God Is Always More

God Is Always More

Jonah knew God.

That’s what makes the final chapter of his story so surprising.

Nineveh heard Jonah’s warning, believed God, and turned from its evil. God saw their repentance and did not bring the destruction He had threatened.

And Jonah was furious.

Why? Jonah finally tells us: “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love.”

That’s why he ran away in the first place.

Jonah’s problem wasn’t that he misunderstood God. He knew exactly what kind of God he was dealing with. He just wanted to decide where God was allowed to be that God.

We can do something similar.

We learn something true about God. We study His Word. We grow in our understanding. And eventually we think, Ah. Now I understand God.

That’s when today’s discovery can become tomorrow’s box.

We move from “This is what God has revealed about Himself” to “Therefore, I know what God must do.”

But God refuses to live inside our boxes.

And that can be frightening. We like control—even when it comes to God.

So how can we trust a God we cannot control?

Look at Jesus.

God hasn’t made Himself controllable. He has made Himself known.

And nowhere has He shown us more clearly who He is than in Jesus Christ.

Sin has corrupted us more deeply than we usually imagine. We aren’t sinners because we do sinful things; we do sinful things because we are sinners. We cannot rescue ourselves from that condition.

How serious is the problem?

Look at what it took to save us.

God didn’t send better advice or another self-improvement program.

God came Himself.

The Son of God became one of us. He carried our sin to the cross, died our death, and rose again.

Sin is worse than we imagine.

Christ is a greater Savior still.

And that brings us back to Nineveh.

God cared about Nineveh. God cared about Jonah. He pursued both with His mercy. And ultimately, in Jesus, God came pursuing all of us.

For four weeks we’ve called this series Too Much Mercy.

Jonah thought there could be such a thing.

But Jonah’s problem wasn’t that God’s mercy was too big.

Jonah’s God was too small.

Ours usually is too.

Again and again, God’s Word breaks our boxes and shows us that He is more holy, more just, more gracious, more merciful—

more of a Savior than we imagined.

God is always more than we imagine Him to be.

He isn’t tame.

But He is good.