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.
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's 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!
