One time at work, it had been a hectic day, and I finally found time to eat lunch late in the afternoon. I had brought leftover lasagna. (Leftovers always taste better the next day!). But when I went to the breakroom and opened the refrigerator, my lunch bag was gone! Someone took my lunch! I could not believe it! My lunch bag did show up a week later. Empty!
Have you ever had something taken from you? Has someone lied to you? Or breaking your trust? Has someone intentionally done something wrong to you? All of this is a result of living in a fallen world.
Sin is something the Lord hates. So much so that it invokes His wrath.
“..if God loves all that is right and good and all that conforms to his moral character, then it should not be surprising that he would hate everything that is opposed to his moral character. God’s wrath directed against sin is therefore closely related to God’s holiness and justice. God’s wrath may be defined as follows: God’s wrath means that he intensely hates all sin” (Grudem, 2020)
“But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness” Romans 1:18 NLT.
As believers, we don’t like to think or talk about the wrath of God. Angry outbursts, losing ones’ temper, and being irritable does not seem to fit as an attribute of God. We may have done this ourselves or have witnessed this in others. Whichever the experiences were, they were not pleasant. So how could God be like that?
I like the way J. I. Packer explains this notion of ours.
“There seems to be here a misunderstanding of the anthropomorphic language of Scripture that is, the biblical habit of describing God’s attitudes and affections in terms ordinarily uses for talking about human beings. The basis of this habit is the fact that God made us in his own image, so that human personality and character are more like the being God than anything else we know. But when the Scriptures speak of God anthropomorphically, it does not imply that the limitations and imperfections which belong to the personal characteristic of us sinful creatures belong also to the corresponding qualities in our holy Creator” (Packer,1973)
When we think about the wrath of God, it is nothing like ours. God is not vindictive, petty, falsely accusing people, or irritable like humanity. God is only angry when it is necessary. Remember, God hates sin, so His wrath is just because of His goodness and moral character.
One would only experience God’s wrath if they did not accept his gift of redemption.
“For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.” Romans 3:25-26 NLT
Understanding the wrath of God makes us even more aware of God’s grace and mercy. God’s wrath shows us why we need a Savior. We sinned against God, and God took the first step to correct our sins against Him.
God will punish sin when the time comes, but let’s also remember that “The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever.” Psalms 103:8-9 NLT
References
Grudem, W (2020) Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine 2nd Edition
Packer,J.I. (1973) Knowing God
