you can't have one without the other

The Word for today:
Isaiah 28

mark this: Isaiah 28:21

Judgment is God’s "strange (unfamiliar, foreign) work:"
For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.  (Isaiah 28:21/KJV)

Lamentations 3:33 tells us that God does not afflict willingly. The Amplified Bible translates the verse more literally: God does not afflict from his heart.

In 2 Peter 3:9, we read that He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

But judge He does, for judge He must--because judgment is a necessary component of salvation. Judgment is as necessary a part of salvation as forgiveness is.

Consider: if God had not judged Egypt and Pharaoh--drowning them in the Red Sea--then Israel could not have been saved. Their sins were forgiven at Passover. Their deliverance wasn't complete until the judgment of Egypt at the Red Sea.

Satan's #1 strategy is to convince the world that God loves too much to judge. This strategy worked against Eve in the Garden of Eden, so Satan has used it ever since:

Eve: "God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, lest you die.'"
Serpent: "You will not surely die." (Genesis 3:3-4)

Satan has made great strides in convincing the world that God will capitulate to His loving, grace-filled heart. The child of God is to remember that Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44).

God will not capitulate, nor compromise his character, no matter the cost. So to the cross He went, because sin exacts a price that cannot go unpaid.

The reason Jesus is both Judge and Savior is because you can't have one without the other.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~