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, R.C. Sprole will help us understand the gravity of our sin

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

Before we hear today's message, don't forget that you can own this series

and Dr. Sprole's book, The Holiness of God,

when you give a gift of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. This offer does end at midnight,

so be quick. Here's R.C. Sprole 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, we have to remember that things didn't really happen like this,

that these were myths that were articulated by the Old Testament writers, because these

were Jewish people who were warriors and they were somewhat fierce and so on, and they were

...