When A Speeding Ticket
Is A Good Thing
By Dr. Chris Thurman
God hates sin. God’s holiness and
purity give birth to His righteous anger
when we do the things He doesn’t
want us to do. God doesn’t want us
to walk around suffering from panic
attacks about His hatred of sin, but
He also doesn’t want us to take
sin lightly. Let’s examine the most
important things about the wrath
of God, things we need to know in
order to have healthy relationships
with Him.
God’s Wrath Is an Expression
of His Love
God is righteously angry about sin
because He loves us. God is angry
when we sin because He knows that
we harm ourselves and others when
we act immorally. Because God loves
us and cares about us, He hates it
when we do things that damage our
lives and the lives of those around us.
Please don’t ever forget that
God’s righteous anger toward our
wrongdoing comes out of His love
for us. It is unmistakable evidence
that He cares too much about us to
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indifferently twiddle His thumbs while
we turn into little hellions.
God’s Wrath Is Provoked by Our Sin
God’s righteous anger toward sin
doesn’t come out of nowhere. He
doesn’t suddenly fly off the handle.
God’s wrath is triggered by our sin. To
put it differently, if God is angry, we
are the ones who started it.
God’s Wrath Is Deserved
This news may be hard to swallow:
in addition to eliciting God’s wrath,
we actually deserve it when we sin.
“Trigger God’s wrath” versus “deserve
God’s wrath” may not sound like an
important distinction to make, but it is.
When you speed down a highway
going ninety-five in a sixty-five-miles-
per-hour zone and get pulled over by
a police officer (as my lead-footed
daughter, Kelly, did), you deserve it.
Not only does your speeding trigger
the wrath of the cop, but you also
deserve the ticket you receive. Now,
do you think this is the attitude most
of us have when we get tickets? A lot