God’s Wrath of Love…
- White Stone
- 3 days ago
- 30 min read
Let’s be utmost in the reality of truth as is the baseness of man. We were
made from the dust of the earth. Let truth be brought from there. Biblically
there was no ethnicity in humanity. There was humanness. No sign was
needed as the reflection was of the image of God. Then there was Cain. A
mark was needed to declare something adverse to God. A mark that would
indicate displeasure to God. A mark that was indicative of Esau’s relation to
God’s way as was the mark of Cain. That mark was whiteness! Don’t get
personal…retain reasonableness as a working attitude to come to truth.
Whiteness divides. Separation is the goal of whiteness, and completely
antithetical to the Gospel. From Genesis to Revelation, we see God
reconciling all facets of the relational ecosystem that is creation to each other
and to the Divine in Christ. Jesus summed up all scripture saying, “Love God
and love your neighbor as yourself.” Love and segregation are incompatible;
as are love and black-body racism. The scandal of Jesus’ words is that love
is always located in the real. Love is particular. It is needful of the other; it’s
relational and proximate; never ideological, or theological, or even religious.
May each of us move through this study circumspectly for there will be some
pain to endure. Let us pray for the presence of the Comforter that we not
accept the lowliness of personal reasoning verses the height of spiritual
vision. My emerging sense is that we cannot separate love of self from love
of neighbor or from love of God. These three loves are interpenetrating,
interanimating, inseparable… perichoretic, maybe? That means referring to
the relationship of the three persons of the triune God - Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit to one another. If you were to really love your neighbor, you would
be loving God and yourself. If you were to really love God, you would be
loving yourself and your neighbor. Moreover, if you were truly able to love
yourself, you would already be loving God and loving your neighbor, so…
“who is your neighbor? We will learn how we all flow in Christ as purposed.
We will learn some of the essence of differences that will serve as a
shockwave to the human senses. Pray for strength to endure. So much more
needs to be said than will be said here; even more needs to be done and
undone. Jesus Christ necessitates a way of holistically loving God by loving
our neighbor as ourself while together discovering how to reconfigure life
spiritually. Humanly speaking, it may seem impossible. “But with God…”
Our intenseness…what must we do to inherit eternal life. We may want to
interrogate our motives as well as our supposed privileges before we start to
follow Christ. Here is a statement that must be applied generally, yet can be
personally applicable. All Israel will be saved, but not all are of Israel. Not all
Black or White people are of Israel. I tell you the truth, it will be impossible
for a Black or White person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven based upon
color. Take pause…the proof will be found in the tasting of the fruit as the
amount of evil done in the name of race is staggering and beyond calculation.
Yet with God all things are possible…even the salvation of compliant slaves
and unremitting masters. Let nothing undercut your faith. The cross means
there never can be a claim to the superiority of any people group. Salvation
finds no basis in color or race and God’s love and wrath is not measured with
any human quality. The most highest and commonest factor for God is that
we were each…all created by Him.
How we understand God’s wrath is foundational to how we perceive the
atonement, the end of sin and sinners, Jesus’ intercession, and the other
teachings of truth. If God is anger be kindled toward sin and sinners, ready
to penalize sinners, and if in His holy antagonism against sin, He must be
reconciled, then the atonement necessarily involves appeasement of His
anger. If on the other hand, we are the ones who are hostile, angry, and
fearful of God, and God is wholly love itself, then atonement is about God
winning back our love and trust. And in the latter scenario, then, what is the
nature of God’s wrath of love? God’s love for us is strong as death. Christ’s
love broke through death itself. Think that our love is to be like so. Making us
dead to everything else except God. Even parts between soul and body as
the spirit sours with devout affection upwards though it be clothed in flesh.
Was the atonement sufficient for all? Available to all, on the condition of
faith? If the atonement is definite, is it intended by God to be effective for the
elect? Consider this in light of the truth of election. Election granted, the
question may be framed in this way: when God sent His Son to die, did He
think of the effect of the cross with respect to His elect differently from the
way He thought of the effect of the cross with respect to all others? The
definiteness of the atonement turns on God's intent in Christ's work on the
cross. For God so loved the world…yet all Israel shall be saved.
I John 2:2,15-29
We are to let nothing lessen the truth, alter our vision of God, nor distort the
purpose of God. God has a peculiar and effective love toward His election.
Thus definite atonement is exonerated. God, with perfect knowledge of the
elect, saw Christ's death with respect to the election differently from the way
He saw Christ's death with respect to everyone else. We are never to
introduce disjunctions where God Himself has not introduced them. The
atonement is sufficient for all, yet effective for the election. God loves the
world. But His election are not to love the world. That would be to remain
under God’s wrath. God's love for the world is commendable because it
manifests itself in awesome self-sacrifice; our love for the world is repulsive
when it lusts for evil participation. God's love for the world is praiseworthy
because it brings the transforming gospel to it; our love for the world is ugly
because we seek to be conformed to the world. God's love for the world
issues in certain individuals being called out from the world and into the
family of Christ's followers; our love for the world is sickening where we wish
to be absorbed into the world. But clearly the elect are to love the world in
the sense that we are to go into every part of it and bring the glorious truth
of the gospel to every creature. In this sense we imitate the wholly
praiseworthy love of God for the world.
Concerning the stage of America. Let’s hear how the testimony worded
concern for our understanding of knowledge.
People of Other Cultures
Those close to Christ are lifted above color or caste—He who is closely
connected with Christ is lifted above the prejudice of color or caste. His faith
takes hold of eternal realities. The divine Author of truth is to be up lifted. Our
hearts are to be filled with the faith that works by love and purifies the soul.
The work of the good Samaritan is the example that we are to follow.—
Testimonies for the Church 9:209. PaM 93.1
When the Holy Spirit moves, all prejudice will be melted away and we will
approach God as one brotherhood—When the Holy Spirit moves upon
human minds, all petty complaints and accusations between man and his
fellow man will be put away. The bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness
will shine into the chambers of the mind and heart. In our worship of God
there will be no distinction between rich and poor, white and black. All
prejudice will be melted away. When we approach God, it will be as one
brotherhood. We are pilgrims and strangers, bound for a better country, even
a heavenly. There all pride, all accusation, all self- deception, will forever
have an end. Every mask will be laid aside, and we shall “see Him as He is.”
There our songs will catch the inspiring theme, and praise and thanksgiving
will go up to God.—The Review and Herald, October 24, 1899. PaM 93.2
Societal distinctions should become contemptible—The cross of Calvary
should make the distinctions of society fade away and become contemptible.
If the Lord is so gracious as to accept sinners from the white race, and forgive
their sins, holding out to them the assurance of the higher life, the hope of a
place in the redeemed family when he comes in the clouds of heaven, and
the righteous dead rise from their grave to meet Him, will he not accept
sinners from the black race, and will He not forgive their sins? Does He not
hold out to them the same hope that He holds out to the white race? Will He
not, if they believe on Him, receive them as His sons and daughters? Will He
not raise them from ignorance and degradation by the working out of His
plan? Does He not, through the instrumentality of the more favored white
race, who claim to be children of the same Father, wish to uplift and ennoble
them?—Manuscript 70, 1902. (Quoted in Spalding and Magan Collection,
220, 221.) PaM 93.3
Racial separation is not permanent—Walls of separation have been built up
between the whites and the blacks. These walls of prejudice will tumble down
of themselves, as did the walls of Jericho, when Christians obey the Word of
God, which enjoins on them supreme love to their Maker and impartial love
to their neighbors.... Let every church whose members claim to believe the
truth for this time, look at this neglected, downtrodden race, that as a result
of slavery have been deprived of the privilege of thinking and acting for
themselves.—The Review and Herald, December 17, 1895. PaM 93.4
We dare not ignore existing racial prejudice—I am burdened, heavily
burdened, for the work among the colored people. The gospel is to be
presented to the downtrodden Negro race. But great caution will have to be
shown in the efforts put forth for the uplifting of this people. Among the white
people in many places there exists a strong prejudice against the Negro race.
We may desire to ignore this prejudice, but we cannot do it. If we were to act
as if this prejudice did not exist we could not get the light before the white
people. We must meet the situation as it is and deal with it wisely and
intelligently.—Testimonies for the Church 9:204. PaM 94.1
The work must not be hindered through prejudice caused by national
customs—There must be a firm determination on the part of our laborers to
break with the established customs of the people whenever it is essential to
the advancement of the work of God. The work might be much farther
advanced in Europe if some of those who have embraced the truth were not
so wedded to the habits and customs of nationalities. They plead that the
efforts of our ministers must be made to conform to these customs and
prejudices, or nothing will be accomplished. This has had a binding influence
upon the work from its commencement. The effort that has been made to
conform to English customs, to eat and drink English, to dress and sleep
English, has circumscribed the work, and it is now years behind what it might
have been. The effort to keep bound about by French customs and ideas
has hindered the work in France. My heart aches as I hear our brethren say,
Such an one does not understand how to labor for these nationalities. Does
not God know what the people need? and will He not direct His servants? Is
not the truth one? Are not the teachings of the Bible one? Let God give His
messengers the word to speak, and His blessing will not fail to attend their
labors.—The Review and Herald, December 8, 1885. PaM 94.2
We must not build up separate interests between different nationalities—I felt
urged by the Spirit of God throughout the meetings to impress upon all the
importance of cultivating love and unity. I tried to present the danger of
building up separate interests between different nationalities.—The Review
and Herald, November 3,
As a forenote to the knowledge that is intended to further our faith in the word
and purposes of God please consider receiving this plate of offering in its
fullness. It will be your choice to break away momentarily to verify what is
written here…but please read Revelation 22:18 and 19, that your
consideration may be founded in the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This
forenote is not intended to preempt any purposes of God for He alone
determines all things. There was and may still be effective a “theophobia”
introduced into the world by a people not chosen. Ironically, the intention of
this introduction was for instilling the fear of God’s wrath into a people called.
Now if you are on the path where both lamp and light are valued, you may
do the “google” thing and research “The Commonwealth Bible” compiled in
1807. If you are one of the few who study to show themselves approved of
God you will note the very specific peculiarities of the entirety of the texts.
Why are chapters 4 and 5 removed from Genesis? And why is the book of
Obadiah taken away? And The Revelation? Curious for thought or reasoned
for wisdom…
Too many will have this thought…I know God is love and He gives me choice.
So if I choose to deny Him why would He not allow me in heaven?
Conscious and hardened resistance to the truth leads man away from
humility and repentance, and without repentance, there can be no
forgiveness. That is why “the sin” cannot be forgiven since one who does not
acknowledge his sin does not seek to have it forgiven. That is why Lucifer
fell! Jesus makes clear that denying Him is a serious problem. Confess Him
before men, He will confess you before his Father. Deny Him…
The relationship with God is affected. Turning the love that belongs to Him
alone and pointing it inward toward ourselves is the ultimate consequence of
sin, this rejection of God and rebellion against Him, is death.
Oh, I will ask now that we pause and read the entirety of Psalms 107.
We shall be altogether astonished at the superiority of the bible. The bible to
us is quite infinitely wiser than every source brought forth by man, on this
matter, as on others, it is so much more straight forward, and yet so much
more deep; so much more rational also, and so much more true: agreeing
so much more with the facts which we see happen round us: agreeing so
much more with our own reason, experience, inward conscience, about what
is just and unjust. God will punish sin. To reason with God is to discover that
the truth of punishment is not to torment but to reform. But then the thought
would come - why, after all, should God, if He be just and merciful, punish
my sin by pain and misery? How can it profit God, how can it please God, to
give me pain? Because it satisfies His justice? How can it do that? It would
not satisfy mine. God has no passioned pleasure in the death of man. God
rathers that man turn from wickedness and live. The thought would come
into the mind of a wise and serious man is that because God loves me, He
desires that I may be a partaker of His holiness. As soon as that blessed
thought rises in any man's mind, by the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit, all
the world would begin to look bright and clear and full of hope. This earth,
with all its sorrows and sufferings, is the blessed purpose of God to show
forth His love for the deliverance of His people. God goes on to those who
have brought themselves into poverty and shame, who sit bound in misery.
This is man’s falling. We have brought it on ourselves by rebelling against
the word of the Lord, and lightly regarding the counsel of the Most Highest.
But God does not hate us. God is not going to leave us to the net which we
have spread for our own feet. When we cry unto the Lord in our troubles, He
hears us in our distress. God Himself, by strange and unexpected ways, will
deliver us from our darkness of ignorance and sin, and from the danger and
misery which we have brought upon ourselves.
Then He goes on to those who have injured their health by their own
foolishness, till their soul abhors all manner of reckoning with the word of
God, and they are even hard at death's door. Neither does God hate them.
They, too, are in God's school-house. And when they cry to the Lord in their
trouble, He will deliver them, too, out of their distress, and send His word,
and heal them, and save them from destruction.
Then He goes on to men who are exposed to danger, and terror, and death
in their lawful calling; and his instance is the seamen, the airmen, those in
foreign lands, those who go on to the sea in ships, move in the skies, and
occupy their business in desert places who do the services for homebound.
The storms come up, they know not when or how: but they are not the sport
of a blind chance; they are not the victims of the wrath of God. The wild sea,
turbulent winds, dry grounds too, are His school-house. And wonder with
those who have been blessed to wander in the heights of the second heaven,
to view by sight purposed to give eyes to their faith as they look upon the
circle of the earth from ships in the space of darkness where they are to see
the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the depth of understanding; and
so, by strange dangers and strange deliverances, learn, as many of us have
seen times of learning, needing a courage and endurance, a faith, a
resignation, which puts those in comfortable places to shame.
Then He goes on to even a deeper matter -- to those terrible changes in
nature, so common today, in which whole territories, by earthquake, flood, or
drought, are rendered worthless and barren. They too, he says, are God's
lessons, though sharp ones enough. 'He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and
the water-springs into dry ground; a fruitful land into barrenness, for the
wickedness of them that dwell therein. Again, He turneth the wilderness into
a standing water, and dry ground into water-springs. And there He maketh
the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation; and sow the
fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.'
Lastly, He goes on to political changes, which bring a whole nation low, into
oppression and misery. 'They are minished and brought low through
oppression, affliction and sorrow. He poureth contempt upon princes, and
causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way. Yet setteth
he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. The
righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.
Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the
loving- kindness of the Lord.'
And so, in all the changes of this mortal life, he sees no real chance, no real
change, but the orderly education of a just and loving Father, whose mercy
endureth for ever; who chastens men as a father chastens his children, for
their profit, that they may be partakers of his holiness, in which alone is life
and joy, health and wealth. Surely, here is the gospel, good news; news so
good, that it turns what seems to the superstitious the worst of news, into the
very best. For it seems at first sight the worst of news that tells us, that our
original sin, in every person born into this world, deserves God's wrath and
damnation. And so, it would be the worst of news, if God were merely a
judge, inflicting so much pain and misery for so much sin, without any bidding
to mend us and save us. But if we remember only the blessed message of
this psalm; if we will remember that God is our Father; that God is educating
us; that God hath neither parts nor passions; and that, therefore, God's wrath
is not different or contrary to His love, but that God's wrath is His love in
another shape, punishing men just because He loves men; -- then the word
always will bring us the very best of news. We shall see that it is the best
thing that can possibly befall us, that our sin deserves God's wrath and
damnation, and that it would have been the worst thing which could possibly
have befallen us, if our sin had not deserved God's wrath and damnation.
For if our sin had not deserved God's anger, then He would not have been
angry with it; and then He would have left it alone, instead of condemning it,
and dooming it to everlasting destruction as He has done purposefully; and
then, if our sin had been left alone, we should have been left alone to sin and
sin on, growing continually more wicked, till our sin became the ruin which
untold numbers will see. But now God hates our sin, and loves us; and
therefore He desires above all things to deliver us from sin, and burn our sin
up in the heat of His truth. This unquenchable fire of truth is not a passive
act. If we be not spiritually assertive then we ourselves may be burned up
therein. For if our sins live, we shall surely die: but if our sins die, then, and
then only, shall we live.
Do these words seem strange to some of you? I doubt not that they will: but
if they do, that will be only a fresh proof to me, that the word of God is inspired
by the Holy Ghost. Yes, nothing shows me how wide, how deep, how wise,
how heavenly the bible is, as to see how far average persons are behind the
bible in their way of thinking; how the salvation which it offers is too free for
them, the love which it proclaims too wide for them, the God whom it reveals
too good for them: so that they shrink from taking the word and trusting the
author, in the fulness that is therein; and are perpetually falling back on
heathen notions -- the very old heathen notions from which this psalm
delivers us -- concerning what God's anger means, and what God's
punishment means; because they are afraid of taking the words of scripture
literally and fully spiritual, and believing honestly the blessed truth, that God
is Love. They try to make God's ways as their ways, and God's thoughts as
their thoughts. But do not you do so. Receive the word in its fulness. Believe
that it tells you infinitely more of God's character and dealings, than you can
ever tell yourselves; that God's ways are not as your ways, nor God's
thoughts as your thoughts, even at their best: but that God's ways are always
wider and deeper than yours, were you the most learned of men; God's
thoughts are always more loving and just than yours, were you the most holy
of men, and that when you have learned all that you can learn, or that any
man can learn, out of the bible, there will be still left behind treasures beside,
which you have not yet found out. For the riches of Christ are unsearchable;
like the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, whose
only-begotten son, and perfect likeness, he is; and the man who reads the
scripture with a single eye, and an humble heart, will see that the more he
finds in the word, the more he has yet to find; and that if he studied it to all
eternity, he would have fresh and fresh cause for ever to cry - oh give thanks
to the Lord! Both God’s love and God’s wrath are proclaimed in the truth
of the word.
The truth does not lie in one or the other, not does the truth lie between them,
with each moderating the other. Both are proclaimed absolutely by God. We
find God’s love and God’s wrath in the teachings of Christ.
Matthew 5:22, 29,30;10:28; 11:23
Luke 12:5; 10:15
Matt 18:8,9; 23:15, 23
Mark 9:43-49
We should fear God as judge and trust him as Father. God is both
just and loving: God judges those who turn from him, and he cares for those
who turn to him. The better revelation is that where God is Judge, He is also
Savior. We must be most attentive to the word and not drift away. Because
God is holy, and he so loves us that he sends his holy Son to die in our place
and take the punishment, judgement and wrath as our substitute; to sanctify
and make holy his people. He makes a holy covenant with us, and indwells
us by his Holy Spirit. This is astonishing and essential! If we are in Christ we
are holy in him—with his holiness. If we are not in Christ, we are not holy. If
we are in Christ, we are with God. If we are not in Christ, we are without God.
The Father and Son are both wrathful toward sin, and both loving toward
sinners. The fact that we were reconciled through Christ’s death must not be
understood as if his Son reconciled us to him that he might now begin to love
those whom he had hated. Rather, we have already been reconciled to him
who loves us, with whom we were purposed electionally. Father, Son, and
Spirit are one God with an undivided nature. They share the same holy wrath
and same gracious love. There is a day of shocking depiction that is about
to happen. A day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has
appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone. Too many people are
passing judgment on God’s character. Grace and mercy, forgiveness and
salvation, wrath and vengeance, are not understood to be personal attributes
or dispositions in the character of God. Wrath may well be ordained and
controlled by God, but is clearly no part of him…so they think. Divine wrath
is righteous antagonism toward all that is unholy. It is the revulsion of God's
character to that which is a violation of God's will. Indeed, some know of
divine wrath as a function of divine love. For God's wrath is his love for
holiness and truth and justice. It is because God passionately loves purity
and peace and perfection that his anger is kindled toward anything and
anyone who defiles them. Would a God who took as much pleasure in evil
as He did in good be a good God? Would a God who did not know of the
adversity of evil in His world be morally perfect? Surely not. But it is precisely
this determined response to evil, which is a necessary part of moral
perfection, that the bible has in view when it speaks of God's wrath. Think
about this for just a moment. If you and I do not deserve to suffer divine wrath
for our sins, we empty God’s forgiveness of its meaning. If there is no such
thing as judgment, God ought to overlook our sin. Forgiveness is real and
meaningful only when we believe that our sin has put us into a situation
where we deserve to have God inflict upon us the most serious
consequences for our unbelief and immoral behavior. When a situation
demands that God should take action against sinful people in judgment and
instead he takes action for them, the word grace actually means something.
But if there is no such thing as the judgment of God’s wrath for sin and
unbelief, grace loses all meaning and significance. With spiritual reasoning
considering the Creator of the universe and the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, if our knowledge does not include a healthy confession that he is holy
and righteous and will pour out wrath and judgment on those who persist in
their rejection of him, it is unbiblical and unrealistic knowledge. In fact, it is
an unloving understanding. For if we communicate to non-believers that they
should repent and believe the gospel, but if they don’t, “aw, don’t worry about
it, God will figure out a way to embrace you in spite of your unbelief,” we are
treating that person with contempt. We are leaving them vulnerable to eternal
damnation with the false hope of a God who is too loving ever to consign
anyone to hell. The love of God provides escape from the wrath of God by
sacrificing the Son of God to vindicate the glory of God in forgiving sinners.
That's the gospel truth. But for those who spurn the provision of God’s love
in Christ there is only a fearful expectation of the wrath of the judgment of
God. We have no apology for God’s wrath. We are not embarrassed by
God’s wrath. If the God of the bible is unmoved by and indifferent toward
racism and perversion and rape and dishonesty, he’s not worthy of anyone’s
praise. Righteous anger against sin is absolutely essential to God being God.
Judgment against human wickedness and wrath poured out on unrepentant
rebels is part of what it means to be holy. God’s faithful chosen will not ignore
or tip-toe around what the word says on this matter in order not to offend
people.
The God of the Bible, the only true God, is indescribably patient and kind and
compassionate and loving and gracious and merciful. God is holy and
righteous and just. The wrath and righteous anger of God is filled with
descriptions of God’s compassion and longsuffering and mercy and tender-
hearted ways. We thank God for his wrath. Else the unrepentant might never
be called to account for their deeds and never face the judgment that
reconciles God’s creation to His purposed eternal plan. We must always
praise and glorify God for his amazing grace that has made it possible for us
to be spared this wrath. His wrath has been poured out on Jesus and
altogether satisfied for those who put their trust in him as Lord and Savior.
We are among the perpetrators of evil and abuse and wickedness in the
earth, but if we look to God’s mercy for us in the death of Jesus we will find
forgiveness. God’s wrath wasn’t set aside or ignored when it comes to the
sins of world. It was revealed from heaven. It was fully and finally and forever
poured out on his Son, who endured for us what we otherwise would have
suffered. That’s love abounding. That’s the true love of the Lord. It is not the
absence of His judgment or wrath. It is the many opportunities He gives us
to choose Him—to choose eternity in heaven. The love and wrath of God
can be reasoned with this thought…God gives His wrath by weight, but His
mercy without measure.
God is so God that His love is the incomparable conjunction of love and
wrath. It sounds the truth of o’death, where is thy sting? It is the wonder of
the mystery of the commingling of the Father's love and wrath in His dealings
with the Son on the cross. Never can be visioned the wrath of love as is
God’s until you see Jesus losing the infinite love of the Father out of His
infinite love for us. It will melt your hardness. But for those of us who are of
the faith of Jesus, we are not disheartened. We have this strong focus on the
simultaneity of the manifestation of the Father's eternal love and divine wrath
directed to the Son when He hung on the cross. The Father loved the Son
with infinite and immutable love because he did not cease to be the only
begotten Son, and the infinite love necessarily flowed out from the very
relationship that he essentially and immutably sustained to God his Father.
We must distinguish between the two kinds of love that the Father has for
the Son. The first is that immutable, infinite love that flows out from the Father
to the Son because of the intrinsic relationship that they sustain to one
another. The second is the love of complacency that flowed out with
increasing intensity to the Son because of His fulfillment of the Father's
commission. This second kind of love that the Father had for the Son is
captured in the words of Christ; therefore doth my Father love me, because
I lay down my life, that I might take it again. From this, we must conclude that
the Father loved the Son incarnate the most, precisely at the moment when
he was voluntarily laying down His life in connection with the command of
His Father in the counsels of eternity. Every detail of the suffering endured
by the Son constrained the love and delight of God the Father because it
was all endured by the Son in obedience to the Father's will and - in the
performance of the Father's will - the Son committed no sin.
This is that which is the incomparable conjunction at the cross - an unheard
of conjunction: infinite love and divine wrath. The Son becomes the object of
the commingling of the love of the Father and the unmitigated wrath of the
Father. The essence of sin's curse and judgment, is the wrath of God. So, if
Jesus bore sin and if he bore our curse and if he was made sin, then the
vicarious fearing of the wrath of God belongs to the very essence of his
atoning accomplishment. Here we see that the doctrine of propitiation is of
the very essence of the truth of the Worded Gospel of truth. The truth is that
it is just because the Son was the object of this immutable, infinite, and
unique love that he could at the same time be the subject of the wrath of
God...
It was only because the Son was the object of the Father's unique and
immutable love that He could be thus abandoned. No other would be equal
to it. Those who will be lost in perdition will be abandoned eternally, but not
one of them will be able to of have occasion to say, "My God, My God, why
hast thou forsaken me?" The abandonment of Christ on Calvary's tree was
abandonment in pursuance of the commission given him by the Father in the
Determinate Counsel of purpose by election, and it was abandonment with
the unparalleled effect of ending that abandonment. And because it was
abandonment with this result, it was abandonment with inimitable agony and
reality. The determinate purpose of the Father's love was the explanation for
the spectacle of the Son's death. But the love that the Father bore to the Son
did not diminish the severity of the ordeal that creates this spectacle - the
ordeal of the cross and the abandonment vicariously born. The Father's love
for those for whom the Son bears His wrath is set against the background of
this wondrous conjunction of the Father's love and wrath directed to the Son.
The Father loved His people with such invincible love and purpose that he
executed the full toll, the full stroke, of our condemnation upon His own
Son. That is the Father's love!
This revelation of the reality of the Determinate Counsel’s reasoning should
cause us amazement…the amazement of believing this adoring wonder.
When we come to understand that the Father loved the Son the most while
making the Son the object of His full and unfettered wrath - as He stood in
our place as our substitutionary sacrifice - our hard hearts are smelted by
the refiner. It is the "incomparable conjunction" of the Father's love and wrath
directed to the Son that enables believers to grasp something of the
greatness of the love that the Father has for us. The wrath of God is His
displeasure against sin and evil. It is God’s just and righteous response of
judgment against sin, apostasy, unfairness, and injustice both within and
without the community of God’s people. In the end, God is just and the
justifier of those who have faith.
Of what is the significance of divine wrath? This is the time in which the
existence of sin is often denied. This is rendered by the exclusion of the truth
of God to accommodate people in their spiritual deception. The real tragedy
is that nearly all have lost much of the knowledge of God, against whom we
have sinned. Most do not even feel that they have much to repent of,
because they’re not always sure about just how much they have offended
God with their sins. They want grace without the cross, forgiveness without
repentance. Herein justifies God’s anger…without anger, even we would
watch abuse and fail to understand the seriousness of what was happening.
Divine wrath is when divine love becomes angry. For divine love doesn’t
dismiss sin, but deals with it in judgment. It must be remembered that God’s
purpose in executing judgment is redemptive. While in judgment sin is
punished, in His holy love judgment seeks to eradicate sin and establish
holiness. God’s wrath is holiness’ response to sin. Holiness is repulsed at
sin and must deal with it. Judgment is God’s holiness in opposition to
sin. God’s love redeems in the midst of judgment to establish his
holiness. Divine wrath is anchored in holy-love. His love is so great He at
the cross dealt with sin in his Son. At the cross we see judgment upon sin
and the redemptive love of God from sin. The judgment of God is an aspect
of His love. God’s judgment and love are not opposed to one another, for
there can exist no true love without judgment on sin. God is not passive in
the face of sin, but is actively opposed to evil. God’s wrath against sin arises
out of His nature of holy-love.
Found in the character of God is the expression of wrath. Man was placed in
a perfect environment, walked in harmony with his holy and loving
Creator. By his own choice, man deviated from God’s moral order and sin
entered the world. All creation was thrown out of balance. When that balance
was violated the fall of man and a fallen creation resulted, and it threw our
existence on earth out of kilter with God in its highest effect and the
resounding collision within every aspect of our relations with nature,
especially with the varieties of cultures that resulted in the perverted,
distorted, and aberrant behavior among those whom are to be considered
human. The widespread effect of the fallenness of humanity, results in the
expression of God’s “wrath” being manifest against “fallenness.” How is
God’s wrath expressed in love? Wrath as cause and effect of violating of
God’s holiness and moral order was met with mercy and forgiveness. Wrath
in the character and nature of God who actively opposes sin was wrapped in
the flesh of Christ. Wrath in Christ’s great work on the cross offered
redemption to all. And wrath as the consuming outpouring of God’s judgment
upon unrepentant sin and sinners will see His chosen saved. It is the insight
of a deeper sense of the solemn holiness of the love of God that meets us to
understand that God’s wrath is a right and necessary reaction to evil. It
reveals to us that right and wrong objectively exists, and points us to the
consequences of our actions and need of repentance. God brings about
situations through circumstances in order to bring men to repentance. In this
is God’s act of love to persuade men to repent of their sin which separates
them from the His grace and mercy. God can and does use situations in order
to bring wayward sinners unto Himself and bring about purposes which are
beyond our finite minds to grasp.
God’s wrath is a present reality. It is the steadfast opposition against all sin.
In that is His extending love in restoring holiness and order to a fallen world.
We are to study God’s judgments as a foretaste of events more horrific to
come as revealed. The judgments should arouse and alert our hearts to look
for the remedy of sin in Christ Jesus. On the cross we see both God’s love
and God’s wrath. On the cross our sin was dealt with, and grace is extended
to all who will come and kneel before the finished work of Christ and receive
God’s redemptive provision. It is at the cross we grasp the horror of our sin
and holiness’ judgment against sin, but in worshipful thanksgiving we see
demonstrated the vastness of God’s loving grace in His provision for our sin.
The many, due to lack of reasoning, will find it difficult to reconcile God’s
divine wrath and divine love. But we affirm the doctrine of God’s wrath, for if
we do not, we strip God’s love of its biblical balance and power. When sin
and divine wrath are taken seriously, highlighted is the enormous cost God’s
love paid to secure our redemption. Understanding and acknowledging these
contrasting solutions of divine love and wrath results in our exclaiming, what
a Savior!”
God’s love is so deeply woven into the fabric of truth, that if human love
toward God and for one another were our response the bible story would be
completed. Whereas God’s love is comprehensive, that which we can muster
up is but a sketch. God is not a God of human emotions or human actions.
God’s perspective views the perfectness of all things accountable to Him for
being. God is righteous, not irrational. Weigh His patience with us to come
to Him. Measure His foremost mercy in sustaining us. Notice how He prefers
to chastise rather than punish. Unrighteousness has consequences. And
though it is the love of God that is the power of His sovereignty, He is so
loving that He permits our sin to judge us. The bible speaks of the wrath of
God in high-intensity language. The bible includes some of the most violent
expressions of God's wrath found in all literature. When biblical evidence is
ignored people will tumble into fresh errors that touch the very holiness of
God. Love is a perfection of God. Wrath is a function of God’s perfect love.
Divine wrath is the right and righteous response of God to sin. Put
positively, wrath, in perfect harmony with all of God’s divine attributes, is
God's holy action of retribution towards those whose actions deserve
reckoning. Love is always…it is God. Wrath results from sin…it will cease.
Where God in His holiness confronts His image-bearers in their rebellion,
there must be wrath. Otherwise, God is not the jealous God He claims to be,
and His holiness is impugned. The price of diluting God's wrath is diminishing
God's holiness. We must never lessen any truth of God. God has nothing but
hate for sin, but this cannot be said with respect to how God sees the sinner
as he stands. Though we be of all who have sinned, God hatest the workers
of iniquity. For this the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor the
sinners in the congregation of the righteous. Please do not be caught up in
cliches – cleanliness is next to godliness…God loves the sinner but hates
the sin. Those are false faces. The wrath of God rests on both the sin and
the sinner.
Romans 1:18-23; 1:24-32; 2:5
John 3:36
God’s wrath is an entirely reasonable and willed response to offenses
against His holiness. At the same time His love wells up amidst His
perfections and is not generated by the loveliness of the loved. Thus, there
is nothing impossible about wrath and love being directed toward the same
individual or people at once. God in His perfections must be wrathful against
His rebel image-bearers, for they have offended Him; God in His perfections
must be loving toward His rebel image-bearers, for He is that kind of God.
Both the fulness of God’s love and the fulness of God’s wrath will come to a
resounding climax as at the cross in the last day. God loved us so much that
He sent His Son. Perfectly mirroring His Father's words and deeds, the Son
stood over against us in wrath displaying vividly when sinners will call for
rocks to fall and hide them "from the wrath of the Lamb," and yet He was
obedient to His Father's commission, offering Himself on the cross. He did
this out of love both for His Father, whom He obeys, and for us, whom He
redeems. Thus, God is necessarily both the subject and the object of
propitiation. He provides the propitiating sacrifice, He is the subject, and He
Himself is propitiated, He is the object. That is the glory of the Cross.
Love and justice, goodness and holiness, grace and wrath are not opposites.
They are complementary. Ultimately, they are interdependent. Love without
justice is mere sentimentalism. Justice without love is sheer vindictiveness.
In God, however, steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and
peace kiss each other. Love seeks justice for those loved. Justice protects,
avenges, and vindicates those loved. The cross of Christ is the perfect
expression of both the love of God who saves unworthy sinners and the
justice of God who requires that a just price for salvation be paid. There is a
perfect harmony between the attributes of God. He is spirit, undivided,
triunely singular, uncompounded. He is One, without body, parts, or
passions. However man refers to God’s attributes they are but the Divine
Essence of God…inseparable. Reasoning the essential unity of the divine
attributes, what we can say about the relationship between what we perceive
to be the softer and harsher expressions of His character, between love and
wrath, between mercy and justice is this – God is love!
Now reason this – God is love, yet more than love. Why? Because the
equation cannot be reversed. So we can see God’s wrath of love. The God
who is love is also “faithful” and “just”. Though God is infinitely benevolent,
infinite benevolence is not all of God. God’s love is a just love, and His justice
is a loving justice. We must not allow one attribute to overwhelm and nullify
the rest. God is as severely just as if He had no love, and yet as intensely
loving as if He had no justice. God’s love is not and cannot be blind and
indulgent. God’s expression of love is more revealing of His inclination, or
the direction of His nature, more a manifestation of His preference, than is
the expression of His wrath. What we say of God’s attributes should always
be expressed with humility. However much we have voiced, there is always
more to be said. The finite cannot know the infinite comprehensively or
exhaustively. Yet we can know God truthfully, and we can speak where the
bible speaks, as it reveals a God who is both love and just, the monument to
which we have at Calvary. We consider the whole weight of scripture. God
has a strange act, yet He will in no way clear the guilty.
📖 Applying the Study
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