Today, on renewing your mind, because God does not send down fire from heaven every 15 minutes, every time we sin,

we assume that God will be as kind to us always as He is now,

and that because He stays the hand of His justice, that He will stay it forever.

Sometimes we forget that there is more to God than His grace, mercy and love.

There's also His justice and holiness, and it's vital that we understand and embrace this full-ordre view of God's character.

It's then and only then that we can fully appreciate the salvation that God has secured for His people.

Here's Dr. R.R.C. Sprawl.

As we continue our study of the holiness of God, we recall that we have been struggling somewhat with the question of how God's holiness relates to His justice.

One of the favorite hymns of Christians is the hymn, Amazing Grace, How Sweep the Sound.

But I wonder if we really believe the words of that hymn.

One was the last time that you were amazed by grace.

It seems as if the thing that amazes us about God is His wrath or His justice.

I teach theology and I have students coming to me all the time who are asking the deeply troubling question,

how could God, if He is good, if He is loving, if He is merciful, allow all of the horrors and suffering that we find in this world to go on?

That's what amazes them.

That if God is so loving and God is so merciful and God is so gracious, why does He allow so much pain and sorrow to exist in His world?

How could God allow this to happen to me, they say?

I had a dear friend who lost his child, his infant baby, the infant crib death, and he was greatly distressed about it.

And he wasn't just sorrowful, he was angry.

And he came to me and he shook his fist in my face and he said,

R.C., how could God allow this to happen? And I don't usually do this in counseling or in pastoral care, but he was so angry and I tried to stop him in his tracks and I looked at him and I said,

why shouldn't it happen?

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