It was for one of these services that
the director of the school asked me to speak on the subject of the wrath of
God. Two or three of the students were preparing the rest of the program and
were to plan it around the same theme. When the young woman who was in charge
of finding the music approached me with her dilemma, I understood her
situation.
The young lady told me that she could
not find any hymns or other songs that had the “Wrath of God” as their subject. For
all the other attributes of God: the grace of God, the love of God, the wisdom
of God, and all the rest, we have many songs in our song books.
But we do not sing “Oh, the Wonderful
Wrath of God” or “We Rejoice in the Deep Wrath of God.” What the young student
told me was true. Nor, if we think about it, do we even hear many sermons on
the wrath of God.
The Wrath of God as an Attribute
God’s wrath is not a comfortable
subject for us. We do not understand it fully and even somehow feel that it is
below the dignity of God. We may even find ourselves embarrassed by the
subject. It is much easier to talk about God’s power and his love. These, we
think, are themes that fit the dignity of God.
Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the fact
of the wrath of God. We find it repeatedly throughout the Bible as part of his
character. Nor, if we think about it a little, should we be surprised by it. If
we accept the great depth of the love of God for all that is good and just,
then we must understand his opposition to all that is contrary to what is good.
Can there be true righteousness without
a corresponding wrath against that which opposes that righteousness?
The God of the Old Testament and the New
We commonly think of the wrath of God
in connection with the God of the Old Testament, as if he were different than
the God of the New Testament. It is true that it is in the Old Testament that we
see his wrath most clearly, as in Exodus 32:9-10:
And the LORD said unto Moses, “I have seen this
people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people: Now therefore let me alone, that
my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them.” (KJV)
However, this attribute of God is also
evident in the New Testament: John the Baptist’s message was largely one of the
coming wrath of God if the people did not respond to the grace offered.
John the Apostle wrote, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36 NAS).
The Apostle Paul also speaks on this
theme:
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from
faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness. (Romans 1:17-18
NAS)
Wrath of God for Christians?
In the verses above we learn that it is
all that is unrighteousness that incites God’s wrath. Nevertheless, as
Christians, we have the assurance that we will not know the wrath of God, even
though we deserve his wrath as much as anyone. Paul explained this further to
the church in Thessalonica: “For God
has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord
Jesus Christ” (1
Thessalonians 5:9 NAS).
Even though we have been saved from the
wrath of God, this does not mean that our own evil deeds and rebellion have not
been the object of his wrath. Rebellion is an act against God. It is an evil,
and as an evil, it is contrary to all that is good. It is because of this that
our own evils must also face God’s wrath.
Then why does Paul say that God has not
destined the Christian for wrath?
It is because we obtained salvation
through Christ. It was God the Son who took the wrath of God the Father upon
himself to give us salvation. It is the amazing truth of the Gospel that God
spent his wrath upon himself! He suffered his own wrath so that he could give
us grace!
“This is love,” John tells us, “not
that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning
sacrifice (hilasmos: propitiation)
for our sins” (1 John 4:10 NIV).
Using the Wrath of God as a Truncheon
We as Christians have been assured by
God that we will not know his wrath because of what Christ did for us. But does
all this mean that the wrath of God is a moot point for the believer? Is our
only interest in God’s wrath as to how it applies to all who reject his
salvation?
The few sermons that I have heard on
the subject of the wrath of God generally dwell on the theme of God’s wrath as
an attempt to help the unsaved understand their need for God’s salvation. The
subject of the wrath of God is used as a club, of sorts—something to frighten
people into changing their lives.
I actually agree that this is a
legitimate concern. “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the
living God,” the writer of Hebrews tells us (10:31).
However, this is not the only concern
that a Christian should have with the wrath of God. I think that we
must be careful in saying that we can find no teaching at all that also applies
to ourselves as Christians as we consider the wrath of God.
The Wrath of God Because of the Profaning of His Temple
In our reference in Exodus, we see God
about to pour his wrath out against the Hebrew people. Why was he so angry?
What had happened within the nation of Israel that was so grave that God was at
the point of destroying them?
Part of the grievousness of their sin
was that the children of Israel were forging a golden calf to worship as an
idol at the very time that God was with Moses on the mountain and was imparting
to Moses his vision and plans for his people. At the very time that God was
laying the groundwork for blessing his people, they were rebelling against him.
It was not only this single act of
idolatry that had kindled the wrath of God, however. This proclivity to
idolatry was endemic among them. It was the general attitude of the Israelites.
“I have seen this people,” the Lord
said to Moses, “and behold, they are an obstinate people” (Exodus 32:9 NAS).
But it was at this point of the golden
calf that God threw up his hands. He had had enough! God’s anger became
sufficiently great that he told Moses that he wanted to destroy the people.
Why Get So Mad Over a Statue of a Calf?
We can only begin to understand God’s
great disappointment over this incident when we realize that at the very moment
when the Israelites were reveling in idolatry, God was giving Moses directions
for the construction of the tabernacle, and it was the tabernacle that was to
be the indicator of God’s presence with his people.
Because of God’s great love for his
people, he desired that they would know that he dwelt with them. The tabernacle
was to be a place of lodging where it could be said that God dwelt. This has
always been God’s desire:
I will
dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God.
They
shall know that I am the LORD their God who brought them out of the land of
Egypt, that I might dwell among them; I am the LORD their God. (Exodus 29:45-46 NAS)
It is important to see this connection
between God’s desire to dwell among the people and his people violating this
relationship. This situation of unfaithfulness is one that may bring God’s
wrath.
The Wrath of God Expressed in the New Testament
In the New Testament, we read in
several passages about the wrath of God. It is true that the manifestations of
this wrath are not as evident as it is in the Old Testament. Nevertheless,
neither is God’s wrath completely absent in the New.
One of the places where we see a
measure of the wrath of God is in the reaction of Jesus when he entered the
temple of Jerusalem and saw the atmosphere within. Instead of the prayer and
dignity that would have been befitting of a temple area, there was shouting and
haggling. Instead of the presence of God, there were profiteers who lived by
taking advantage of pilgrims who were at their mercy.
Anyone who has ever been shoved around
and jostled in an open market in a country of the east may have a bit of an
idea what Jesus encountered that day in the temple. The noise of the customers
haggling with the merchants over the price that they were demanding for a
sacrificial animal, along with the other merchants yelling out their offers
would drown out any thoughts of quiet meditation. All of the pushing and
elbowing of the crowd completely prevented any thoughts of solitude with God.
Jesus, with a violence seldom seen in
his personality, fashioned a whip and began to drive out the moneychangers. He
overturned their tables and scattered their ill-gotten coins on the floor. The
animals that were for sale for the purpose of temple sacrifices ran from before
him.
In the temple courts he found men selling cattle,
sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a
whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle;
he scattered the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables.
To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of
here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”
His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal
for your house will consume me.” (John 2:14-17 NIV)
What had happened to the people in the
temple that had so provoked the fury and the wrath of Jesus? It was because the
people had taken what was holy to God, that is, his presence with his people,
and they had profaned it.
It was not that the temple as a
building was holy unto itself, but it was because it represented the presence
of God among his people. By using it as a marketplace, it was just as their
ancestors had done almost twenty-five hundred years earlier at Mount Sinai.
They spurned the presence of God in favor of their own self-interests and
gratification.
The Wrath of God in Profaning Ourselves
God still desires to dwell among us.
Today there is no special structure called a tabernacle or temple where he
dwells so he can live among us. We have our church buildings, but these are not
really God’s dwelling place. Our church buildings are simply places where we as
Christians gather to worship.
Where then, does God dwell? The Apostle Paul tells us in a very
amazing revelation that God still dwells with his people with an intimacy the
Old Testament saints never could experience.
“Do
you not know,” Paul says, “that
your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God,
and that you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19 NAS).
The fact that God dwells as Spirit
within the very bodies of believers is so marvelous that we tend to dismiss
it—just because we cannot understand it.
Yet it is true, and concerning this,
Paul quotes God from the Old Testament to show that God’s purpose in
maintaining the holiness of his dwelling has not changed:
Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?
For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in
them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My
people.” (2 Corinthians 6:16 NAS)
Knowing, as we do, that the wrath of
God is exercised against profaning of his holy presence with us, Paul
admonishes the Christians at Corinth to not take lightly the presence of the
Holy God within them.
The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord;
and the Lord is for the body…. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man
commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
Or
do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought
with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:13-20 NAS)
Is the Subject of God’s Wrath Only Applicable for
Unbelievers?
It is true that the wrath of God is
only reserved for the children of disobedience. As Paul states it in Ephesians
5:6: “Let no one deceive you with
empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons
of disobedience” (NAS).
Although Paul is speaking of the sons
of disobedience, it is to believers that he is writing. It is his letter to the
church at Ephesus. He writes to them:
Therefore
be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also
loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a
fragrant aroma.
But
immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is
proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse
jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
For this
you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who
is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. (Ephesians 5:1-5 NAS).
Paul speaks of those to whom he is
writing. Although most or even all of his readers are believers, he still is
speaking of the wrath of God. In writing what he does, Paul is contrasting
their former manner of living with their new lives in Christ. As he warns them
about the dangers of disobedience, in the same breath admonishes them to walk
above that old way of life. “Walk as children of light,” he tells the people.
He writes much the same thing to
another church. This one in the city of Colossae:
Therefore consider the members of your
earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed,
which amounts to idolatry, for it is on account of these things that the wrath
of God will come upon the sons of disobedience. (Colossians 3:5-6 NAS)
Why Would We Want to Profane the Holy?
Paul would put this same question to
us; why would we want to be involved in activities that bring about the wrath
of God?
We should think carefully on the wrath
of God. It should not be our attitude as believers that the wrath of God
somehow has absolutely no bearing upon us since we are not destined for God’s
eternal wrath. Knowing God’s great opposition to all that is evil will keep us
from finding ourselves participating in these deeds.
If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep
seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on the things above, not on the
things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ
in God.
When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you
also will be revealed with Him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4 NAS)
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