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(William Nicholson, "Gratitude for Spiritual Deliverance!" 1862)
All men by nature, are depraved. The heart is corrupt--an impure fountain, from which emanate the most filthy and deadly streams of action! "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked!" Jeremiah 17:9.
The conscience is defiled,
the understanding is darkened,
the judgment is perverted,
the whole soul is alienated from God, and opposed to His righteous will.
Can God, who is infinitely pure, love such a being? No!
Sinful man is the subject of God's righteous displeasure. God is said to be "angry with the wicked every day." Psalm 7:11. "The wicked and the one who loves violence, His soul hates!" Psalm 11:5.
It is awful to live in the presence of the holy, omnipotent God who is constantly incensed against us!
Wrath, when describing the Divine Being, does not signify anything like an evil passion, as it commonly does among men. Such terms are employed to express His righteous displeasure against sin. He hates it with a perfect hatred! It is an abominable thing in His sight. The wrath of God, the anger of God, the fury of God, etc., cannot be otherwise expressed in human language, than by an appeal to our own passions, thus condescending to our weakness and ignorance.
God hates sin! For a proof of it, look to Gethsemane--look to Calvary! Behold God angry with Christ, the Substitute of man! Behold that . . .
unparalleled agony of His soul,
winepress of wrath, how it crushes Him,
that baptism of blood, how overwhelming,
those arrows of divine wrath, how piercing,
that flaming sword of justice, how it smites Him,
that curse of wrath, how it puts Him to an accursed death! "Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, against the Man who is close to Me! Strike the Shepherd!" Zechariah 13:7
(William Nicholson, "Gratitude for Spiritual Deliverance!" 1862)
All men by nature, are depraved. The heart is corrupt--an impure fountain, from which emanate the most filthy and deadly streams of action! "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked!" Jeremiah 17:9.
The conscience is defiled,
the understanding is darkened,
the judgment is perverted,
the whole soul is alienated from God, and opposed to His righteous will.
Can God, who is infinitely pure, love such a being? No!
Sinful man is the subject of God's righteous displeasure. God is said to be "angry with the wicked every day." Psalm 7:11. "The wicked and the one who loves violence, His soul hates!" Psalm 11:5.
It is awful to live in the presence of the holy, omnipotent God who is constantly incensed against us!
Wrath, when describing the Divine Being, does not signify anything like an evil passion, as it commonly does among men. Such terms are employed to express His righteous displeasure against sin. He hates it with a perfect hatred! It is an abominable thing in His sight. The wrath of God, the anger of God, the fury of God, etc., cannot be otherwise expressed in human language, than by an appeal to our own passions, thus condescending to our weakness and ignorance.
God hates sin! For a proof of it, look to Gethsemane--look to Calvary! Behold God angry with Christ, the Substitute of man! Behold that . . .
unparalleled agony of His soul,
winepress of wrath, how it crushes Him,
that baptism of blood, how overwhelming,
those arrows of divine wrath, how piercing,
that flaming sword of justice, how it smites Him,
that curse of wrath, how it puts Him to an accursed death! "Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, against the Man who is close to Me! Strike the Shepherd!" Zechariah 13:7
"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God!" 2 Corinthians 5:21
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