The greatest distortion in our thinking, dear friends, is that God owes us mercy.

That God is somehow obligated to be gracious to us, because grace by its very definition is voluntary.

God is not required to be merciful. Have you ever had a conversation with a non-Christian and after explaining the reality of

sin, the justice of God and hell, their response is essentially,

if there is a God and I meet him when I die, he'll forgive me because that's what God is like.

That's terrifying and fatal thinking,

totally misunderstanding grace and mercy.

This is the Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind.

I'm your host, Nathan W Bingham.

As we close out this week's study,

Arcy Sprawl will help us understand the gravity of our sin

and the difference between God's justice and his mercy.

But before we hear today's message don't forget that you can own this series and

Dr. Sproll's book The Holiness of God when you give a gift of any amount at renewing your mind.org.

This offer does end at midnight, so be quick.

Here's R.C. Sproall with a message titled Cosmic Treason.

Several years ago I was working on the staff of a church and we received a new curriculum for junior high school Sunday school that the

denomination had sent down to us and I was asked by the session of the church to read through the curriculum and see whether we wanted to use it.

And as I was reading the curriculum, it began to talk about some of the things we read in the Old Testament where God seems so fierce in

the manifestation of his wrath where he kills people instantly and things of that sort.

And the curriculum was teaching the children this and said,

when we read these stories in the Old Testament,

...