I Like To Illustrate God's Wrath With A Lit Match ...

I like to illustrate God’s wrath with a lit match and a piece of paper. If I bring the flaming match into contact with the paper, everyone knows what will happen. The flame will consume the paper. This requires no red in the face anger toward the paper. It is simply a law governing these two substances.

In exactly this way, when we speak of God’s wrath, we are not describing red in the face anger such as we might exhibit. No, God in His purity and in His holiness is perfectly at peace. There is no rage in Him. Yet bring unholiness and sin into His presence and His holiness will consume that which is unholy and impure. Sin cannot abide in His presence. There is no compromise between God and sin any more than there can be a compromise between flame and paper.