FEELING THE WRATH
I want to read to you this morning from a sermon with some very vivid imagery. Imagine someone preaching this material to you and consider your response:
“Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock… There are the black clouds of God’s wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you… Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom: "Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.”
Heavy stuff, isn’t it? This is a small portion of the message that Jonathan Edwards preached to his church in 1741. It is said that Edwards spoke in a monotone voice and when he looked up he stared at the back of the church. Yet the people were enraptured with his words and could almost feel the flames of hell licking at their feet beneath the floorboards. The result was a great revival in the New England area.
Since that time preachers have been very careful how they speak of the wrath of God. To some there is a danger that we are only scaring hell out of people and making frightful converts. To others, speaking of the wrath of God is inconsistent with their God who is loving and merciful. Wrath suggests a loss of self-control or an irrational outburst of anger that is quickly regretted. It may seem like wounded pride or the poor effects of a really bad temper. Surely, we say, it would be wrong to attribute this characteristic to God.
Wrath is defined as an Old English word meaning “deep, intense anger and indignation.” Anger is a strong displeasure due to injury or insult while indignation is a righteous anger aimed at injustice. This is wrath, and the Bible, contrary to how we may feel about it, tells us that God is a God of wrath as well as a God of mercy or love or grace.
If wrath is an attribute of God, why are we afraid to talk about it? If we want to know God we need to acknowledge this part of God’s character. So come, let us feel the wrath of our God…
1. God’s wrath is being revealed
What is at the heart of God’s wrath? How can our loving God also be an angry God? What is his wrath?
Paul wrote that, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness” (Rom 1:18). Paul does not say that God’s wrath “has” been revealed, as if it was a past event, but speaks of it as an ongoing event.
Some who are overzealous in trying to identify God’s wrath in our present times would point to catastrophes such as the hurricane that hit New Orleans. That wicked city was laid low by winds and flooding; surely that was God’s wrath on an immoral place. When an earthquake strikes or a tsunami hits, many believers try to explain this as God’s punishment. Yet Las Vegas is still standing and Amsterdam’s famous red light district and practice of euthanasia has not drawn fire from heaven. So how is God’s wrath being revealed?
In the OT we witness God’s anger at a people’s sin. One of the most vivid descriptions of his anger is seen in Nahum 1:2-8 (read it). Here we read of mountains trembling and cities being flooded and all consuming fire. It is terrible to think of this happening. Did God actually do these things to Nineveh? There is no city known as Nineveh today. What we are really reading here is how God felt. Did God react and abuse his power in anger and wrath and simply lash out? No, God’s wrath in the Bible is never self-indulgent or irritable or set off like a short fuse. His wrath is a right and necessary reaction to moral evil. God is holy and cannot stand sin because he is holy. This is what he expresses through Nahum.
If we say that God is a God of wrath, we are actually confessing that God is a God of love. God would not be loving if he did not react to our evil with wrath. If any of us witnessed an act of cruelty or injustice in our community and did not become angry as a result, we would show a lack of love or concern. God’s wrath then, is not inconsistent with his love; it is an expression of his love. He gets angry when we deliberately disobey, just as any loving parent would.
How then, is his wrath being revealed in our present day? Paul indicates that it is being revealed in the ongoing proclamation of the gospel. When Jesus Christ is presented as the way of salvation and people reject him, God’s wrath is revealed. In the cross we see the wrath of God fully expressed on his own Son, and if people reject Jesus, they are rejecting God’s forgiveness. Worse, Paul says, “…because of your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom 2:5).
2. God’s wrath is justified
What is it that angers God? Clearly sin. Yet that is too simple. What really draws God’s wrath is when we plainly ignore his design for life. He created life and had a plan for how we should live this life. To deny God’s plan is a destructive path.
Since the creation of the world, Paul wrote, it was obvious to humankind that there was a creator. His power and design could be seen throughout our world (vv. 19-20). It is not so much that they knew God but creation indicated that there was a God. Then we read, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (1:21).
The word “futile” means they lost touch with reality. They disconnected with God and as a result disconnected with the meaning and purpose of life. One of the results of this disconnect was misdirected worship; they worshiped idols. They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images. They pictured God as a man, or an animal, or both and worshiped that image, ignoring the very fact that God had made humankind in his image. So they not only turned away from God, they also rejected their own status as image-bearers of the living God. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie.
Another result of disconnect with God is the sin of homosexuality. This incites God’s wrath because it is clearly not in his plan. Verses 26-27 speaks of the exchange of natural relations for unnatural ones; it is the same expression Paul used earlier when humankind exchanged the glory of God for images and his truth for the lie.
Whatever degree we put on this sin, we must acknowledge Paul’s entire list of sins that draw the wrath of God: godlessness, wickedness, suppressing the truth, idolatry, homosexuality, depravity, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slander, God-haters, insolence, arrogance, boasting, disobedience to parents, senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. This list embraces us all, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
3. God’s wrath is something people choose
When we think of ourselves as sinners in the hands of an angry God, we might cry, “Why, Lord, Why?”, as if we didn’t deserve the heavy hand of God. The reality about God’s wrath is that it is something that we choose. We can either experience the favor of God or we can choose to reject God’s goodness and his plan for us.
Three times Paul writes “God gave them over…” (24, 26, 28). What Paul implies is that God allowed them to go their own way in order that they might learn to hate the futility of a life turned away from God and his truth. We must not misunderstand and say that “God gave up” on them; rather, being a God who desires heartfelt worship and human choice in that regard, he allowed them (us) to choose. So God gave them over to their sinful desires, to their shameful lusts, and to a depraved mind, because that is what they wanted. What they wanted is to be separated from God. Therein they experience the wrath of God for to be separated from God is not about flames and brimstone but about being cut off from the God who is life.
John the Baptist outlined the basic choice when he testified about Jesus, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36). The essence of God’s action in wrath is to give people what they choose –nothing more, nothing less.
Again, let us remember, God does not give up on sinners. He may give them over, but he does not give up. His desire is that we would choose to follow Jesus and discover the life that he always meant for us. And only through belief in Jesus can we escape the wrath of God: “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him” (Rom 5:9).
The subject of God’s wrath has been abused by preachers and others who wanted to impose their way on people. Without a tear in their eyes or pain in their hearts for the lost, they flung out judgments and condemnations. These folks have appeared quite self-righteous and I would hate for us to appear that way too.
Why focus on the wrath of God? What good does it do for us to hear this? There are many good reasons for talking about God’s wrath but here are just a few:
To know that God is a God of wrath reminds us that God is a holy God who hates sin. God would cease to be God if he were less than perfect and good; sin is imperfection and moral evil – so sin has no place in the life that God has designed.
To know that God is a God of wrath should make us uncomfortable with sin. It was our sin that put Jesus on the cross where he bore the full brunt of God’s wrath. How can we tolerate sin in our own lives when it literally killed our Lord? Flee immorality; run from sin; do not tolerate it in your personal life. And where necessary, do not tolerate it in your community. God hates sin; we hate sin.
To know that God is a God of wrath is therefore an incentive to live a holy life. That means that we will live a life that honors God and reflects his purposes and designs for a full life.
To know that God is a God of wrath fills us a passion for the lost who are in danger of experiencing God’s wrath on the Day of Judgment. We who know that the day is coming will share the love of God with others more fervently with this knowledge.
It is necessary to speak of God’s wrath, to feel his wrath as it were, and realize how great is His salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.
AMEN
