DO WE NEED THE WRATH OF GOD?

 

 

The idea of God as a “cosmic watchdog” who will punish us is entirely unacceptable to Western thinking. Instead, Western man insists on being the captain of his own ship. Therefore, the idea of having an uber-captain is repugnant to him.

 

Fully aware of this repugnance and eager to cater to the tastes of the prevailing society, the Western church has grown conveniently silent about a God of wrath. He is now presented exclusively as a God of love. In Noborderland: Finding Amazing Grace in a Dark and Dying World, Tom Graffagnino has appropriately written:

 

·       The coddled Western church of bright lights and high performance has hit a snag. Social and cultural “relevance” has elbowed holiness, righteousness, and repentance off the auditorium stage. The gospel of grace and the necessary bad news that must necessarily precede it have become increasingly and noticeably absent in our comfort-driven, “Me first,” “Me Too,” and “Have it Your Way” world. (Credo House Publishers, 167)

 

Consequently, the Church has largely rejected the fire-and-brimstone message. But should it be this way? For some, the highest expression of love requires us to make others feel comfortable. After all, no one wants to feel condemned by an unsettling sermon. But what if our comfortable lives have insulated us from the truths of God? What if we are being insulated even from the truths that would lead us to our spiritual well-being? Citing Michael Horton, Graffagnino claims that this is the very thing that has been happening:

 

·       We must be stripped of our fig leaves in order to be clothed with Christ’s righteousness so we can stand in the judgment of a holy God. The question is whether the aim of ministry today is to tear off our fig leaves so we can be clothed with Christ or to help us add a few more. (Ibid.)

 

Sadly, much of ministry today is aimed at making us feel more comfortable about ourselves. The Gospel is relegated to a position of secondary importance. Instead, according to Grafagnino, preaching must embrace “tough love.” For that is the only way that we might enter into God’s love. The preaching of the Gospel must serve as a “double-edged sword.” One side of the sword penetrates to the core of our sin and rebellion. And that enables us to experience the other side—the offer of real comfort, the comfort of knowing Christ.

 

Must we first understand and perhaps even taste the wrath of God before we can appreciate the rescue of God—His great sacrifice to bring us into an eternal relationship of love? Must we first understand from what we have been saved…in order for us to fully appreciate what we have been saved to? Without this dual understanding, the Gospel will continue to be considered foolish by the unspiritual (1 Corinthians 2:14). In fact, the message of the Gospel is counted as foolishness by all who do not regularly feed upon the Word. For in the Scriptures, we find the truths that are inherent in both the wrath and the rescue of God.

 

The reality of God’s wrath elucidates many needful truths:

 

God’s wrath upon Jesus informs us of His love in a more profound way than anything else could. For several years, I had undergone such horrendous suffering that I couldn’t shake the idea that God might be a deceiving sadist who had created us for His perverse entertainment. However, the revelation of Jesus taking upon Himself the wrath that we all deserved finally convinced me otherwise. Jesus’ horrible death on the Cross proved that God could not be a sadist or a master deceiver. Such people would never

sacrifice themselves for anyone else:

 

·       …but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8-10)

God’s wrath serves as a poignant declaration and reminder that He detests sin and must punish it. His intolerance of sin is so great that He could not endure the proximity of Israel despite His love for her (Numbers 20:16. Instead, He had to send His Messenger to lead Israel:

·       “I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” (Exodus 33:2–3)

 

We might ask why does God act this way. There is only one possible answer: This is His nature, and we must accept this fact. His righteous nature had to be satisfied through the punishment for sin, and He had to convincingly demonstrate to us His absolute abhorrence of sin:

 

·       …for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:23-26)

 

God had been patient with our unpunished sins. This one sin Offering not only demonstrated God’s love and propitiated (satisfied) His nature, but it also demonstrated to us His severe righteousness through Jesus’ death on the Cross. This was intended to starkly impress upon us the fact that any sin is detestable before God.

 

Nevertheless, His forgiveness is limitless. I, therefore, literally need to fear God as I entertain sinful thoughts, even proud seductive thoughts. In this sense, the wrath and righteousness of God are necessary for our well-being, in the same way that the fear of falling off the edge of a building is also necessary.

 

It is argued that, if God is all-powerful, He should have been able to forgive us without “killing” His Son. However, God is not robotic. He has a nature by which He must live. His righteous nature requires satisfaction—propitiation and atonement—for sin.

 

If this sounds unreasonable, just think of a friend who tells you, “Whenever I see yellow flowers, it fills me with anxiety.” You might think that this is petty. You might even try to explain it away as merely a biochemical reaction, but this would entirely miss the point. The fact remains—she feels anxious at the sight of yellow flowers. Therefore, buying her yellow flowers would understandably be regarded as callous. In light of this, we must accept this about our friend. If we are willing to accept our friend’s feelings and limitations, how much more  must we accept the immutable God’s self-disclosure that

He must punish sin?

If God’s wrath is real, people need to be warned:

 

·       Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. (Colossians 3:5-6; Ephesians 5:6; 1 Corinthians 6:7-11)

 

It also seems that we already have an intuitive knowledge of God’s wrath, even if we

choose to deny it:

·       Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:32)

 

If we didn’t have this knowledge of God’s wrath, we would simply be able to laugh-off such a “fairy tale.” But instead, humanity hates God because men and women correctly sense that they deserve His wrath. In spite of this awareness, they suppress it with many forms of self-promotion.

 

The threat of God’s wrath promotes reform. King Josiah had been ignorant of the Lord until the Book of the Law had been found and brought to him. He therefore directed his priests:

 

·       “Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.” (2 Kings 22:13)

 

The knowledge of God’s wrath resulted in great reforms (Ezekiel 22:20-22).

 

God’s wrath is also just and freeing:

 

·       …since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day… (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10a)

 

We cannot deny God’s justice without also denying our own desire for justice and retribution. If we choose to believe that such a concept is beneath human dignity, then we should reject all forms of justice and punishment: police, prisons, courts, fines, and school and parental sanctions. Instead, if we are willing to believe that we require sanctions, then we should not criticize God for His use of sanctions or His righteous and holy nature.

 

We need God’s wrath. His promise to bring wrath and justice is liberating. We are freed from any compulsion to take justice into our own hands. We are free to love and to forgive: 

 

·       Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” (Romans 12:14-19)

 

Thus we are enabled to love and to forgive because we have submitted to God all our desires for vengeance. We can rest and be at peace because He manifests His wrath and vengeance—to some extent—through the criminal justice system (Romans 13:1-5).

 

The prospect of God’s wrath should provoke our prayers, evangelism, and acts of love towards the objects of His wrath. Daniel prayed for Israel because they deserved

the wrath of God:

·       “O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword [a curse word] among all who are around us.” (Daniel 9:16)

 

We need to regard others through our spiritually opened eyes, to see their horrid fate and be moved to compassion. I pray that God would give us all such an awareness.