Ananias and Sapphira

This post is in response to a recent seminary class conversation about Ananias and Sapphira. (See Acts 5:1-11)

God is love. (1 John 4:8) He is also a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29) Yes, He forgives sin, for He is “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” (2 Corinthians 1:3) And yet still, “God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)

God’s goodness does not abolish his severity; his kindness does not abolish his wrath; his mercy does not abolish his justice. And his Son, Jesus Christ, has come not to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill. (Matthew 5:17)

Can the tension between God’s goodness and severity be resolved? No, and any attempt to do so is wrongheaded. The task of man is not to resolve God, but to believe in Him. God is who He says He is. His thoughts are not our thoughts; his ways are not our ways. (Isaiah 55:8)

It might grate on modern sensibilities, but God exalts a man by humbling him, and raises him up by casting him down. If that contradicts the picture we have of God, our picture is wrong. After all, as Calvin said, the human heart is an “idol factory”.

The biblical God – the true God – calls himself a jealous God. (Exodus 20:5) Ananias and Sapphira knew of God’s jealousy (that is, they knew that God demanded a complete surrender), but they did not believe that his jealousy was out of love. Because of their unbelief, their offering to God was half-hearted and they persisted in sin by trying to cover it up with lies. The result? The Holy Spirit departed from them, and, deprived of the Spirit, their lives ended.

The humble, instead of taking offense at this and plugging their ears to its lesson, will learn from it. They'll learn that the Spirit of God is an all-or-nothing Gift, possessed only by those whom He possesses. Because this is true, the story of Ananias and Sapphira can't be dismissed as too hard to bear. It should be taken with humility, its lesson heeded with a wholehearted surrender to the God who is both good and severe.

“Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.” Romans 11:22