Last time I ended with the following paragraph that flowed from Romans 1:25 and its context:
“For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever” (Rom 1:25) Look at this startling text of Holy Writ. God turns people over to sin because they exchange the truth about Him for a lie. What lie is that? Evidently the lie was something that turned the revelation of who God is to something about man because man now worships and serves the creature. But isn’t that exactly what we do when we change the truth of who God is for something that is more comfortable to us? Isn’t that exactly the trouble within Christendom today? Churches have become user friendly and are more concerned with man being comfortable than they are of seeking the living God. Evangelism has become a method of filling the church building rather than to proclaim the glories of God by means of the Gospel of grace. Theology has now become more of a form of apologetics instead of declaring the truth of who God is. Why do I say apologetics? For it seems as if many theologians are almost apologizing to men for how God has revealed Himself and giving reasons for why it appears as if He did something or is a certain way. When theology reaches that point, theologians have become more ashamed of God before men rather than ashamed of how men are before God.
What we must do, that is, what we must do if we truly love God and the truth of God, is to ransack our hearts and ask ourselves if we love God enough to stand for the truth of God before others who ridicule it and mock it. Our doctrines reflect the state of our heart and our love for God or man. Why should we be ashamed before men to tell them that God is sovereign and they are not? Why should we be ashamed to tell them that God must save them totally by grace if He pleases and that He is not at their own disposal? Why are we so ashamed of the fact that God hates sinners (Psalm 5:5-6) and that His wrath is upon them (John 3:36) even this moment if they are without Christ? Why do we always feel the need to apologize to men for that fact that the God we say we love hates sin and has broken out in wrath many times in history? Why do we feel we have to apologize for the fact that God will send sinners who hate Him to hell where their torment will be unceasing and unmitigated agony for eternity?
As I type those words I believe I know the answer as I can see my own heart as well. Down deep we want men to be pleased with God so that they will be pleased with us. We are so tempted to water our theology of God down a bit in order that we will be accepted and people will still think of us as nice and gracious. Mr. Beaver (of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe fame) had a much better theology than most of us in the present day. When the child asked if Aslan was safe, the reply was shocking to our modern ears. With mocking laughter Mr. Beaver replied, “of course he is not safe, but he is good.” That is a proper reply to many of the inane and blasphemous teachings of God that go under the guise of theology today. Of course God is not safe and there is nothing about our attempts to make Him safe that will make Him so. There is also nothing about our attempts to be liked and thought gracious and kind that will change God either. He is sovereign and He does as He pleases in the heavens and on earth. We have no control of the sovereign of this universe and our futile attempts to create an image of Him in our own images are nothing but idolatry. In our own minds we attempt to create a god that is safe and likable, but in reality we have incensed Him even more by our blasphemous attempts to change Him and please others.
We must be ever so careful to develop our view of God from Scripture and not from something that will make fallen minds more comfortable and ourselves more liked by men. We are rather to please God and those who love God will be pleased to see God in and through us. Theology should start and end with God and His revelation of Himself rather than be done in an attempt to make the character of God fit with our beliefs and presuppositions. If our theology does not start and end with Him, it will start with ourselves and end in even more idolatry. If our theology is a defense of a certain teaching of man, we have started in the wrong place. If we start our theology with the doctrine of how God has revealed Himself, then we have started in the right place. It is my contention that historical Calvinism started where the Bible does and that is with the doctrine of God. The doctrine of man is then built around God and His Word. It is also my contention that Arminianism begins with the doctrine of man and his free-will and then goes astray from that. Modern day theologians want to be winsome and so want to appease people on the other side. What we must do is to seek the Lord of glory and let the chips fall where He ordains that they fall. If men are not pleased, then perhaps they are not pleased with the true and living God. If they are not pleased with God, then they need to repent rather than us trying to make God more winsome for them.
God Loves... Himself 
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