Wrath and Grace

I’ve been thinking about God’s character in new ways lately as I try to navigate the symbolic waters of Ezekiel with the Holy Spirit’s help. It’s slow going, but I’m seeing things from a completely different perspective this time around.

Ezekiel was called to tell the exiles that things were about to go from bad to worse in their lives. The first two waves of captives were not going home anytime soon, and destruction was imminent for the city of Jerusalem, the crowning jewel and capital of the Jewish nation of Judah.

Ezekiel wasn’t the only one to receive this message to pass along from God, but his visions and prophetic utterances were particularly harsh and vivid. Take a look at one example:

²⁸ "And you, son of man, prophesy and say, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says about the Ammonites and their insults:

" 'A sword, a sword,

drawn for the slaughter,

polished to consume

and to flash like lightning!

²⁹ Despite false visions concerning you

and lying divinations about you,

it will be laid on the necks

of the wicked who are to be slain,

whose day has come,

whose time of punishment has reached its climax.

³⁰ Return the sword to its scabbard.

In the place where you were created,

in the land of your ancestry, ?

I will judge you.

³¹ I will pour out my wrath upon you

and breathe out my fiery anger against you;

I will hand you over to brutal men,

men skilled in destruction.

³² You will be fuel for the fire,

your blood will be shed in your land,

you will be remembered no more;

for I the LORD have spoken.' " (Ezekiel 21:28-32)

Swords drawn for slaughter. Blood being shed. Brutal men skilled in destruction. Doesn’t it sound more like Rambo should make an appearance? Yet God states over and over again, “I the LORD have spoken”. This is the Bible, not Hollywood.

So how do we reconcile these images with the gentle and humble character of Jesus? Has one aspect of God’s character given way to its antithesis? Was God’s wrath all spent on Jesus when He died on the cross so that it no longer exists?

While it is true that Jesus absorbed the just wrath of God and paid the punishment that our sins deserved, God’s wrath did not disappear. He has not changed.

Lest we think that the wrath of God is only a theme in the Old Testament, take a look at how the apostle Paul begins his letter to the Roman Christians, as he introduces his themes and logic around the gospel:

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.” (Romans 1:18-19)

John MacArthur Jr. describes this New Testament wrath by saying,

The gospel message begins with a statement about the wrath of God. Frankly that’s diametrically opposed to most of our evangelistic technique. Most of our contemporary evangelism purposely avoids that theme. We talk about love and we talk about happiness and we talk about abundant living and we talk about forgiveness and we talk about joy, we talk about peace. And we offer people all of those things and ask them if they wouldn’t like to have all of those things. But we really very rarely talk about judgment.¹

Because God is still perfectly holy, sin invokes His anger. His holy character demands that response. But because He is also loving and merciful, He provided Jesus as the propitiation for our sin; He satisfied completely the need for justice and appeased the wrath of a holy God toward His creation.

Jesus showed us the perfect manifestation of God’s love. God’s wrath doesn’t diminish the truth of Jesus’ invitation to those who are hurting or tired in Matthew 11:28-30 – “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” In the same way that a child can be afraid of a parent’s anger in disobedience while still longing for compassion and affection when hurt, we can recognize God’s abhorrence of sin while running to Him in times of trouble for comfort.

And understanding God’s wrath is crucial to fully grasping the full impact of His grace and love. As a diamond sparkles more brightly on black velvet, so God’s grace toward us is highlighted when we understand the magnitude of wrath that has passed over us because of Jesus. The Hebrews in Egypt put the blood of the lamb over their doors so God’s angel of death would spare them. We, too, have the blood of the lamb to turn away the punishment of death for our own sin.

To be clear, God’s wrath toward sin is not parental disappointment at our imperfection. Make no mistake: Jesus’ death and resurrection were completely sufficient to pay the penalty for our sin. We are not responsible for our own forgiveness or for washing away our own mistakes so we can be cleaned up before our Father in Heaven. We are only forgiven because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice.

We are called, however, to participate fully and passionately in the sanctification process – that lifelong endeavor to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. (Ephesians 4:1) Our responsibility is to make every effort to examine our hearts for displeasing roots of sin (Galatians 6:4) and to proactively pursue character qualities that will bring us closer in line with God’s image (2 Peter 1:5-9). His Spirit does the work; we place ourselves in a position to be changed.

So where is God’s wrath these days? Why don’t we see cities engulfed in burning sulfur or massive plagues wiping out entire populations? Do we still need to live in fear of God’s judgment each day?

What if we’re living under a sort of stay of execution? A temporary reprieve from the full outpouring of God’s wrath, if you will. There is some evidence for this:

⁸But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. ⁹The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

¹¹ Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives ¹²as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. ¹³But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

¹⁴So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. ¹⁵Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. (2 Peter 3:8-15)

What if God’s wrath is being stored up for a future time when the enemies of God will feel its full force? What if by waiting to pour out the intensity of His anger over the sin of the generations He is buying us time to repent and come to understand Him more fully? Not only do we understand His love and grace more completely by juxtaposing them against His judgment and hate, but we also can grasp with a new understanding the depth of His love that enables Him to hold back such wrath. I can only fall on my face and worship in gratitude the God who holds back such power to destroy out of some unfathomable love for me.

Is it possible that we are living in some kind of a “peace and mercy sandwich” in God’s celestial timing? Wrath of the Old Testament as one piece of bread. Wrath of the coming age as the other. And we are enjoying the middle season of peace and grace. It may be a cheesy image, but I kind of like it.

For we know that God’s wrath will make an appearance once more. Look at the image given to the apostle Jo

hn in the book of Revelation:

³When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" ⁴Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword…

⁷When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" ⁸I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

⁹When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. ¹⁰They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" ¹¹Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.

¹²I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, ¹³and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. ¹⁴The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

¹⁵Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. ¹⁶They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! ¹⁷For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" (Revelation 6:3-4; 7-17)

The day of their wrath has come, and who can stand? When Jesus returns there will be famine and plague and destruction, like there was in the days of Ezekiel. Is it because God will have discovered new wrath? Will something in the interim have stirred Him up once again to need to pour out vengeance as He once did? No, His anger at injustice is perfectly consistent. It never left. But Jesus stands as our intermediary, absorbing the wrath on our behalf.

So what does all this have to do with us, as we pursue understanding of God’s character and His will? Is there a personal application in here at all?

The point in revealing aspects of God’s character from the Old and New Testaments is not to instill fear of God’s anger in us. The point is to see that God’s inherent nature does not change.

He may choose to respond differently in various seasons of His plan, but His character is the same for all eternity. Perfect love. Perfect wrath. Perfect holiness. Perfect compassion.

We can rely fully on the conviction of the Holy Spirit to reveal sin in our lives that must be addressed. And we can rely fully on the power of the Holy Spirit to cultivate in us a character that pleases God. And we must rely fully on the perfect sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God, on the cross to open the way for us to have relationship with our Father. We’re not capable of that on our own. Nor are we capable of cleaning up our acts and making God love us more. Fear of God’s wrath is not motivation for behavior modification in the Christian.

Understanding God’s character is, however, motivation for a more in-depth understanding of the God we serve and for heartfelt worship and obedience because He is who He is. Look at what the writer of Hebrews told readers:

²⁵See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? ²⁶At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." ²⁷The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

²⁸Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, ²⁹for our "God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:25-29)

A more complete understanding of who God is – in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, through Jesus – is essential to living the Christian life. Both the appreciation of what we’re spared by God’s grace and the urgency of sharing the love of the gospel with those who don’t know God lead us to press more deeply into God, depending on His power and love to change lives, including our own. It is the ultimate in paradoxes to know, love and serve a God who has the power to shake mountains and destroy entire nations while still possessing the capacity to love beyond comprehension and save those who are unworthy.

The ultimate goal in understanding the full range of God’s attributes is stated best in the words of Isaiah:

"Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me" (Isaiah 46:9).

The more we understand about the God who saved us, the more motivated we are to worship Him. That is the ambition of the Christian’s life. To glorify God, and to enjoy him forever, as the Westminster Catechism describes. That includes all aspects of God’s character.

¹ http://www.biblebb.com/files/mac/45-9.htm