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Judgement and the Old Testament


This post was published on Thursday 18 October 2007.

One of the problems that some Christians have with the idea of penal substitution is the idea of God’s judgement (I know because I’ve been there myself). This concept of a vengeful, wrathful God seems alien to some. And, after all, in the New Testament although God’s judgement is regularly threatened, it only rarely gets carried out.

However, I do wonder if the remedy is a bit more of the Old Testament. Many (most) evangelicals today are closet Marcionites - that is, they don’t really use the Old Testament properly, if at all. But judgement is a major theme of the Old Testament, especially in the prophets. I have just been reading the tail-end of Jeremiah, where there are a series of judgement prophecies against the nations surrounding Israel, for idolatrous behaviour.

It is against this backdrop of God punishing nations for their sin that God sent Jesus. Judgement is a real and dangerous threat to us because we really sin - so unless his righteous judgement can be carried out, God is not a righteous judge. The glorious thing is that in Jesus God demonstrates both his judgement and his love at the same time, punishing sin and offering new life all at once.

My point here is: God’s judgement is real and needs to be carried out, which the Old Testament makes abundantly clear.