Has God Forgotten to be Gracious?
9/25 Reading Portions: 2 Samuel 21; Galatians 1; Ezekiel 28; Psalm 77
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
9/25 Reading Portions: 2 Samuel 21; Galatians 1; Ezekiel 28; Psalm 77
Psalm 77:9
Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His compassion?” Selah
COMPASSION
When we read portions in the Old Testament Scriptures, like today, where we read the judgment of God upon Israel in 2 Samuel 21, and read continued words of judgment on Tyre and its prince, from Ezekiel 26-28, we may, like the psalmist ask, “Has God forgotten to be gracious?” The tendency in our flesh is a natural response to the goodness, holiness, and justice of God. Even for you and me, who have been saved by God’s grace, being transformed as new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17), we who have experienced the love and mercy of God in Christ, whereas God’s judgment upon us for the sins we’ve committed against His holy character have been bypassed. The term the New Testament uses for this is “propitiation.” Paul says that we…
…are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. Romans 3:24-25, emphasis added
Has God shut up His compassion because He was angry with those who have sinned against Him? By no means! We have received God’s gracious compassion because He in anger poured out His holy wrath upon His one and only Son. Jesus hung upon Calvary’s tree and paid a debt He did not owe for a debt we owe and cannot possibly pay. While the blessings of God are freely given unto us, they came not without price. They came by the infinitely priceless (forgive the redundancy but there are few other ways to describe it) atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Has our great God forgotten to be gracious? No, but quite often you and I forget what price God has paid for His compassion to be lavished upon us. Hallelujah! What a compassionate Savior!
The price Christ paid to save our souls
Is infinitely high;
God’s wrath Christ took, and shed His blood,
So sinners may not die.