Sent in His Love | TCOULTER.ORG

The LORD God is the Son of God and the Word of God that is sent into this world because of the love that God has for this world (see John 1:1 and John 3:16-17). And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16). But what about the God of wrath? Do we truly have to know God as both the God of love and the God of wrath? Our LORD God was born as a man and treated as a criminal and killed by mankind. Was that the wrath of God on His Son Jesus? Or was that the love of God towards all of mankind? Did Jesus take on our sins and receive the wrath of God for us? Or did Jesus take on our sins and die for our salvation? Was it the wrath of God on mankind taken upon Himself or the love of God poured out onto all of mankind that took Jesus to the cross? Now that God has taken our sins upon Himself and died, what is His plan for those that will not accept His grace?

God came into the world and took upon Himself the sins of mankind and received the punishment of death required by law. From His death and resurrection comes the grace of God to release our sins and know that our resurrection is sure. “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). In the day that you take it upon yourself to judge between good and evil, you shall surely die. On the day that you do not heed my Word, but choose for yourself what is good and what is evil, you shall surely die. That is the death that Jesus dies for us. But it is still given for every man to die once. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many (Hebrews 9:27-28). “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death” (Revelation 2:11). Is it the second death that Jesus has died for us?

To the church of Philadelphia God has promised, “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world” (Revelation 3:10). The church known by their love for one another (City of Brotherly Love) that has “ kept My command to persevere” will escape the wrath of God, the “hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world.” What command? “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). Could it be that the love of God came to keep us from the hour of trial? Could it be that the wrath of God is for those that will not accept the love of God?

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). With the sins of the world on Him, Jesus felt the separation from God that Adam left for all of mankind when He followed Satan instead of God. Jesus called out to the Father and did not hide as Adam had when he felt sin for the first time (read Genesis 2 and 3). How is it that God did not kill Adam the day he ate from the tree? Because the death of Jesus was before the foundation of the earth. The death of Jesus covered Adam and every human that has ever lived and ever will. Mankind can dwell in our sin until we know that God is Lord and King over the earth. The wrath of God is on mankind because we continue to walk after our own understanding of right and wrong and will not accept God as Lord and King. The thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:6-7).

God came to us in the form of Jesus to be our salvation. Jesus came because of God’s love for the whole world. Jesus came to bring mankind back under the reign of God, but we still reject God’s rule. Jesus took our sins and our punishment on the cross. Those that overcome, accept the reign of God by heeding His command to love one another, will escape the wrath of God to come; but the Philadelphia church is only one of seven. The wrath of God comes as a fire to purify – the wrath of God comes to turn those of us that will not heed His love back to Him. Many will be washed clean by the blood of the Lamb during the tribulation. Why will the Philadelphia church escape? “You have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:22-23). The wrath of God comes to purify those that will not be purified by His love. He first gave us the blood of Jesus in love and, in a day to come, He will send His wrath to purify the heart that will not turn. Even the wrath of God is sent in His love.

Tim D. Coulter Sr.