“Crucial to our communion with God is the knowledge that the same Father who shall judge the world in righteousness, chooses to set his love upon us. It is true that God the Son took the just wrath of God the Father on the cross, but it is equally true that it was the Father who sent the Son to bear that wrath (1 John 4:14). It is the Father’s love that is spoken of in the verse that has brought so many to faith (John 3:16).”

Who can commune with an angry God? Is God not ‘angry with the wicked every day’? (Ps 7:11) Does God’s justice not find us all guilty, and loathe our corruption? A crushing sense of accusing guilt, with the consequent fear of judgement, destroys the ability to love God. No one can enjoy God who worries that God remains his adversary. No one can love God ultimately unless he knows he is out of debt with God and no longer under condemnation (Rom 8:1). When faith grasps the love of God for us in Christ, communion is possible.

There is no condemnation, There is no hell for me,
The torment and the fire Mine eyes shall never see;
For me there is no sentence, For me death has no sting,
Because the Lord who loves me shall shield me with His wing.

No angel and no devil, No throne, nor power, nor might:
No love, no tribulation, No danger, fear, or fight,
No height, no depth, no creature That has been, or can be,
Can drive me from Thy bosom, Can sever me from Thee.

– Paul Gerhardt

Crucial to our communion with God is the knowledge that the same Father who shall judge the world in righteousness, chooses to set his love upon us. It is true that God the Son took the just wrath of God the Father on the cross, but it is equally true that it was the Father who sent the Son to bear that wrath (1 John 4:14). It is the Father’s love that is spoken of in the verse that has brought so many to faith:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (Joh 3:16)

Here is our problem: we find it hard to square statements of God’s love with the truth of our sinfulness before his holiness. If he is displeased to the point of sending people to a lake of fire, can he simultaneously delight in us? Is his love not conditioned upon what he finds in us?

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