Journey with the Prophets | Harmonized Tension - July 31, 2022

Hosea 11:1-11

We often turn toward God’s love or God’s justice. This leads us to the thought that the God of the Hebrew Bible and the God of the New Testament are somehow different – the God of the Hebrew Bible is focused on justice and vengeance, while the God of the New Testament is concerned with love.

Ignoring this tension ignores that tension reveals even more to us about God than we imagine. We know that God does not seek justice at the expense of love, nor love at the expense of justice.

Jesus holds this tension in perfect harmony.
He invites himself to dinner at the home of tax collectors who cheats their neighbors, extending grace and an invitation to repentance.

He drew in the dirt to disperse a rock-wielding mob and then told a woman to go and sin no more.

As he took his last breaths on the cross, Jesus extended forgiveness to the man next to him and invited the man to be with him in paradise.

That is gospel Good News. That is the good news revealed from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21.