Of all of the attributes of God, the wrath of God is the one we are most uncomfortable with. In this message we explore why that is, and why this truth is so vitally important.
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The Wrath Of God
Last Sunday we focused on the justice of God. Because God is just, He will give to every man exactly what He deserves. Well, this morning we are going to focus on a similar attribute – the wrath of God. The wrath of God is has similarities to the justice of God, but they are not the same thing. God’s justice is His settled commitment to do what is right when it comes to judging all men. We can be assured He will execute perfect justice. No mistakes will be made.
But God’s wrath is His righteous displeasure with sin. It is God’s holy detestation of sin and retribution upon unrepentant sinners. The wrath of God is God’s holy action of retributive justice towards persons whose actions deserve eternal condemnation.
The wrath of God is undoubtedly the least favorite attribute of God. This can be easily verified. How many books have you seen on the subject of the wrath of God? How many sermons have you heard on the wrath of God? How many songs have you ever heard on the wrath of God? Now compare that to the number of sermons, books, and songs you have heard about the love of God?
Is the reason because the love of God is so much more dominant and important an attribute than God’s wrath? Is the reason because there is so much in the Bible about the love of God and so little about His wrath? No, not at all!
A while back I decided to use a bible search tool. I looked up Bible passages that spoke of His wrath, anger, fury and judgment. There were about 1,200 verses like that.
Then I looked up passages that spoke of God’s love, grace, mercy and lovingkindness. There were about 800 of those. As you can see, the Bible speaks more about God’s wrath than His love. Virtually every author of Scripture speaks of God’s wrath, although they are not always using that word. Sometimes they use words like “judgment” or “condemnation.”
1. A Biblical Sampling Of the Wrath of God
Some of you may be unconvinced. You are convinced that God’s wrath is a minor little footnote in the Bible, and that His love is the dominant theme of Scripture. Well, to show you how forcefully God speaks of His wrath in Scripture, I will just take you quickly through some passages and how various Biblical authors wrote of it.
Exodus 22:22-24, “You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.”
2 Kings 22:13, “Go, inquire of the Lord for me and the people and all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the Lord that burns against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”
King Josiah was speaking of the great wrath of God that burned against Israel because they had not listened to the words of Scripture or obeyed them.
Psalm 21:8-9, “Your hand will find out all your enemies; Your right hand will find out those who hate you. You will make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger; The Lord will swallow them up in His wrath, and fire will devour them.”
Nahum 1:2-3,6, “A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; the Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished… Who can stand before His indignation. Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken up by Him.”
So there we have very clear and direct statements that the God of the Bible is a God of wrath as well as a God of love. Now, many people will agree with you, but they say, “Well, that’s the God of the Old Testament. He was a God of judgment and wrath. But when you come to the New Testament, God is a God of love and mercy.” Let’s test that hypothesis. Has God’s wrath disappeared when we come to the New Testament? Let’s take a look.
Matthew 3:7, “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
John 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”
Romans 2:5-6, “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds.”
Romans 5:9, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”
Romans 9:22, “What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?”
Romans 12:19, “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.”
Ephesians 2:3, “Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
Ephesians 5:5-6, “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. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
1 Thessalonians 1:10, “and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.”
Revelation 6:16-17, “and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
Revelation 14:10, “he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”
Revelation 19:15, “From His mouthy comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.”
That’s just a short sampling. Does it sound to you like the God of the New Testament is not a God of wrath? Hardly! Folks, if you took a pair of scissors and cut out every page that had anything to do with God’s wrath, judgment, and condemnation, you wouldn’t have many pages left!
So, I hope you agree that the Bible clearly and unequivocally states that God is wrathful. He hates sin and will act in holy retribution to bring vengeance on evildoers.
2. Our Discomfort With The Wrath Of God
I think it is safe to say that many, if not most Christians are not comfortable with the idea that God will pour out His wrath on the wicked.
This is especially true in modern evangelicalism in the United States. Whereas in the First Great Awakening in New England in the 1730’s and 1740’s, you could hear a man like Jonathan Edwards deliver a sermon like “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, but you would look far and wide to find anyone who would preach a sermon like that today.
Try to imagine Robert Schuller or Joel Osteen preaching in blood earnest on the wrath of God. You can’t imagine it, can you? Try to imagine a preacher in a seeker sensitive church preaching earnestly on the wrath of God? It’s a totally foreign concept. He may speak about how to have a better marriage, time management, or reducing stress, but never the wrath of God.
On all sides, the love of God is so emphasized that sinners no longer believe that the God of love is also a God of wrath. No one trembles before the Lord of the whole earth any more. We have trivialized God. We have become so casual when speaking of the Almighty that no one trembles. That is a shame because Psalm 2:12 says, “Kiss the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”
Churches today are much more interested in becoming relevant, and their services entertaining, than that God is revealed in His holiness.
What are people interested in when it comes to church? If you conducted a survey, you would discover they want a powerful and effective speaker, a great worship band, fun filled classes for their children, and a comfortable “sanctuary” to worship in. But you can have all of that folks, and never come face to face with the truth of the God of the Bible! You can have all of that, and never have your life transformed. You can “add” all of that to your life, and Jesus Christ still not be the Lord of your life.
We need to get serious about knowing the true and living God as our top priority in life. We need to move beyond our discomfort with what we learn about the true and living God, and embrace Him and all truth about Him.
So, why are Christians uncomfortable with the wrath of God?
Because we don’t understand what it is. We have misunderstandings about what the wrath of God is. Some think the wrath of God is akin to God losing His temper and flying off the handle in a fit of rage. Some see it as God inflicting arbitrary punishments on people who must then provide the proper offerings to get him back into a good mood again. Those ideas are not worthy of the true God of the Bible. Just like everything else about God, His wrath is holy. There is not the tiniest particle of anything unholy about God’s wrath.
We tend to identify God’s wrath with our own. The Bible usually calls us to forsake our own wrath. Why? Because it is sinful. Ephesians 4:31, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” James 1:20, “the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” Because we are sinners, our anger is almost always sinful. It is the result of selfishness, and pride. But God’s wrath is the result of His hatred of sin and rebellion.
Because we think it is unworthy of God. We instinctively feel like wrath is not worthy of being included in a list of God’s attributes like love, grace, righteousness and holiness. The interesting thing is that God is not embarrassed in the least by His wrath. If He was, He would surely hide it from us. On the contrary, God has revealed His wrath in page after page after page in His Word. God has made no attempt to conceal the facts about His wrath in the Bible. God is not ashamed of this attribute. Biblical writers speak of God’s wrath constantly.
No, God’s wrath is not just a bigger version of our own temper tantrums, and God is not embarrassed by it.
3. The Importance of the Wrath of God
It Is One of God’s Perfections. What would you think of a God who was indifferent to evil? That would be a blemish on His character! How could He who is infinitely holy disregard sin and refuse to manifest His hatred of it? How could He not be stirred to anger by it? How can God be holy if He is not stirred to anger by it? God’s glory is seen not only in His mercy, but in His wrath.
Understanding the wrath of God preserves a Biblical view of God. If you seek to eliminate wrath from your view of God you will emerge with a truncated and unbiblical view of God. You may believe in God, but it will be a god of your own imagination, not the God revealed in Scripture.
We must always seek to believe in everything the Bible teaches about God, not just the things we like that the Bible teaches about God.
It Protects The Truth of the Gospel. The gospel is “good news”, but if there is no wrath, what is the good news? The Bible teaches that we are saved from the wrath of God, and that is Good News!
Romans 5:9, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”
1 Thessalonians 5:9, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” So, what does our salvation comprise? It is to be delivered from wrath.
Because the gospel provides deliverance from the wrath of God, that’s why John the Baptist exhorted his hearers to flee from the wrath to come. The way we flee from wrath is to flee to Jesus Christ!
John 3:36 says, “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.” So, what is the opposite of eternal life? Eternal wrath!
The gospel is salvation from eternal wrath and the bestowal of eternal life through union with Jesus Christ.
This should be no surprise, because the Bible teaches that at the cross Jesus offered Himself as a propitiation.
Romans 3:25, “Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.”
Hebrews 2:17, “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”
1 John 2:2, “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins”
1 John 4:10, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Did you hear that? God’s love is not the absence of wrath; it is the embracing of wrath for our sake.
Now, just what is a propitiation? It is a wrath-averting sacrifice. A propitiation is a sacrifice which turns away God’s wrath. How can Jesus Christ be a sacrifice which turns away God’s wrath, if there is no wrath to turn away? When people say they don’t believe in a God of wrath, they are denying the Biblical gospel! When pastors and preachers never speak of God’s wrath, they are keeping the full truth of the gospel from God’s people. You can’t have a gospel if you don’t have wrath. Some preachers think that they must downplay the wrath of God in order to elevate the love of God. The exact opposite is the truth! When you give proper emphasis to God’s wrath, then His love shines all the more brilliantly! Ironically, it is merciless to withhold the truth of divine wrath.
If God is not a God of wrath, why was Jesus’ soul deeply grieved to the point of death? Why was He in agony, praying very fervently and His sweat like drops of blood fell to the ground? He tells us why. He wanted the Father to remove the cup, if it was possible, if He was willing. What cup? We find the answer in Revelation 14:10, “he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger.” Jeremiah 25:15 says, “For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel says to me, “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.” The cup that Jesus was in agony about when He considered drinking it, was the cup of God’s wrath! We never see Jesus on any other occasion in agony as He contemplated something. But when He contemplates divine fury, He pleads fervently, and pleads with God to allow the cup to pass if there if it is possible. Of course, it was not possible. If Jesus did not drink the cup, all of us would have had to. In order to save us, He had to drink the cup.
As J. I. Packer wrote in Knowing God, “The modern habit throughout the Christian church is to play this subject down. Those who still believe in the wrath of God (not all do) say little about it; perhaps they do not think much about it. To an age which has unashamedly sold itself to the gods of greed, pride, sex, and self-will, the church mumbles on about God’s kindness, but says virtually nothing about His judgment…The fact is that the subject of divine wrath has become taboo in modern society, and Christians by and large have accepted the taboo and conditioned themselves never to raise the subject.”
My friend, if God is not a God of wrath, what were you saved from? If there is no divine wrath, there is no need for the cross. If that is true, Jesus died needlessly. Are you willing to say that?
In 1934, Richard Niebuhr wrote of liberal Christianity, “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.” There you have the four truths you must avoid if you want to be a popular preacher: wrath, sin, judgment, and the cross.
In 2013 the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song decided that they wanted to change one of the lines of the song. Instead of “till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied”, they wanted the lyrics to be “till on that cross as Jesus died, the love of God was magnified.” The authors of the hymn insisted on the original wording, and so the Committee voted 9 to 6 not to include it in its hymnal. That is just another sign of the times. We don’t want to think about God’s wrath; we want His love.
Conclusion
Because God will pour out His wrath, there are some things we must do:
- Fear Christ. Jesus may have come the first time, meek and mild, a sacrifice for sin. But He will return as the King of kings, and as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Revelation 19:15 says that when He comes, “from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.” In His first coming, Jesus was like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, and He did not open His mouth. But in His second coming, He is going to deal out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thess. 1:8-9). “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!” (Heb. 10:31).
- Love Christ. Psalm 2:12 says, “Kiss the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!” Kiss the Son. Worship the Son. Love the Son. He is your only hope to escape the wrath of God. God’s wrath is building, like water rising in a dam. It is going to keep rising higher, and higher, and higher. God is very long-suffering. But He will not suffer long forever. One day, the dam is going to break! Christ has already provided your escape. The cross of Christ is the answer! Flee from the wrath to come, by fleeing to Christ. If you are not a Christian, flee to Christ and love Him! If you are a Christian, love Jesus! He is the only reason you will not face God’s eternal wrath!
- Preach Christ. If it is true that the whole world are by nature children of wrath, and that God’s wrath is going to fall on them, and that Jesus Christ is their only way of escape, then why in the world are we not preaching Christ?! Every day we should pray for opportunities to tell others about Christ and His gospel. Jude tells us in vs. 23, “save others, snatching them out of the fire.” Are you doing your part to snatch others out of the fire? To direct them to Christ, who alone can avert God’s wrath that will surely come on them?
Lord stir us up this very day to fear You, to love You, and to preach You! Jesus Christ, You are our All in All! We worship at Your feet.
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