What God Doesn’t Want to Do

God wants to save us. He wants us to go to heaven. He wants us to be His children. He wants to extend grace and mercy. He is a loving and gracious and benevolent God who abounds in goodness and who is slow to anger (Jon. 4:2). So when people are lost eternally they need to understand God is doing what must be done because of the disobedience of sin. God doesn’t want to send us to hell. But He most certainly will (2 Thess. 1:7-10).

You see, judgment and subsequent punishment are God’s alien works. Isaiah 28:21 says clearly that God’s divine and just punishment of the wicked is His “unusual” or “strange” act. Some versions describe God’s vengeance as “foreign.” It is against the nature of a loving God to condemn His own creation. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 33:11). He wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).

No wonder God was so hurt when all He saw on the earth was sin and evil intentions (Gen. 6:5). While Adam and Eve were in the midst of their rebellion God was already cursing the serpent and preparing salvation through Eve’s womb (Gen. 3:15). Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord because God was looking for anyone through whom the promise could continue (Gen. 6:8). Lot and his family, while they lingered, were literally grabbed by the hands of angels and lifted to safety over the burning plains of Sodom (Gen. 19:16). We could go on and on throughout the centuries leading up to the death of Jesus. We continue to see the same pattern. God adopts His people. They turn away in sin and forget Him. They deal with the consequences. They repent and God restores.

It is hard to imagine a God who loves His creation so much. His longsuffering we account as our salvation (2 Pet. 3:15). After dealing with man’s willful disobedience for generations, He at last sent His own Son. Why? “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16). The next verse tells us, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17). God simply doesn’t want even one soul to perish (2 Pet. 3:9), and yet the Day of the Lord is still coming as a thief in the night (2 Pet. 3:10).

When one takes the time to think about it, it becomes clearly obvious as to why God is still going to do what He doesn’t want to do. Of course, there is His righteousness and His holiness and His glory and His justice. Logically, any person could understand that these characteristics of God can never–and will never–be compromised. But the bottom line about the reality of hell is that a God who is so incredibly loving and perfect just can’t have anything to do with sin (Hab. 3:13). He just won’t allow one sin to enter heaven (Rev. 21:27). His eternal home is what it is because everything about it is higher and holier than this wicked and sinful world.

So remember, if you lose your soul–if you miss out on heaven–it is only because God is too wonderful to allow your disobedient and willful soul to ruin His holiness and love. Jesus is the answer. He came to help God do what He wants to do. He wants to forgive you. He wants to own you. He wants you to live and be loved in His eternal home forever. Stop getting in His way! Kneel at the cross!

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” – Psalm 103:8

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