The Uncomfortable Truth about the Wrath of God
At the end of my last post on the love of God, I wrote, “The love of God is good, right? What about the wrath of God? Oh, not so good. But just as real. Stay tuned”. This post begins a new series I am writing on the wrath of God. At this point I am not sure how many posts will be in the series. All I know right now is that God is really stretching and teaching me. What I have learned so far is exciting and powerful and sobering.
Before Judy and I left for our river cruise I wrote a 6-part series on the love of God. The apostle John tells us that God is love, which means love is His essential nature. God’s love is agape – a perfect love rooted in and tied to God’s holiness. God’s love for His creation emanates from His character and His will; it is not dependent on the behavior or the loveliness of the one to whom the love is directed. Hallelujah!
But Scripture is clear. The wrath of God is real. In just one of hundreds of references to God’s wrath in scripture, Paul writes in Romans 2: “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2: 5 NIV).
How is it possible for God, who is love, to show wrath toward His children? (Clarification — as you will read, God loves mankind, the world, His creation. But not all mankind are children of God. God’s children are the people who believe in Him, have been born again, and accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. When I use “Children of God” in this post, I am refering to born again believers). Isn’t wrath the opposite of love? To fully appreciate the holiness of God and the vast, infinite depth and worth of God’s love for us, and the magnitude of the grace of God, it is absolutely essential that we understand and stand in awe of the wrath of God. Unfortunately, the doctrine of the wrath of God is understood by many to be bad news (it is, in fact, a fundamental part of the good news), and no one likes bad news. And it seems like many churches in the west want to focus on the love of God, leaving out the wrath of God, which ultimately means denying the holiness and perfection of God and the power of sin to corrupt and kill.
In the movement toward denying the wrath of God, the Presbyterian Church USA has tried to change the words “the wrath of God was satisfied” from the popular song ‘In Christ Alone’ to “the love of God was magnified”. They kind of have a point. The doctrine of the wrath of God has been almost abandoned by much of the Church in the west. Is Scripture ambiguous about the wrath of God? Is a loving God really going to condemn sinners to hell? Isn’t a loving God inconsistent with wrath? And what is God’s wrath anyway? I am a believer – should I worry about the wrath of God? These and other questions about God’s wrath are important for our walk with Christ. As I have written, we cannot really understand the love of God until we also take a closer look into the doctrine of the wrath of God. This is the first in a series of posts in which I will do my best to explore the wrath of God and attempt to answer these and other questions.
The wrath of God, or words that imply God’s wrath, are mentioned over 600 times in Scripture according to D.A. Carson. It is as much a part of the New Testament as it is the Old Testament. God’s holiness, our sin, God’s grace, Christ’s death, the work of the cross, and the reason for our hope are all connected to the wrath of God. If God is not a God of wrath, the cross, Jesus’ death, grace, and our need for a savior would have no meaning or significance. God’s holiness requires God’s wrath. So what is the wrath of God?
God is love. He is not a God of wrath. His wrath is a secondary attribute, not His nature. His wrath is the required response of a holy God to sin including idolatry, disobedience and rebellion of His children, and all demonic powers and principalities that seek to overthrow His rule and reign. (Here is a link to an interview with D.A. Carson on the wrath of God. It is a great summary lasting about 12 minutes:
http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/the-doctrine-of-the-wrath-of-god).
The wrath of God is the determined, willed, chosen, visceral reaction of a holy God to all that dishonors Him, rebels against Him, calls into question His character, His power, His goodness; and all who worship idols. God’s wrath is the consequence of God’s hatred of evil — human Sin (idolatry), sins (the consequence of disobedience), and demonic powers and principalities, all of which I connect indirectly or directly with evil. His wrath is tied to His holiness because a perfect and holy God must resist and punish all that is unholy and godless (after D. A. Carson, see the link above).
God’s wrath is not like our anger. God does not fly off the handle. He does not lose control, and lash out in unpredictable anger. His wrath is not like our emotional anger, which can rise up and take control of our words and actions. His wrath is deliberate, marked by sober judgment, condemnation, and punishment. But it is never arbitrary. God’s wrath is tied to His holiness; judgment is part of His perfection.
To deny the wrath of God is to deny His holiness, our sinfulness, the presence of the demonic in creation, or all of these. Where there is no sin there will be no wrath. Is there sin in the world? Then God’s holiness demands a wrathful response.
In an on-line post about the holiness of God and the wrath of God, John Piper writes this:
“When we say God is holy we mean that, along with the immeasurableness of His greatness, His character is unimpeachable. He cannot be charged with wrong. He has an infinite love for what is infinitely valuable and an infinite hate (His wrath – my words) for what opposes the infinitely valuable. His delight in praiseworthy things is unbounded, and his abhorrence of what is blameworthy is perfect.”
“God has an infinite love for what is infinitely valuable”. Does God love His creation – as He created it to function? Of course; He called it good. His creation is infinitely valuable to Him. Does that love include His children, that is, you and me, remembering that His love is not like the world’s love? He loves with agape love. Of course He loves us, all of us.
In his book ‘The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God’, Carson writes:
“I affirm, then, that both Arminians and Calvinists should rightly affirm that Christ died for all, in the sense that Christ’s death was sufficient for all, and that Scripture portrays God as inviting, commanding, and desiring the salvation of all, out of love” (pg. 77).
Yes, He loves us. How do we know? Scripture tells us that God loved the world, not just some of the world. But more importantly when we look at the cross we see the great love God has for us. It is at the cross that the love of God and the wrath of God meet. Bottom line, our sins — yours and mine — have to be judged, condemned, and punished by God. The punishment for our sins should be death — certainly spiritual and emotional death now, perhaps even physical death. That is bad enough. But beyond that, we should live in hell for eternity. For me, that is a terrifying thought. On the cross, Christ did at least two things. Out of His infinite love for you and me, He stood in our places and absorbed the wrath that was rightfully ours. Think about that. He never did any thing wrong? We were the sinners! That is love! And scary, because in John He commanded us to love others the way He loved us.
I said He did two things at the cross. His wrath also was directed at Satan. On the cross, Christ defeated the power of evil. Not that there is no longer evil in the world. Of course there is. But its power to enslave us is broken. Hallelujah.
As I will explain in another post, the gift of repentance is another major manifestation of God’s grace and a way to ameliorate God’s wrath. True repentance is a necessary element of our salvation. We do not repent, we are repentant.
How valuable are you to God? Does He have an infinite love for you? Consider this: How do we determine the value of anything? The value of a thing is whatever someone is willing to pay for it. How valuable are you to God? You are of infinite value because He paid an infinite price to ransom or redeem you. God’s love encompasses us all. We are all infinitely valuable to Him. As Peter writes “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish (the consequence of His wrath – my words), but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3: 9 NIV). As Piper says, God has an infinite love for what is infinitely valuable.” Hallelujah.
OK, so if God has an infinite love for His children, and that means all of His children, what is the point of God’s wrath? His love should preclude wrath, right? That question is at the heart of these posts. But I want to make two important points. 1) God loves us because He has chosen to love us. It in an act of His will. Agape love is unrelated to our behavior, performance, or our loveliness. 2) Wrath is not an essential part of His nature. So there is no contradiction in His character for God to love us with an infinite love while we sin and at the same time judge, condemn, and punish us for our sins. God is also merciful, patient, and slow to anger. He always gives sinners multiple opportunities to repent and come to Him or come back to Him. God takes no pleasure in punishment. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, knowing how the wrath of God would result in the destruction of the city and it’s inhabitants:
“Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, if you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19: 41, 42 NKJV).
How did the wrath of God manifest in Jerusalem? The truth of who they were and what they needed to do to return to God was “hidden from their eyes”. God removed them from His presence, He took His hand away from them; His compassion, mercy, and protection were no longer extended to them. And they never knew this was happening. That is typically how God’s wrath works, according to Scripture (more on this in another post), and how sin darkens our understanding. But this did not give Him pleasure. He wept!
I am fairly sure most Christians believe that God’s wrath is directed at unbelievers, and not at them. Is this true? I think it is worth another look at how the wrath of God might impact our lives, apart from how a deeper understanding of God’s wrath helps us understand God’s love in a deeper, more powerful way. Again, more on this in another post.
God’s wrath and God’s love are not in opposition to each other. A fuller understanding of God’s love for us, of God’s holiness, the work of the cross, and the importance of repentance depends upon a deeper understanding of the wrath of God. In the next post I will look at Scriptures about the wrath of God and begin to dig more deeply into what I call the ‘doctrine of the wrath of God’.
Grace and peace,
John