My friend Ron had a rough relationship with his father. I met Ron's dad only once, and to me he didn't seem to be a fire-breathing monster.

Still, somewhere in time Ron's dad had embraced the idea that God is a fire-breathing monster—maybe based on certain Bible readings about God's judgment. In the Bible there are lots of pictures of God. There are places where God ordains judgment on sin, and where God's prophets bring dire warnings.

Here, in Numbers 16, I get it, down in my soul: rebelling against God is a sin. There is nothing easy or cheap or casual about following and living for God, and yet this God also sent his Son, Jesus, to take on himself the punishment for our sin.

So because of Jesus, the image that now guides our faith is that, in some way beyond understanding, he absorbed all of the judgment for sin into himself, and what he gives us instead, by simple faith, is himself as a shepherd, leading and guiding us. With childlike faith, the main thing we should think about God is his unfailing love.

Ron's dad never understood that. Ron didn't either. But God so loves us that he took the judgment for sin on himself, through Jesus, his Son. It can be hard to understand, but that's God. Sanctification happens, through this love, when we walk with Jesus through all kinds of circumstances.