Is God Two-Faced?

Is God Two-Faced?

God’s Justice and Grace

Part 1 of 2

When I truly submitted my life to God at the age of 32, I felt peace for the first time.  Yet, my glasses to view Him were the wrong prescription.  Distortedly, I viewed His justice as harshness and the graceful peace through performance lenses.  Based on our skewed perceptions and some hell, fire and brimstone, some of us see His justice as a weapon to be used against us.  Growing up without feeling love perverted my view of God's justice and grace.  If God was a two-sided coin, then some days I'd flip my God coin and feel like it landed on a harsh task master. Other days I'd flip it and feel a distant, disinterested "tails" telling me I hadn't earned his approval or grace once again. Every sermon I heard seemed to reinforce this view because of my vision problem:  try harder, do better, stop sinning and start doing good.  

We seem to find what we are looking for.  Instead of seeing God for who He is, with bifocal intensity, I constantly stared at my reflection.  My flaws were "funhouse mirror" big and His grace and love couldn't be found in the picture.   I wasn't being transformed into His image because I was staring at my own.   I  started working for God by getting involved in a recovery program where all my efforts seemed futile. The spiritual treadmill that I had myself on was exhausting, and I quickly tired and felt empty.   I experienced frustration most of the time because His grace wasn't for sale.  

As two sides are part of the same coin, so justice and grace are two sides of the same God that seem counter to each other but can't be separated. The urban dictionary defines two-faced in the following way, "When someone is nice to you in person but when not in person talks sh*t behind your back," while according to Merriam-Webster, it means  "hypocritical."  It's hard to explain God because He is indescribable.  Our definitions don't fit Him.  Using Urban dictionary-onics He is nice in person but behind your back, He is talking some sh*t to the enemy of your soul. 

God expresses His grace and justice, not in hypocrisy, but like a mother lioness who gently nurses and cleans her cubs with a soft touch.  In the event of a predator attack with intent on harming or separating her from her beloved babies, she would literally have the offender for lunch.   God's love is protective and ferocious like a Lion roaring so loud that the earth under our feet trembles.  He is The Lion defending His Pride in absolute dominion for His kingdom. No contest, He is the King of our jungle. This is the love of our Father and those are pictures of what His justice looks like.

"God is not a human that He should lie, not a human being, that he should change His mind...".  Yet, He has a personality that seems incongruous at times.  So how do you get to know God?   He says, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."(Jer.29:13).  He seems elusive at times in our lives, yet, we are able to see Him, like Moses, face to face as one speaks to a friend (Ex.33:11).  God is feared by all for His justice but gives His friend's grace.  As we seek connection and intimacy with Him, He calls us friends.  In His gaze, we can see His unyielding love and His grace-filled justice.

A single mountain has different sides that have different climbing terrain. One face of the mountain can be gentle, forgiving, beautiful and pleasant to experience and the other side, sometimes known as the "north face" can be hard, unyielding, unforgiving, and even insurmountable...  There are so many facets, or faces, of God like a brilliant diamond-- reflecting His heart to us.  He loves us so much.  He is a God full of grace...a kind God.   He wants us to "...experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully." (Eph 3:19).  We could know Him for a thousand years and another thousand years more and never have fully experienced  who He is.  WOW!   "...Day and night they never stop saying: Holy, Holy, Holy is The Lord God Almighty" (Rev.4:8).   To be enraptured with gazing at His face, as if we were two star-crossed lovers finally reunited.  The distance had felt so great that we never wanted to stop gazing at Him for fear that we might miss another moment being caught up for eternity in His wonderfulness.

We are His and He is fierce for our hearts. His justice is protection at all costs even at the cost of laying down His life. If we accept His love and sacrifice, We will be reunited with Him in eternity and never, ever experience the fear of separation from His love again. Since "...the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God," (Deut.4:24), He is not willing to be separated from us. He will destroy anything that hinders us from being intimate with Him including our actions, our apathy, or other's actions.  We choose other things to love, befriend, to gaze at, to adore, spend time and money on or to give our body and souls to.  God’s powerful grace transformed me from an unfaithful woman who was addicted to attention into a faithful woman who is dependent upon His attention. Still, "If we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny who He is." (2Tim. 2:13) He never gives up on having our hearts.   

In Ezekiel 30, God is so devastated and angry that the Israelites rely on Egypt for protection. Once again, God's people become Egypt's slaves trusting in Egypt's strength and protection and not God’s.  God says He "...will break the arms of Pharaoh, then Pharaoh will cry out in pain, the kind of cry a dying man makes." How is that for graceful justice?  It is a singlehanded wrecking ball intent on destroying and removing anything we trust in other than Him.  

For me, my Egypt was men and their attention. I looked to them to fill the insatiable yearning and hunger for attention and affection but it never satisfied. I would walk away from each failed relationship feeling used. How could it be a  love that could be trusted  when they were using me and I was using them to get my addiction for attention filled...there is no giving in this type of love, only taking.   Love The Lord your God with all your soul and strength. He cares for you and loves you tenderly. His destruction and removal of all of the things we cling to other than Him can hurt but, in reality, it is so loving.   As a husband would be jealous for His bride, His love would break the arms of the man that would try to steal His wife.

Admittedly I used the "two-faced" phrase to challenge your thinking about God, to reflect on your pre-conceived ideas about who He is as a God of justice AND grace.  Some of us like to camp out on the "grace" face of the mountain and others are more comfortable seeking justice but He is both.  You now have an opportunity for you to seek answers from Him for yourself...have a face to face meeting.  We can then each see a side of God up close and personal in our lives that we can share with others. 

Jesus, break our chains and the arms of anything that keeps us from receiving your love for us.  We want to speak to you face to face as a friend.  I ask that you would reveal a true picture of grace and justice to every person reading this blog.  Help them to see you clearly with new vision in Jesus' name and by His power.

Part two is coming sooooooon!