What version of God do you prefer?

I am somewhat disturbed by the casual approach people take to God and His Word.  No matter how much I see around me, it always astounds me that there is little regard for a sovereign God.

It seems to me that everyone is choosing to view God in his own way.  Some of the things I hear are, "surely God would not judge me for ..." or "If God is a loving God and he made me this way, then He understands..."  "A God of love would never judge me for being this or that way..."  "God is full of grace and mercy..."

When I read the scripture, it reveals a God that is sovereign and above all.  It reveals a God who does not think like I do.  It reveals a God that is merciful, but a God of judgment also.  

Our ability to reason has somehow made some of us believe that our rationale is the same rationale that God uses, that our sense of reason and justice is also His sense of reason and justice.  This is a very dangerous mode of thinking.  It leads to man thinking that he has a handle on God, and defining who and what God is.  

God's Word is quite clear on His grace and His mercy, but that grace and mercy does not negate the fact that He is also a God of justice and wrath.  He is also a holy God, whose holiness demands that all who come into His presence be holy.  His holiness is the reason He cannot tolerate sin.  His holiness is the reason that He had to come and become the ultimate sacrifice for our sin.  His holiness is the reason we cannot be in His presence without the redeeming blood He shed for us.

When we relegate God to a being whom we can define and make into our mold, then we take away His deity.  He becomes our puppet to manipulate and direct.  If we choose to do this, then we are only deceiving ourselves, and self-deception is the worst kind of deception.  Our humanity desires control.  We wish to be in charge, and so it is easy to fall into the mode of our culture, which is quite intoxicated with its own self-importance and its own development of knowledge.

I have observed that we all want our own version of God.  We want a God who thinks like we do.  We want a God who tolerates our sin, and is always loving and patient with us.  He is clearly loving and merciful, and the scripture does say that His mercy endures forever.  But scripture plainly states that we will be judged for our iniquity.  That judgment is based on His holiness and the impossibility of sin entering His presence.  While His mercy endures forever in eternity, there will be those who rejected His love and redemption who are spending eternity in hell.  So mercy that endures forever does not equal Him being so loving that He overlooks sin.  Mercy is an everlasting characteristic of God, but His holiness is also everlasting.  He is unchanging, and His Word is true.  The Bible clearly states that those who continue in sin will not enter into eternal rest with Him.

It is easy to see that there are sects of our society that want their own version of God.  God would not be so unkind or unmerciful to judge them for their sin.  But God’s Word has already judged them for their sin.  Scripture has clearly defined sin, but some pick and choose to embrace some scriptures while ignoring others.

This concept is also being used by some "Christians," who are choosing to embrace some things that were once considered sin, or at the very least, unhealthy for a Christian lifestyle.  God would not judge us for these things.  After all, most of these things are legalistic and just cultural differences.

Who are we to presume that we can judge what God thinks or does not think?  The only guide we have to God's thinking is His Word, and if His Word defines sin and speaks clearly about what God will or won't tolerate, then who is the created to assume that the reasoning ability God has given him is equal to the Creator's reasoning.

On a more personal level, I can do the same thing.  As a human, I can choose to believe that because God loves me and has extended mercy to me He will overlook my sin or my indiscretion.  We are all guilty on some level of justifying our weaknesses and sins.  Clearly scripture calls us to repentance.  We must turn away from our sin and be cleansed in order to be redeemed.  This is not because God loves to punish or judge us, but because His holy nature cannot tolerate our sin.  Our sin separates us from Him.

I do not want to be guilty of making an idol of my own version of God.  By doing so, I am deifying myself and ignoring God's sovereignty and holiness.  My own version of God would have my faults and failings, and would be quite fallible.  I would reduce God to a servant to do my bidding.  

I want the God of the Old and New Testament.  That God is sovereign, holy and all powerful.  He has the power to save me from my humanity, the power to change me into His image.  As long as I am calling the shots, there is no chance to become perfect.  But if He is God, and He is all that His Word says that He is, then He can redeem me and set me free from the sin that I so want to justify.