Do you think you can safely ignore God?

I Read the following this morning in What is the Gospel by Greg Gilbert:

"Many people think of God as a kind, affable, slightly dazed and needy but very loving grandfather who has wishes but no demands, can be safely ignored if you don't have time for him, and is very, very, very understanding of the fact that human beings make mistakes - much more understanding, in fact, than the rest of us are." (p. 38)

The two words that struck me were "safely ignored."   The truth is, one ignores God at great risk to oneself.  Exodus 34 says God will not leave the guilty unpunished:


"The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:5-7


Exodus 34 also says that he forgives iniquity.  How is it possible that he punishes the guilty AND forgives iniquity?

It is only through the cross of the Christ that this tension is resolved.