Some time ago I heard a “Thought for the Day” on UK BBC Radio 4 that was given by the Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones. He wondered whether it was not possible to see the face of God and live because in the face of God is seen the pain of the fallenness of the World, and that that pain is so intense that if someone like Sadam Hussein were to see it, he would be destroyed by the encounter.

Let’s take this idea a stage further…in my mind any encounter between God and evil amounts in the destruction of the evil. What if when Jesus returns to earth for the last judgement, all of creation, including all people, are exposed to God’s ultimate goodness, and are therefore subject to being destroyed by the encounter between their fallenness and an absolutely good God?

On the Cross, we see Jesus taking our sin, all of our wrongdoings and fallenness on himself – the only one (being God Himself) that can take the confluence of the fallenness and Good? So…it’s only by a relationship with God through Jesus that the encounter between God’s goodness and our fallenness that we can survive the encounter? God is being totally generous in providing this route – He shows us forgivess through grace (sometimes explained as an acronym – God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense).

I find it very difficult to think about a God of Good that destroys anything that He has made – but the ideas given above help me to be able to accept this.

What do you think?