. 3:6; Matt. 22:23). He will keep His promises to these patriarchs. This means that the olive tree will flourish again!”^[3]

Thus, in this light the goodness and severity of God coupled with His pure justice are remarkably set before us to consider carefully!

We Understand God’s Severity as the Counterbalance of His Goodness!

Romans 11:22, differentiates or contrasts God’s “severity” toward an unbeliever nation who fell away with His “goodness” toward believing peoples who continue in His faith. Some clarity surrounding these critical terms would prove enlightening and beneficial.

     ·       Goodness defined: “but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness”, that is God shows mercy to those who hold fast to their faith—those who stay true to His grace.

     ·       Severity defined: “on them which fell, severity”, meaning God’s strict judgment and ‘cutting off’ of those who live in unbelief—“them which fell” points to those who turned away in disbelief.

     ·       “Goodness” and “Severity” reveal that believers are to consciously look at, reflect on, both the undeserved kindness and the extremely strict justice of God. This balance, or stabilizing truth, show more fully His nature. It inspires us to grow in our faith commitment, wholly respect God’s essential nature, and correctly appreciate His infinite grace toward us.

We must take informative account of these two sides of God’s character: His kindness toward those who trust Him and His severity or sternness toward those who reject Him. As Gentile Christians we must reject prideful feelings, humbly stay in God’s kindness through an active faith, or nationally risk being cut off just like unbelieving Israel is now. God does not compromise, negotiate, bargain or adjust on these matters!

 

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^[1] William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1726.

^[2] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 2223.

^[3] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 552.

“First Focus on Prayer”

Spiritual Leadership in the Church Series

1 Tim 2:1-15

 

THEME: the church is to conduct its services with order.

RELEVANCE: “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14:40) is a basic principle for the conduct of the ministry of the church. Apparently, young Timothy was having some problems applying this principle to the assemblies in Ephesus. The public worship services were losing their order and effectiveness because both the men and the women members of the church were disobeying God’s Word.

 INTRODUCTION:

The church is an organism,” a pastor said, “so we shouldn’t put too much emphasis on organization. We should allow the Spirit to have freedom.”

“But if an organism is disorganized,” I submit, “it will die. Yes, I agree that we must permit the Spirit to have freedom, but even the Holy Spirit is not free to disobey the Word of God.”

Often, what we think is the “freedom of the Spirit” are the carnal ideas of some Christian who is not walking in the Spirit. Eventually this “freedom” becomes anarchy, and the Spirit grieves as a church gradually moves away from the standards of God’s Word.

To counteract this tendency, Paul exhorted the men and women in the church and reminded them of their spiritual responsibilities. Paul's urge, “I exhort therefore,” echoed his original mission for Timothy (1:3). False teaching had to be challenged, and right actions needed to be reinforced.

MESSAGE:

I. The Call to Order Regarding Prayer—Men (1 Tim. 2:1–8)

It is generally agreed that this passage has to do with public prayer, although there is nothing in it that would not be equally applicable to one’s private devotional life.

A. The Priority Of Prayer (V. 1a).

Paul placed primary importance on prayer; thus he addressed this issue first of all.

1. “First Of All” Indicates That Prayer Is Most Important In The Public Worship Of The Church.

a.                      It is sad to see how prayer has lost importance in many churches. “If I announce a banquet,” a pastor said, “people will come out of the woodwork to attend. But if I announce a prayer meeting, I’m lucky if the ushers show up!” 

b.                      Not only have the special meetings for prayer lost prominence in most local churches, but even prayer in the public services is greatly minimized. Many pastors spend more time on the announcements than they do in prayer!

c.                      The late Peter Deyneka, Sr., founder of the Slavic Gospel Association, often reminded me: “Much prayer, much power! No prayer, no power!”

2. Prayer Was As Much A Part Of The Apostolic Ministry As Preaching The Word.

a.      Acts 6:4, But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.

b.     Yet some pastors spend hours preparing their sermons, but never prepare their public prayers. Consequently, their prayers are routine, humdrum, and repetitious. I am not suggesting that a pastor write out every word and read it, but that he think through what he will pray about. This will keep “the pastoral prayer” from becoming dull and a mere repetition of what was “prayed” the previous week.

c.      The local church does not pray because it is the expected thing to do; it prays because prayer is vital to the life of the local church. The Holy Spirit works in the church through prayer and the Word of God (1 Thess 2:13; Eph 3:20-21). The church that prays will have power and will make a lasting impact for Christ.

·       1 Thes. 2:13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

·       Ephes. 3:20-21 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, [21] Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. 

d.     Note how the believers in Acts turned to prayer and overcame their enemies. Paul exhorts us to pray - it is important!

3. But The Church Members (Men) Also Need To Be Prepared To Pray.

a.      Our hearts must be right with God and with each other.

b.     We must really want to pray, and not pray simply to please people (as did the Pharisees, Matt. 6:5), or to fulfill a religious duty.

c.      When a local church ceases to depend on prayer, God ceases to bless its ministry.

B. The Variations Of Prayer (V. 1b).

• There are at least seven different Greek nouns for “prayer,” and four of them are used here.

• The different words used for prayer focus not only on different types of prayer, but also on the beautiful scope of prayer -- that we can come to God with requests, needs, and desires for ourselves and for others.

1. Supplications.

                     a. This carries the idea of “offering a request for a felt need.”

         b. In modern usage, supplication has the thought of strong and earnest pleading, but here the thought is more that of specific requests for specific needs.

2. Prayers.

a. This is a very general term for prayer activity, and it emphasizes the sacredness of prayer.

• We are praying to God; prayer is an act of worship, not just an expression of our wants and needs.
• There should be reverence in our hearts as we pray to God.

b. The word prayers covers all kinds of reverent approaches to God.

3. Intercessions refers to “petitions.”

a.  Intercessions describe those forms of petition in which we address God as our Superior in behalf of others.

b. This same word is translated “prayer” in 1 Timothy 4:5, where it refers to blessing the food we eat. (It is rather obvious that we do not intercede for our food in the usual sense of that word.)

c. The basic meaning is “to draw near to a person and converse confidently with him.” It suggests that we enjoy fellowship with God so that we have confidence in Him as we pray.

4. Giving of thanks.

a. This is definitely a part of worship and prayer. But often we forget the last word – thanksgivings. 

• We not only give thanks for answers to prayer, but for who God is and what He does for us in His grace.
• We should not simply add our thanksgiving to the end of a selfish prayer!

                        b. Thanksgiving should be an important ingredient in all of our prayers.

·       In practice as well as in teaching, Paul insisted that prayer should always include thanksgiving (see, for example, Eph 1:15-16; Phil 1:3-6; 4:6).

·       Romans 1:8-10 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. [9] For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; [10] Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

·       Many are good at asking God for action, but not very good at remembering to thank God for his answers.  We should rehearse the grace and kindness of our Lord, and pour out our hearts in gratitude to Him.

·       In fact, sometimes we need to imitate David and present to God only thanksgiving with no petitions at all! (see Ps. 103)

d.     “Prayer and supplication [petition] with thanksgiving” are a part of Paul’s formula for God’s peace in our hearts.

·       Philip. 4:6, Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

e.      It is worth noting that Daniel, the great prayer-warrior, practiced this kind of praying.

·       Daniel 6:10-11, Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. [11] Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.

·       We might summarize the verse by saying that in praying, we should be humble, worshipful, trustful, and thankful.   

CONCLUSION:

Men should seek to maintain an atmosphere of holiness and unity in the church (2:8).