Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
There is a strange expression in Psalm 90:7: "We have been consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified." If God is "angry" with us, and His "wrath" hangs over us, we are indeed terrified and can't help being so. (It can be a deep, slow anxiety based on terror.)
We long for love, for good will, for someone important to us to be pleased with us. You long for some person you love to smile upon you, to know he or she truly loves you. Such love is the "sweet mystery of life." Disappointment in love is painful, sometimes lifelong, an entire life shadowed; deep dark secrets of pain are cherished.
David knew that the most wonderful woman in the world could never bring him the happiness that a glimpse of the smiling face of God could give him: "There are many who say, 'Who will show us any good?' Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. You have put gladness in my heart" (Psalm 4:6, 7).
A false or distorted gospel clouds that otherwise smiling face of God. For example, millions believe that a cloud of condemnation hangs over the head of every person in the world who has not chosen to "accept Christ." No wonder they live sad lives. But the Bible teaches that the "condemnation" that came upon "all men" "in Adam" was reversed by the second Adam for the same "all men" (Rom. 5:15-18).
Galatians 3:13 tells us that the "curse" (same as the "condemnation"!) that was due to come upon us came upon Christ instead, for He "was made to be a curse for us." That "curse" or "condemnation" was the sentence of death, not mere "sleep," but the real thing. If you feel that God is holding that over your head, you can't help but feel miserable! But Hebrews 2:9 says that Christ died that "death" for "every man." 2 Corinthians 5:19 says quite clearly that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them."
Your job is to believe the simple word of God; He is not imputing your trespasses to you! He imputed them to Christ instead; He bore them, He has already set you free from them. That's why He can send His rain on both the just and the unjust! Yes, the truth is that you and I are by nature sinners; but because of the sacrifice of Christ He treats us as though we were innocent! This is not effervescent emotion; it is solid truth.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 1, 2001.
Copyright © 2020 by "Dial Daily Bread."
