Mere words won’t ever do reality justice.

Even the most poetic of prose describing a sunset can’t serve as a substitute for the moment of tranquility we experience as the sun hides beneath the horizon.

Words are a gift and a tool, but would you rather read about adventures or live them? Often, the only role of words is to propel to action.

Enjoying skillful photography paired with a colorful description of the Grand Canyon makes the decision to travel to northern Arizona much easier because we want to see it for ourselves.

Conversely, reading of the various evils in this world can lead us to offer support, but how much more support would we give had it been us seeing our sibling killed, mother diagnosed with cancer, etc.?

Until we experience the reality described, we won’t get it. We won’t know what action to really take. But in the moment, we’ll know exactly what to do. Or at least what we should have done.

In an alarming way, this principle takes its purest form in our response to God. We can’t go back or ahead in time to test the reality of what scripture says to our experience. We are called to take God’s word for it, which isn’t the easiest thing to do given the fact that we are imperfect beings, plagued by a sinful flesh. Yet the Word of God comments on man’s condition and historical events flawlessly upon even the most critical microscope. These words are not mere words.

Given that statement, consider what Revelation 6: 15-17 says about those who choose to reject God as their response.

 “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”

Here, a description of the end of the world serving as context, the reality of rejecting God takes shape. Armageddon, which is a subject shunned by many due to its frightening nature, is even more tragic to ignore if you heed the above words.

I can only imagine what experiencing this would be like. Men and women of every status, who have not repented and believed in Jesus, so gripped with the desire to escape God’s impending and visible wrath that they ask mountains and rocks to fall on them.

If being crushed and buried underneath a crumbling mountain is your most appealing option, how agonizing must the alternative be?

What will go through the minds of those people described? Perhaps thoughts of all the opportunities to confess their sinful plight to God and receive His mercy ignored in favor of more sinful pleasures. Years of mocking the God that they’re now hiding from in a cave, pleading with inanimate objects to collapse on top of them thinking they’re still able to escape God’s wrath. Whoa.

As with other forms of writing, and the Bible specifically, this is written to warn. The intended actions are repentance of sin, belief in God, acceptance of Jesus’s death and resurrection on your behalf culminating with the surrender of your life to Him. An entry into the most wonderful relationship possible, and the avoidance of a wrath you and I have earned with flying colors.

Of course, what is contained in the Revelation text isn’t what God desires for His creation. See 1 Thessalonians 5:9.

“For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.”

Written specifically to the believers in a town called Thessalonica, we see that the salvation needed is through Jesus. Receiving that gift is a choice that changes the direction of your life and eternity. Yet it’s what God has desired all along. Relationship with you and glory on His perfect name.

These words should stir us. It should be scary. What faces us if we don’t receive the reconciliation offer God’s given us through Jesus can’t be adequately summarized by the word “scary,” or any word for that matter.

The perfect and holy God who made all things cannot have anything to do with sin. He must judge it to stay consistent with himself. We are included in the judgement due to our sinful nature that propel us to sinful actions.

Thanks be to God that salvation from his wrath is offered by the death and resurrection of Jesus! Those who receive Jesus in their present life will never have to experience what our sins earned us.

God’s words are not mere words. They are truth. With the foresight offered us in Revelation 6 and the heart of God communicated in 1 Thessalonians 5, a response that is anything but repentance and grateful acceptance of Jesus should bring a tear to our eyes.

 

In addition to the Revelation and  1 Thessalonians texts, the following scripture was used to construct this blog.

Romans 5:9 – Yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Psalm 12:6 – God’s words are flawless.

John 17:17 – God’s words are truth.