Jonathan Dodson hits on something that bugs me too about some contemporary christian songs. God is not properly the subject of a sappy syrupy love song that could just as easily have been sung about our then current crush when we were in 10th grade.
God is God and his great and mighty love for us can only be fully understood when it is seen in comparison to his great and just wrath for our sinfulness. Only when we see how much we deserve God’s wrath and how little we deserve God’s affection, will God’s great and magnificent love for us be understood. Romans 5:6 says that just at the right time while we were still weak and powerless, Christ died for us. 5:8 makes it explicit that God’s love is demonstrated in the fact that while we were sinners (and thus deservedly the objects of God’s proper holy wrath) Christ died for us.
Here’s a bit of Jonathan, but go look at the post for the picture and for tips to songwriters.
In order to understand God’s love, we must understand his anger. God’s anger inevitably leads us to the cross, where justice and mercy meet in perfect, soul-wrenching, Christ-crushing, sin-forgiving, life-giving, love-flowing harmony. For those that hope in Jesus, the anger of God against our unrighteousness is mercifully diverted from us onto His beloved Son. As a result, God preserves and promotes his justice and humanity’s joy where anger and love converge—at the cross.
The purpose of God’s anger is to display the depth and character of his eternal justice and his love for us. When we understand that God’s love is God’s because of his justice and anger, only then can we begin to comprehend how great a love he has for us.
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