How do I get rid of the image of God as angry?
Many people carry a picture of God in their heads that was never drawn from Scripture: a stern figure with folded arms, quick to be offended and slow to forgive. That picture has a source, it has a cure, and the difference between them decides whether you can ever rest in God's presence.
Where the Picture Comes From
The fear did not begin with bad teaching. It began in Eden, when the first man heard God's voice and ran for cover — and the reason was not that God had changed, but that man had.
The Bible TreasuryConfidence in the Lord God was clearly gone, and sin had filled their hearts with terror as well as unbelief. His voice was no attraction now; His rich, unchanging goodness toward them was forgotten. Not death only, but a bad conscience, they have left as a sad legacy to all their descendants. Man who is conscious of evil shrinks from God and distrusts Him.
So the imposing image in your mind may be telling you more about your own conscience than about God. Guilt always paints Him frightening, because a guilty person cannot bear to be seen.
A Slander Repeated Until It Sounds True
Writers here trace the harsh image back further still — to a deliberate misrepresentation that human hearts were only too ready to accept.
J. Wilson SmithHow dreadfully God has been misrepresented by the devil, and how blindly willing man has been to listen to the lie that He is severe, hard, careless of our good, demanding from us what we ought to give but cannot, punishing us for small faults, and judging without mercy. That is what Satan has suggested, and that is what our foolish hearts have believed.
In one of Jesus' stories a servant says exactly this to his master's face — "I knew you to be a hard man." Notice how one writer answers him: not with argument, but with the testimony of people who actually know Him.
J. T. Mawson"I knew," he said, "that you were a severe man." Did he know? Did he not admit his ignorance the moment he opened his mouth? Who among you who know the Lord will kneel down before Him tonight and say, "I know that You are a severe man"? No, you have other things to say of Him. You have seen no frowns on His face; you have heard no hard words from His lips; the tenderest heart in the universe beats in His chest, and you have proved it so. Your service has been full of failure; you have blundered often, but those very blunders have become opportunities for the display of His grace to you.
Look Where God Actually Showed Himself
If the picture is wrong, it must be replaced — and there is only one place to get an accurate one.
C. H. MackintoshJesus reveals God to the soul — reveals the Father to the heart. Precious fact! We are not sent to creation to learn who God is — though we see His power, wisdom and goodness there. We are not sent to the Law — though we see His justice there. We are not sent to providence — though we see the deep mysteries of His government there. No; if we want to know who and what God is, we are to look into the face of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, who was in His bosom before the worlds existed.
That means the corrective is concrete. Watch how Jesus spoke, whom He welcomed, what He did with children and with failures — because in every one of those moments God was showing you His character.
The Cross Says the Opposite of What Fear Says
The cross is often read as evidence of a furious God who had to be talked down. It is read here in the reverse direction.
J. T. MawsonFrom these Scriptures we learn that instead of the cross proving that God is an angry, hard-hearted Being, it is the very thing that has shown His love in all its glory.
Commentators here are careful, though, not to swing to the other extreme. One writer warns against both errors — some see only the tender side and conclude there can be no judgment at all; others see only severity. "Neither the one nor the other really know God in their hearts," he writes (W. W. Fereday).
Stop Relating to Him as a Judge
There is a practical reason the harsh image will not leave: you may still be standing in front of God in the wrong role.
The Christian's FriendGod does not deal with us, as regards the acceptance of our persons, in the character of a JUDGE at all. As long as we have the thought of God as a JUDGE in front of us, our souls can never have rest; we shall always be feeling our unanswered responsibility. The very way God deals with us is this: knowing and fully weighing our responsibility to Him, judging us as lost, and then taking an entirely new character towards us — "the SAVIOUR of those who are lost!"
Fear Goes Out as Love Comes In
Scripture says perfect love casts out fear. That is not a command to feel braver; it is a description of what happens when God's love is genuinely believed.
Leslie M. GrantA child's certainty of his parents' sincere, unchanging love gives him confidence, and there is no element of terror in that relationship. How much more does God's perfect love cast out fear. Godly fear, of course, is another subject, involving a healthy, reverent regard for the greatness of God; but a tormenting fear of possible judgment is dismissed when the love of God is rightly known.
Summary
- Source. The frightening image starts in a bad conscience — man who knows he has done evil shrinks from God and distrusts Him.
- Slander. The idea that God is hard, severe and merciless is a misrepresentation our foolish hearts have been willing to believe.
- Sight. Not creation, not law, not providence — look into the face of Jesus Christ if you want to know what God is like.
- Proof. The cross does not expose an angry God; it is the very thing that displayed His love in all its glory.
- Freedom. Stand before Him as Judge and you will never rest; know Him as Saviour, and love drives the tormenting fear out.