A Bipolar God?

Well, recently God's really thrown bricks (of lovingkindness of course) at me and I've been craving and getting more and more of Him. I really don't want to come off as some high and holy, aloof and analytical person who is now attempting to give off the impression of being a certain way. That's one thing I know God -- dare I say -- hates. But anyway, I've taken a page out of Colossians -- not literally, even though it is a book of the Bible... I made a pun! -- and have been trying my best to spend my "free time" thinking and pondering about "things above" (Col. 3:2). What that means, as per what God has said to me with passages like Philippians 4:8, is to spend time -- and lots of it -- learning and listening, inviting our Father to sit us down and have a heart-to-heart perhaps.
I think -- no, I know -- it is God's will that His people should wrestle and struggle, not because He takes pleasure out of strife and suffering of His creation -- God forbid! -- but that He takes pleasure in the opportunity to instruct, admonish, encourage, reveal, inspire, discipline, humble, etc... us when we meet with Him. I think that in a relationship, one of the greatest signs of a lack of passion (i.e. spiritual death) is when one party loses interest in the other's affairs (i.e. apathy? disregard?). With God as our Savior, Comfortor, Creator, Lover, Friend, Father, we can't possibly neglect our relationship with Him, ever, if we are to claim Him as our Most Beloved. It is, thus, good to think of Him, His works, His traits, His goodness, and all things [of] Him. Amen?

Anyway, that was a somewhat long explanation for where this next part of the post came from.
Before we go farther, you must understand that I am someone who remembers things pretty well. Not all things, of course, but a good many things -- especially fine, mudane, useless details. I'm also someone who can draw what may seem to some extremely farfetched connections between these quotidian occurances. I'd like to think I've been blessed with the gift of communication and expression of thoughts, so I hope this stuff will help you to have a better picture of why and how I came to the conclusion I'm about to try and explain.
It's a simple question about a simple idea. Yet, as one character said in Stephen Chow's "God of Cookery":
"It's the simple things that are the hardest to make delicious."
What does this have to do with my post? With a title like that, it better be related to God! Well, it does. I always find that the simplest truths I've been taught about God are always the toughest to grasp and really believe. Such truths are always the ones that take the most time, the most energy, and the most conviction from God to wrap my head around. And even at that, God does all of the wrapping. But yes, what I'm trying to say, in a very round-about way, is that simple truths that we've all -- those who've grown up in the Church at least -- been taught we actually don't understand as much as we'd like to think. This is why I'm taking this time to try and put some of these thoughts and whatnot into words to try and capture what it is God is saying. Even if it may seem like an over-played, already-mastered concept, bear with me.
We Christians believe that God is ultimately good, yes? Do we believe that all of God is good? I'd like to think we have to. If God is infinite in might (omnipotence is the term) and can do whatever He wills, would it not follow that He is also infinitely good? If He even has a tiny hint of flaw in His character, that hint applied to the infinitude of God would infinitely corrupt God, turning Him into an Infinite Monster, no? Thus, the only logical -- and I would even argue, believable -- conclusion we must come to is that all of God is good. That is what it means to call Him the Holy of holies.
And now we must be sure to identify what is good. Some people may find it offensive of me to be as self-righteous as to define what is good and what is bad by my standards, so I won't. Then again, one cannot make such an assertion/be offended without first judging me according to their own standards, so really, that kind of thinking -- Post-Modernism, I'm looking at you -- is just as circular and pointless as the idea of Macro-Evolution. Still, I won't be defining what is good by my standards. Let's define it by what God has shown, through His word and His creation, to be good according to Him.
I do believe that each person, though born in depravity since the Fall of Man, is still given the Spirit and Image of God, since that is what sets us apart from the grasses of the fields, beasts of the earth, the creatures of the sea, and the birds of the sky. This image, this breath of God will cause us to have a natural sense of what is right and wrong, even though to ability and even desire to do what is good to God will be given to some and withheld from others (all by God's choice and not by merit of the sinner, mind you). This is what human morality is. I think that a human raised in normality -- under as unbiased as possible conditions -- will naturally have a God-given sense of what is ultimately right and wrong. Of course, there's always room for the exception that proves the rule. Because of whatever reason -- perhaps trauma or heavy bias or whatever -- some people have quite damaged notions of what is acceptable or "good". The very fact that we know that people suffering trauma or being raised in dogma are not good things proves that in general, people do know what is fundamentally right and wrong.**
So what's the heart of the matter? What's the simple truth(s) that are to come under question and consideration? What is it that caused me to wonder as to whether God was a bipolar God? Getting back to God's goodness, both Scripture and even this "human morality" as described previously will tell us quite clearly that justice is good. Ask yourself honestly (best if without any bias but there's always bias to some degree), does it feel right when criminals go unpunished? When innocents get caught in the crossfire? When millions of harmless Jews are murdered and the culprit behind it all escapes scot-free in suicide? I didn't think so. You don't need to read it in a Bible to know that there is ultimately something very sick about the notion of evil going unpunished, yes? Let's not debate on how, let's agree that there ought to be punishment.
So justice is good. But so is mercy, is it not? I cannot imagine anyone ever convincing me that forgiveness, acceptance, and longsuffering are not very crucial prerequisites for a healthy marriage, or even for an intimate and true friendship (since I really know nothing in practical experience about marriage... yet!). If someone betrays your trust and comes to you for mercy, does it not please you more to administer forgiveness rather than condemnation? Sure, saying, "No, it's over. Go find someone else to hurt." might seem pretty attractive -- but only in a very sick and twisted way if you really look into it. Does the broken friendship, awkward distance, and general untrust that are sure to follow also seem attractive? You can tell a plant's worth by its fruit, the Bible says. What great words of wisdom! Forgiveness lends itself to grace given, humility demonstrated, pride humbled, repentance accepted, change motivated, love shown, love returned, shared joy, peace returned, and on and on... Whereas unforgiveness leads to isolation, guilt, sorrow, despair, hopelessness, hatred, unrest, bitterness, distrust, and on and on. In the end, mercy is shown to be good.
And here's where we find ourselves: we believe in a God who is just yet merciful at the same time, both being ultimately good traits. How can this be? Given man's condition as having fallen and continuing to fall quite short of God's expectations of perfection, we are all logically (and deservingly) condemned and doomed to life (and death) in eternal separation from the good and the love of God. That is the only just sentence for those who are impure, who are not holy like God. What an impossible standard! What a hopeless venture, this "life" which is lived and ended in death!
It is very important for us to never only take into consideration one of God's traits and forget that God is a complete person ("person" as in being and entity, intelligent and thinking, feeling and living, and not as in human or anything like that). Enter God's mercy. God is indeed merciful. We can see this in the history of the Israelites. If you ever take a short glance through the Old Testament, you'll see that above all else, the image of a spurned lover comes to mind when considering God in relation to His chosen people. Time and time again, God and Israel promise one another their faithfulness and single-heartedness, yet time and time again we see how Israel turns aside and seeks other lovers as her own. This is what it means to have an idol: to hold something, some created thing (other persons included) in higher regard than one's own Creator and First Love. Money, sex, power, you name it.
Given Israel's and our terrible track record, God still reminds us, time and time again, of His promise to forgive us our sins and unfaithfulness. So God is merciful. Yet this image of God is also flawed. This form of forgiveness seems like a slap-on-the-wrist kind of justice, where anyone can get away with anything and God will just turn a blind eye to it. No consequences. No responsibility. No justice. Would you respect a judge who pardons criminals because it's a nice sunny day and he feels particularly generous? Hell no.

It is important to make it understood at this point that God totally in the right to condemn, since His example is the perfection which has been missed. He is also the one who is to give and withhold mercy as He sees fit since He is ultimately the one we have wronged.

This is the point I'm trying to make: God's mercy and justice are quite at odds. God can't be just and merciful at the same time, can He? If He is merciful, then He is not just and not respectable. If He is just, He is also unappeasable and we are, well, we are screwed (yes, blunt but effective). If He is neither, He is a monster! As things stand, God cannot possibly be JUST, and MERCIFUL. It is not possible. Indeed, they are wholly contradictory in nature.
God cannot possibly be merciful to humans while demonstrating His just nature in all things as things stand. You see, this is why God "gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." (John 3:16 KJV). All the punishment and condemnation that we deserved and rightfully belonged to us was poured out on Christ Jesus on the cross. That's why whoever dies with Christ lives with Christ. Our condemnation Christ suffered in our place, as our substitution. What Christ suffered has to be exactly what God had intended as our sentence, and nothing else. Christ didn't suffer a punishment. He suffered my punishment.
Before we go farther, we've got to get something very clear. If it wasn't my condemnation that Christ suffered, then the wrath God has for me because of my sins (and this is a just wrath, as He does in fact have every right to judge, being the Creator of all things and the image of Perfection) is still unsatisfied. Christ did not pay some lump sum price when He did what He did, He paid a very specific price: the price owed to God by each and every single one of His elected and adopted children, thereby completely satisfying God's wrath for us in Himself and making it possible for the "saints who sin" to become the righteousness of God like Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21).
So now, what have we got? We've got God, who is always all of Himself and not just bits and parts, as if He puts on a different trait each day depending on His mood. He is always good. We know that two ultimately and universally good things are justice and mercy. We just know, don't we? But if that's not enough, the Bible (which is either the most reliable source of information and inspiration to you, or the last thing you'd ever trust with anything depending on where you happen to stand/be in life -- this explains why I haven't quoted Scripture as much as I could have so far) says clearly and repeatedly that God will indeed judge and not let evil go unpunished (Galatians 6:7) , yet His mercy is always there and He even delights "in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy" (Psalms 147:11 KJV, emphasis mine).
We've also got the human race. The human, mortal, finite, human race. Humanity is God's creation that has turned from Him. What has happened, in essence, is that we have failed to value the most valuable Being in existance as the most valuable Being in existance. We have elevated other things (money, sex, power, food, people, ourselves, etc.) to the thrones of our lives, when the only One who belongs there, who has a right and just claim to the thrones of our lives, who ultimately deserves it all has been stripped of His honour and glory. Humans have turned from the One we ought to love above all other things and have all fallen short of God's standard, wholly and justly deserving of judgment and condemnation (Romans 3:23).
Finally we have the Christ whose name is Jesus. In short, He lived a perfect life of obedience to God the Father, died a criminal, endured in the place of God's elect all condemnation from God for their sins and transgressions, and rose again on the third day, thereby conquering the powers sin and death for all who will believe in His name and hope in His life.
Have you ever heard someone say that the perfect Sunday School answer to any question is "Jesus" or "God"? This is for those who have been more exposed to "Christian circles" I guess; it's somewhat like a quirky semi-joke that has its roots in truth, IMO. Well, in this case -- as is with many others -- Jesus is the answer! He is the only One who can possibly resolve the incongruity found between God's justice and His mercy. God's wrath for sins and sinners -- God's hate for sin comes only from His love of what is good and not because He's a dictator or because He enjoys imposing laws and burdens on people -- is completely satisfied in Christ's work on the cross (Isaiah 53:3-8), allowing Him to show mercy to those whose sins and condemnation have already been taken care of through Christ's work alone (i.e. those who are called to be "in Christ" by God and have been given Christ to have "in them"). That's what it means to say that one has died with Christ and will live with Him (i.e. "I am a child of God, chosen and called by God the Father, adopted through Jesus, and sustained by the Holy Spirit.").

I want to take a moment here to make it very clear that some people may read all this (if anyone reads this far at all) and think it's all foolishness, all ramblings, all confusing, all stupid, all incomprehensible. That's fine. Understanding, like mercy, is shown to some and not to others, and is shown/withheld by God. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says quite clearly that "a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised" (NASB). "Natural" in this context simply means without God's spirit within him, without God's speaking to him, without God's wanting to make it known to or understood by him [yet]. Perhaps it will take more consideration, rumination, and reasoning. The discussion of God's election will have to wait for another day. I can only encourage you, if you do not understand yet, to not be turned away or feel rejected by God. Continue to think and wonder and perhaps God will cause revelation in you someday because of your persistence. Vraiment, je vous dis, je ne sais pas.

Before I digress too much and go on and on (even more so, yes, I know), I'd just like to wrap up by saying that God indeed is always good. Always just. Always merciful. Always all of Himself. We can "believe" these "simple truths" so easily, but just look at how many words went into explaining and describing something as simple as "God is good". And this was all just looking at God's mercy and His justice. We haven't even touched on His other good qualities: His kindness, His faithfulness, His humility, His providence, His might, etc... It's important for people -- everyone, not just old people, or just old people, or just Christians, or just non-Christians (AKA: pre-Christians sometimes, IMO), or just scholars, or just "normal people, or just pastors, or just boys, or just girls, etc... (you get the point) -- to spend time thinking about stuff -- great, big, wonderful, heavenly stuff! Like J. Piper says in this sermon (I read it last night, so yeah, it's fresh in my mind), "God calls us to something great. He did not give you life to spend it on troughs [in relation to the Grand Canyon] and trifles." There's an infinite wealth of wisdom (i.e. practical information) and delightful revelation in the Words of God (both written and spoken) that God is just bursting to show us, if only we let Him. There's so much to learn, to ponder, to consider, to dissect, to be taught, to be shown that we'd be fools to waste our time distracted by the "trifles" in life.
We were designed to give glory to God, and to crave what only He can provide. That's perfect because -- more-John-Piper warning -- "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."

** I am in no way saying that man is naturally good or attributing this discernment to man's glory. It is a gift of God, the very breath of God, and so is not from ourselves, meaning that we claim no glory for it. I am also not contradicting my belief in man's total depravity before God, since this understanding of right and wrong alone is wholly lacking in terms of a means of reaching God without His providence to do so. : P