Pastor Marvin shared on Easter Sunday about his dad, Johnny, singing The Battle Hymn of the Republic from his hospital bed.

                “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;

                  He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

                  He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword:

                  His truth is marching on.”

It struck me that even from the hospital, Johnny is still prophesying to us concerning the return of Jesus.  According to Ezekiel we need to be prepared for that day.

Ezekiel 38: 7 “Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.”

So, the question for us becomes:  What is it that we need to know, to do, to understand in order to be prepared for that day?

We all know that the Jews of Jesus’ day largely missed the arrival of their Messiah because of their expectation that he would come as a conqueror to overcome their enemies.  Instead, he came as the  sacrificial lamb who would lay down his life in order to overcome their spiritual enemy.  Their failure to recognize this duality (physical world versus spiritual world) would be to their detriment.

As Christians we have been taught well the virtues of Christ as the sacrificial lamb, slain to redeem us from sin.  We have been taught that God is all love, all mercy, all grace, all forgiveness.  This message has been spread and accepted so widely that the liberal mindset has expanded that message so that it has become:  God is all love, all mercy, all grace, all forgiveness — for anything, to anyone, at all times.

Could it be that “the church” is partly responsible for this heresy?

It is true that God is all love, all mercy, all grace, and all forgiveness; however

• There are conditions for love

John 16: 27 “For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.”

John 14: 21 “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”

• There are conditions for mercy

Proverbs 28: 13 “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

Matthew 5: 7 “ Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”

Luke 1: 50 “And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.”

Isaiah 55: 7 “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

• There are conditions for grace

James 4: 6 “But he giveth more grace.  Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but gives grace unto the humble.”

Proverbs 3: 34 “Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace to the lowly.”

Romans 6: 15 “ What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?  God forbid.”

• There are conditions for forgiveness

Matthew 6: 14-15 “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

I John 1: 9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Luke 6: 37 “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.”

Could it be that “the church” for decades has preached a lopsided Jesus?

Let’s look at the attributes of the Jesus who will return.

Revelation 19: 11-16 “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.  His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.  And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called the Word of God.  And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.  And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.  And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

This is the Jesus that we should be expecting and this is how we prepare for him.

                Titus 2: 11-14 “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works,”

So, we have a Jesus who came the first time as a sacrificial lamb to save the world from sin, and we have a Jesus who is coming the second time as a warrior and the judge of sin.

I believe that God is never “out of balance”.  I envision this as a pendulum in perpetual motion with Jesus as the Lamb of God being the apex of the pendulum on the left and Jesus as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah being the apex of the pendulum on the right.

It would seem logical here to say that Jesus is the Lamb of God, but he is also the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.  The conjunction “but” is totally inappropriate here.  The word “but” is used as a detractor from what preceded it.  For example:

                It’s a great company to work for, but…

                He’s a good boss, but…

Instead, the appropriate conjunction is “and”.

• Jesus is the Lamb of God and he is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.  And following the pendulum, he is everything in between.

• Jesus is the good shepherd and he is a ruler.  When he returns, he will not lead with a shepherd’s staff, but will rule with a rod of iron.

• Jesus is the Prince of Peace and he is the Faithful and True who makes war.

• Jesus is the sacrifice for sins and he is the judge of sin.

So, while we enjoy all the provisions of Jesus as the Lamb of God, let us not forget to be prepared for Jesus who is coming as the Faithful and True judge, warrior, and ruler.

Paul warned the Corinthians that if they had another Jesus, they might end up changing the gospel to another gospel.  And if they had the wrong gospel, they were going to attract a counterfeit spirit.  And a counterfeit gospel with a counterfeit spirit produces a counterfeit Jesus.

Is your God out of balance?