The God nobody wants

As far back as 1952 when Bill Bright wrote “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” theologians and pastors have focused almost exclusively on God’s love. They have almost completely ignored the major biblical doctrine of the wrath of God. God’s message to the people in Noah’s time was not that God has a wonderful plan for your life! Nor did he have a wonderful plan for the Canaanites or the people of Sodom and Gomorrah or the people of Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s time!

 Deuteronomy, Joshua, First Samuel, Second Kings, Second Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Job, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Micah, Habakkuk and Zephaniah all speak of God’s wrath! In fact, I counted well over 100 references to the wrath of God in the Old Testament (not counting all the examples of that wrath).

 There are those who insist, however, that we must interpret the Old Testament in light of Jesus’ teachings on love (I’m thinking of two scholars in particular but I won’t mention their names). They start by taking Jesus out of his Old Testament/Jewish context, in which Jesus strongly affirmed the Old Testament as his Bible!

 Having taken Jesus out of that Jewish context, they then interpret Jesus’ teachings on love in light of 21st century American culture, and then reinterpret Old Testament teachings on God’s violence and wrath in light of their 21st century view of Jesus’ love. The reality is that in the minds of Jesus and Old Testament writers, there is no conflict between the wrath of God and the love of God.

 In fact, contrary to what most people seem to believe, the wrath of God is not just found in the Old Testament. In Luke 3, John the Baptist asked the crowds, “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” He said that God’s “winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” That’s the wrath of God!

 Jesus warned that it is better to go through life maimed than to be thrown with two hands, feet, and eyes into hell where the “worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” Jesus also warned people not to fear those who could kill the body, but rather to fear God “who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” On numerous occasions he warned of “eternal fire,” and of “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” That’s the wrath of God!

 Everyone knows about how “God so loved the world that he gave his only son,” but most people don’t’ realize that the same chapter that says this, also says “whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on them.”

 Paul also speaks of the wrath of God. In Romans 1 Paul says, “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” In Romans 2:5 Paul says that “because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourselves on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment is revealed.” And in 2:8 he adds, “for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.”

 In Ephesians 5:5-6 Paul mentions immorality, impurity, greed, and idolatry and says, “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience.” In Second Thessalonians 1 Paul talks of a time “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction…” That’s the wrath of God!

 The apostle John also speaks of God’s wrath. Most of the book of Revelation is about the terrible outpouring of God’s wrath but Revelation 14, in particular, refers to those who worship the beast and receive his mark, saying they will “drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath.”

 By focusing only on God’s love, pastors and theologians have lulled an entire generation of people into the false complacency of imagining an all-tolerant, all-accepting God who is OK with their sinful lifestyles. This generation will face God in terror at the final judgment unless they repent!

 But doesn’t all this wrath contradict the doctrine of the love of God? Not at all. We are not free to rip the idea of God’s love out of its broader context and make it mean whatever we want it to mean—as if the love of God means that God would never send anyone to hell, or as if the love of God means that God is perfectly OK with our sinful lifestyles! Nonsense! The Bible itself defines God’s love.

 John 3:16 says “God so loved the world that he gave his only son!” God’s love for humanity is expressed in the giving of his son on the cross! Likewise, in Romans 5:8, Paul says, “God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” The love of God is expressed not in his tolerance for sin, but in the fact that while we were yet sinners, Christ came and submitted himself to torture on a Roman cross to save us from the consequences of our own sin and rebellion.

 An illustration of how that love works is found in the Old Testament book of Exodus. God was about to pour out his wrath on the Egyptians, and even on Jews who rejected him—by slaying every first born. But in love, God provided protection. Sacrifice a lamb as a substitute. Smear its blood over the doorposts of your house and have the lamb for supper. Then don’t leave the house overnight. That’s it. That obedience is how you would show your belief and allegiance to the God of Israel, and God would pass over that house, and everyone inside would be saved from God’s wrath. The New Testament uses that story as an illustration of what Jesus does for us. In First Corinthians 5, Paul says, Jesus is our Passover lamb who was sacrificed for us.

 The idea is that those of us who have repented of our sin and committed our hearts and lives to Jesus in faith, come into his household, through the doorposts smeared with his blood, and remain under his protection from the wrath of God at the final judgment.

 We might use some sanctified imagination and imagine standing before the great judgment seat of God. Satan brings up the whole list of accusations against us—every one of our sinful thoughts, actions, attitudes, and words—and remember, Jesus said we would give account for every thoughtless word we’ve ever spoken! And Satan says, “God, look at this long list! This person rightly deserves to be condemned for their long history of rebellion against you! Turn them over to me!”

 Jesus, our defense attorney, says, Father, I paid their penalty. They are covered by my blood. They are under my protection. And God says, “The penalty is paid. The case is dismissed. Welcome into the joy of your Lord!” That’s what the grace and love of God is all about!

 But those who reject that love, stand outside of Christ’s protection, and will face the terrible wrath of God for their own sin. And by the way, their ultimate sin lies in the fact that although the creator of heaven and earth himself became human and allowed himself to be tortured for them in their place, they treated this unfathomable expression of divine love as if it were nothing, and they go about their lives as if they couldn’t be bothered to return that love. They will face the terrible wrath God. And Hebrews 10:31 warns that “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”