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The question came up in Sunday School recently, "Does God get angry when we sin?" Most of the class (and I believe the majority of Christians would agree) said that God does get angry when we sin. There are many verses in the Old Testament that describe God's righteous anger and wrath unleashed toward His people for their sin. Since God cannot change, we must believe that He does get angry with us when we sin. I will admit that I believed the same thing myself until recently. But then God took me through about a two-year period of showing me (quite painfully!) how my theology didn't agree with His Word or His heart on this subject. There is one fundamental reason why God cannot be angry with His children when they sin. This reason is then backed up with a host of Scripture supporting the fact that God has indeed changed the way He views His children. The Word says, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." (Col. 3:3) Romans 6:3-11 expounds on this. When we accept Christ as our Savior we die with Him and are raised with Him to live as new creatures in Him. Heb. 8:12 specifically states that under the new covenant God will no longer remember our sins. (See also II Cor. 5:17-21, Rom. 4:8, 22-25) So the question is this. If God cannot remember our sin and our lives are hidden with Christ, how can He be angry with us for sin? If God could be angry at us for sin or punish us for sin after we are believers He would be saying that Christ's sacrifice was not enough! But Christ's sacrifice was payment in full of the penalty for all sin -- past, present and future. But what about the fact that the Word says God disciplines us as His children? Our understanding of discipline is colored by the way we were "disciplined" as children. In fact, our view of God is generally colored by the way our parents, particularly our father, related with us as children. Our parents, being human (and quite possibly not understanding this truth, themselves) did not discipline us as God does. Our understanding of discipline is punitive -- we do something wrong therefore we must be punished so that we won't do it again. But the word discipline carries no punitive meaning when taken literally. Discipline quite simply means training. Discipline does not inherently include either anger or punishment. One good example of the difference between discipline and punishment is athletic training. If you are training as an athlete you are disciplining your body to be able to excel in the rigors of your sport. The training is hard, sometimes painful, and many times not fun. But there is no anger or punishment involved (unless you have a bad coach!)
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