Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Does God Take Pleasure in the Destruction of the Wicked?

This is question that I have been pondering as of late and through John Piper I believe the Lord has revealed the answer. Many, like me, immediately think of Ezekiel 18:32 which says, “As surely as I live…I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked”. Seems like an open and shut case, does it not? Well, not quite. The tension begins when one compares this verse with scriptures like Deuteronomy 28:63 that says, “…so the LORD will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you” and Psalm 135:6, “the LORD does whatever pleases him”. So now you see my problem, right? I believe that God is a joyful God. He is a happy God. People do not go to Hell against His wishes because as Ephesians says, “he works all things according to the counsel of His will…”. As John Piper says though, God is emotionally complex, more so than we could ever possibly hope to understand. I believe the key to understanding these things is in remembering God’s chief aim which is to bring glory to Himself. He does this in many ways, but two ways that Scripture speaks of this being worked out are through the redemption of undeserving sinners which magnifies attributes such as His mercy and grace and through the condemnation and eternal torture of unrepentant sinners who magnify his righteousness and justice (Rom 9:22-24). So the answer to my question is that God does not take some sadistic pleasure in the destruction of the wicked but He does take pleasure in the fact that their damnation magnifies the glory of his righteousness and justice specifically developing a contrast to those whom He sovereignly redeemed for Himself.

No comments:

Post a Comment