190. He Changes Your Relationship With God

1 Peter 1:17

There are people who want you to be scared. They want you to be afraid of God. They want to make sure that you understand how powerful and terrifying God is. They want to make sure you understand how serious your sin is. They want to make sure that you don’t simply walk around with your bare face hanging out forgetting that God has every right to judge and smite you right now. They don’t want you thinking grace is your right. They don’t want you laboring under the delusion that you earned forgiveness. Do me a favor: Don’t listen to those voices. If you see that crap in a book, close the book. If you hear it in a sermon, pick a new church. If you hear it in a song, change the radio station. Look, we all know that God is powerful and holy and has every right to judge sinners. We all get that we don’t deserve forgiveness and grace. But there is Good News. New information has come into the story of your life. Jesus let Himself be tortured so that you would never, ever have to face judgment or wrath! Jesus offers the free gift of grace to all who believe, no matter what. He declares believers just as righteous as Himself and He does something else that is amazing. 1 Peter chapter 1 says that Jesus changes our relationship with this holy God. He turns the judge into our dad. God, who is judge for some people is now your Dad who loves you. He’s the perfect Dad. Your Dad won’t judge you. Your Dad doesn’t want you to be afraid. Your Dad just wants you to enjoy being His kid.