Five Things God Cannot Do: #4

[The following post is based on a sermon series presented in January-February 2006 while I served as pastor at Exeter Area Christian Fellowship in Newfields, NH.]

In this post we are going to consider yet another thing that God cannot do.  I have to warn you, however, that this will probably be the least enjoyable of the five areas we are covering.

God cannot let sin go unpunished

In the broader culture in which we all live, sin is a topic that is either watered down or avoided altogether.  Pop-psychology has done a good job at renaming sin.

Man calls it an accident; God calls it abomination. 

Man calls it a defect; God calls it a disease.

Man calls it an error; God calls it an enmity. 

Man calls it a liberty; God calls it lawlessness.

Man calls it a trifle; God calls it a tragedy.    

Man calls it a mistake; God calls it madness.

Man calls it a weakness; God calls it willfulness.      (Moody Monthly)

If I may add a final line…Man says it’s no big deal; God says it is deadly serious.

25 times in the OT God declares outright that He will punish sin.  Additionally we read that wicked will “not escape” punishment (cf. Job 15:25-30), that God will “inflict” His wrath (cf. Ezekiel 17:19); that He will “sweep” away the wicked (cf. Psalm 58).

Without doubt or exception, God takes sin seriously and will deal with it.

In the first chapter of the prophecy of Nahum we find two key truths.  First: God will punish sin in the harshest possible way.  Second: Through the mercy of God, there is a refuge from this punishment.

Sometime around 630bc, God called Nahum to declare His judgment against the city of Nineveh.  This city had been visited by the prophet Jonah, but the repentance we read of in Jonah 3 was short lived.

Genuine repentance is evidenced by a shift away from sinful behavior towards a life that honors and pleases God.  To say we are sorry for sin but continue in that same sin demonstrates that our sorrow is not authentic.

God is, at the core, a loving God; but this does not nullify His righteous anger.  God demonstrated His love and grace to the sinful people of Nineveh by sending Jonah.  They proved, however that their repentance was not genuine and so, through Nahum, God declares a message of His judgment on sin. 

“The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.” (Nahum 1:2 ESV- and so throughout)

In this one verse we read three times of God’s vengeance.  God has the perfect right to exact due justice on those who oppose Him.  The literal Hebrew describes God as furiously storing up His wrath.  Although this is a picture of God which contemporary ‘pop-religion’ wants to wish away, we must see that God is no pushover!

Neither, however, is God just waiting to ‘drop the hammer’: “The Lord is slow to anger and great in power.” (Nahum 1:3a ESV)  God is patient, giving people time and opportunity to repent of sin; yet His patience is not limitless.  For those who refuse to repent, “the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.” (1:3b)

This is a critical verse.  Nahum’s generation watched in horror as the Assyrians rampaged through the ancient world with a brutality to rival the Third Reich or ISIS.  There was no way that God could allow such brutality to go unpunished!

Nahum’s assurance, then and now, is that God will not let evil have free reign.  Wickedness and sin will be punished…count on it.

Nahum goes on to describe the power of God in His judgment (1:3-5), and then asks a key question: “Who can stand before his indignation?  Who can endure the heat of his anger?” (1:6)

If the natural world (tall mountains, mighty seas, thick forests) cannot stand up before this raging storm of God’s anger, who can stand?

The answer, thankfully, is given: “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.” (1:7)

God provides a way to escape His wrath- and that is to take shelter under His mercy.  He is a ‘fortress’ into which people can run; a stronghold where the storm is stilled and the rage of God’s wrath becomes the light of His loving care.  How is this escape to be realized?

“Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace!” (1:15)  For the people of Nahum’s day, this was the news of Assyria’s downfall.  The Apostle Paul saw in this verse a foreshadowing of the preaching of the Gospel of God’s salvation through Jesus (see Romans 10:15).

Assyria is a literal historical example of a universal spiritual condition: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)  Therefore, because God cannot let sin go unpunished, all are under the sentence of God’s wrath (see Ephesians 2:3)

Our choice is plain: we either stand guilty before God’s wrath or run into the stronghold of His grace in Jesus where we are pardoned of all sin.

The most important thing we can do is to accept God’s offer of refuge in Christ.  To reject Christ is to invite disaster on ourselves.  Jesus Himself declared, “unless you believe that I am the Messiah, the Son of God, you will die in your sins.” (John 8:24 TLB)

God will not rest until the enemy is defeated.  There is no cease-fire in the war on sin, no peace treaty.  Anything that sets itself up against God must, in the end, be broken down and cast away.  God will accept nothing less than sin’s unconditional and total surrender.

God cannot let sin go unpunished.  Let God’s love deal with your sin now and there will never be cause for you to fear, for “perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4:18)

Be blessed.