God’s Obligation

A young lady from Corona, California, was devastated by the tragic death of her boyfriend this week. The couple had just celebrated the birth of their first child. He had been to a nightclub, and was returning with friends at 2:00 AM, when police said he was speeding and lost control. He hit a tree, cut his car in two, killed himself and his three passengers. He and his friends are now in eternity.

His mother said that her son “loved to drink.” His distraught girlfriend lamented, “I don’t know why God would do this to me.”

My heart went out to her for her loss, but why was she blaming God for the death of her boyfriend? He was the one who was speeding, probably drunk, at 2:00 AM. He killed himself. The incident had nothing to do with God, other than that He allowed it, in His sovereign will.

It seems obvious that many nowadays think that God is nothing but a divine butler. He is there for our convenience--to come running when we click our sinful fingers.

God gave us life. He lavished His goodness upon us, and to think that we can treat Him as some sort of lowly servant is to reveal an ignorance of who He is. Such error can only end in disillusionment of life and bitterness of soul.

God owes us nothing but justice. He has no obligation at all to bless us with health, wealth or long life. A civil judge is under no obligation to show mercy to a guilty criminal. If there was an obligation, then it wouldn’t be true mercy. Mercy is unmerited. He is, however, obligated to make sure that justice is done.

So it is with God. He is obligated by His very nature to manifest His divine and just wrath against all sin, and that will happen on what the Bible calls "the great and terrible day of the Lord" (the Day of Judgment). But He is "rich in mercy," and has offered us mercy in the cross . . . and we must receive it while we are on this side of eternity.