Tuesday 15 February 2011

Why God's jealousy is a good thing

In 2 Corinthians 11 Paul mentions his divine jealousy the church (v.2) and also his feeling of being indignant (v.29) when people are led into sin. And James 4:5-6 speaks of God who 'yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us...' and that he 'opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.'. Of course it's made explicit way back in Exodus 20:5 where God states that he is a jealous God.

Below is part of a sermon by B.B.Warfield entitled "The love of the Holy Ghost” where he speaks of how God's jealousy for us is something to rejoice in....


See us steeped in the sin of the world; loving evil for evil’s sake, hating God and all that God stands for, ever seeking to drain deeper and deeper the cup of our sinful indulgence.

The Spirit follows us unwaveringly through all.

He is not driven away because we are sinners. He comes to us because, being sinners, we need Him.

He is not cast off because we reject His loving offices. He abides with us because our rejection of Him would leave us helpless.

He does not condition His further help upon our recognizing and returning His love. His continuance with us is conditioned only on His own love for us. And that love for us is so strong, so mighty, and so constant that it can never fail.

When He sees us immersed in sin and rushing headlong to destruction, He does not turn from us, He yearns for us with jealous envy.

It is in the hands of such love that we have fallen.

And it is because we have fallen into the hands of such love that we have before us a future of eternal hope.

When we lose hope in ourselves, when the present becomes dark and the future black before us, when effort after effort has issued only in disheartening failure, and our sin looms big before our despairing eyes; when our hearts hate and despise themselves, and we remember that God is greater than our hearts and cannot abide the least iniquity; the Spirit whom He has sent to bring us to Him still labors with us, not in indifference or hatred, but in pitying love.

Yea, His love burns all the stronger because we so deeply need His help: He is yearning after us with jealous envy.


Shared from the Gospel Coalition blogsite

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