“Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little.” Psalm 2:11,12
It is a very sobering thought that a man can not only reject Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, but then mock Him with scorn, and hatred. We forget that, even though one may know God, and this love of God which passes our understanding, that God remains “a consuming fire,” holy, perfect, with a hatred for sin. Not only does Scripture tell us that men will perish without Christ, but that in that perishing there is loss and suffering which cannot be expressed, nor comprehended by mortal man. Why? No one has gone to such lengths as God the Father, to give that which is most worthy to redeem lost man. Again, we forget the cost it was to the Father, and to the Son, that He should become the solitary sacrificial Lamb of God, to bear not only the penalty and judgment for the sin of the world, but every consequence. It is in a hymn by Mrs. Cousin that this is so clearly described: “Jehovah bade his sword awake; O Christ, it woke ‘gainst Thee! Thy blood the flaming blade must slake, Thy heart its sheath must be: All for my sake my peace to make, Now sleeps that sword for me.”
In Psalm 2, written well before Christ was born in Bethlehem, we have presented to us the contrast between a right attitude towards God, one of reverential fear, and the false, twisted imaginations of men, who consider that they have the right to be angry against God. Scripture calls this attitude: “…the rage of the heathen (the nations).” (v.2) This is not just a passive rejection of God, but a deliberate refusal to believe and yield to Christ’s kingship. Specifically, we read that there is a calculated decision, and position, taken by these “kings of the earth,” one which is decisively against “the Lord and against His Anointed.” (v.2) It is an attitude that is born out of sin, and the original author of it, Satan. The Lord Jesus, in speaking to the Pharisees of His time, said: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (Jn. 8:44) So then, we have God, who “…sitteth in the heavens, who will laugh at such, and “…have them in derision.” (v.4) He speaks to them “…in His wrath,” and distresses them in His deep displeasure…” (v.5) Why? It is because of the truth revealed in heaven, heard by Isaiah, confirmed in the book of Revelation, that God is the thrice HOLY God. In Isaiah’s day, in his vision of God in heaven, seated upon a throne, that which was declared very forcefully was this: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.” (6:3) In the revelation that God gave to John the Apostle, he saw God also upon the throne of heaven, with four beasts around the throne saying, day and night, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” (4:8) Here is the dominant, overriding theme of heaven, that God our Maker, and Redeemer, and Sustainer in life, and for eternity, is holy…unique, separate from ALL that is of sin, Satan, and the world systems under the control of the devil. To such sinners and into such a world, the true LIGHT came, so that men might receive that light of Life, and come to know the goodness, mercy, and love of God, escaping God’s wrath. God’s ONLY perfect provision, for lost man, is the solitary, exalted, and worthy Lamb of God. This is why, to reject Christ, is to automatically incur the wrath of God, and its consequences.
Dear Father, Open our hearts, strengthening us today, to receive without reserve, the worthy Lamb, and King. In Jesus’ name, Amen.