Erroll Hulse
What exactly are we to understand by the wrath of God? Is this an attribute of God, and if so on what basis does it proceed? In answer to these questions no statement is more definitive than that of the apostle Paul in his introduction to the main theme in his letter to the Romans:
“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).
Compressed in this declaration are the salient points of our inquiry. This wrath is God's wrath. It is being revealed from heaven . Note the present tense. It is being revealed. The judgments of God in history are a testimony of this wrath. Furthermore this wrath is directed against men, but specifically against godless and wicked men, and even more specifically against men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
Further on in the context the apostle explains that it is possible to escape from the wrath of God by faith in Christ who alone has propitiated that wrath (Rom 3:21-26). With that conclusion in view, I open Romans 1:18 as follows:
1. THE PROVOCATION OF GOD'S WRATH— “against all the godlessness and wickedness of men.”
2. THE NATURE OF GOD'S WRATH—“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven.” Wrath emanates from the being or person of God; his ongoing, unchanging reaction to evil.
3. THE WRATH OF GOD EXPRESSED—“God's wrath is being revealed [continually].” Apokaluptetai, is being revealed, is a frequentative present. The manifestations of divine displeasure recur throughout history and a study of these assists our comprehension of the reality of God's wrath.
4. THE PROPITIATION OF GOD'S WRATH— “Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith” (Rom 3:25). The atoning blood of Christ alone propitiates God's wrath and the righteousness of Christ imputed to us secures protection permanently from that wrath.
1. THE PROVOCATION OF GOD'S WRATH
“Against all the godlessness and wickedness of men.”
Ungodliness is really `anti-Godness' and refers to enmity and perversity that is religious in character, a perversity which opens the way to unrighteousness (lawlessness). Godliness acts powerfully as an incentive to righteousness of heart and life. Its absence leaves a vacuum all too easily filled by unrighteousness. Where there is no fear of God, sensual appetites soon drive men to indulge freely in every form of wickedness. The form in which godlessness is most readily manifested is idolatry. In the pagan world this is expressed in the actual service of idols and in bondage to demons associated with those idols. In Western society idolatry takes the form of worldliness, of serving the world in place of God and in “the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does” (1 John 2:16).
Inasmuch as godlessness strikes at the very being and character of God, it provokes his wrath. Paul declares that God's wrath is continually being revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men “who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” This implies that the truth is known by men. They are convicted by it but they hold it down by restraining it or pushing it back. This is true of those who practice wickedness, but it is true in a very special sense of the Jews to whom Paul refers in chapters two and three. The Jews were proud about their knowledge of the truth (Rom 2:20) but they despised that truth in such a way as to arouse our Lord to words of fierce indignation: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to” (Matt 23:13).
All sin has its source in apostasy from God. Sin then develops and increases as God's restraints upon sinners lessen. Finally, all sin has its ultimate consummation in the fire of God's wrath. All the acts of wrath and indignation in this world are but a prelude to the final state of wrath which will be revealed on “the day of God's wrath” (Rom 2:5).
It is not as though wrath rests on sin in the abstract. Most references in Scripture explicitly apply to God's wrath resting upon sinners. “You hate all who do wrong” (Psalm 5:5). There are about 26 instances in Scripture stating God's hatred of sins such as divorce, stealing, idolatry, etc. Of these at least 12 refer to God's hatred of actual sinners in person. We must also observe that every expression of wrath in the history of this world has an eschatological (moving toward the final Judgment) reality. Everything is moving forward to that great day of which the Scriptures constantly speak (Matt 25:31ff; Rom 2:5, 5:9; Eph 5:6; Heb 9:27; Rev 20:11ff ). In that day everything will be revealed and the lake of fire will become a permanent monument to the justice of God.
A tremendous expression of hatred toward God resulting in consequent wrath is expressed in Revelation 20:8,9. All the armies and powers of Antichrist array themselves against the camp of God's people. The united powers of godlessness advance to assault the bride of Christ. As we view the battle we see that while glorious holiness characterises deity, hatred and ugliness mark the enemy. God's wrath is against godlessness—that which wars against him.
2. THE NATURE OF GOD'S WRATH
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven.”
Human punishment, unlike the divine, is variable and inexact. In dealing with crime and punishment we think mostly in terms of reforming the guilty and protecting the innocent. The idea of retribution is not popular. At the final tribunal, divine wrath will be expressed in retribution only. Hell will not be a penitentiary, that is, a place to reform. Incorrigible hardness will characterise the wicked. Punishment in that day will be just retribution.
Magistrates are authorised by God to punish (Rom 13:1-4), but ultimately retribution is asserted in Scripture to be the function of Deity alone. “It is mine to avenge, I will repay, says the Lord” (Rom 12:19, Heb 10:30). The role of conscience is important. While there is no repentance in hell (Rev 16:11), the wrath of God in endless punishment will be supported by the human conscience which will bear witness to and approve the condemning sentence (Rom 2:15,16).
The reality of God's wrath raises the subject of impassibility: we find in our credal statements that “God has not bodily parts or passions.” That forms an important truth designed to circumvent any idea that God is changeable or subject to the moods and turmoil that we mortals experience. Yet it would be disastrous by this to conclude that God is a machine without feeling. He is eternally holy and blessed, and is perfect in his Triune love. We see his feelings expressed in Christ, but it is not possible for us to know how God experientially feels. That he feels in his own immutable and infinite way is a fact, if the statement “God is love” means anything. In our own experience we tangibly feel the love of God as it is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as he is given to us (Rom 5:5). The primary Biblical language is Hebrew. The word aph denotes anger, trembling, snorting (210 times) and chemah means heat, rage, fury, (115 times). Viewed each time in context these words convey the message clearly that God feels passionately about evil. The subject as such obviously needs separate exposition in which the utmost care is needed to safeguard our view of God's immutability and at the same time our sense of relating to God in our understanding of him as a God ever blessed in himself who is love and wrath.
On the subject of wrath and love, Shedd comments:
These two emotions are real and essential in God; the one awakened by righteousness and the other by sin. The existence of the one necessitates that of the other; so that if there be no love of righteousness, there is no anger at sin, and conversely, if there be no anger at sin, there is no righteousness. The necessary coexistence of these opposite feelings towards moral contraries like righteousness and sin is continually taught in Scripture, “Let those who love the Lord hate evil” (Psalm 97:10).[1]
The perfect compatibility of wrath and love is seen in the substitutionary ordeal of Christ. He alone could fulfil the requirements of justice. The burnt offering of Leviticus 1:1-9 was completely consumed by fire. It made “an aroma pleasing to the Lord.” The “pleasing” is a reference to the total satisfaction of righteousness, and does not for one moment mean that God had pleasure in Christ's sufferings. He loathed that (remember Abraham's ordeal with the call to sacrifice Isaac) with perfect loathing, but had pleasure in the vindication of justice and the accomplishment of righteousness represented in his Son's victory. “The pain of the Lamb in body and soul, was so intense that only the combined powers of a divine person could bear it.”[2] “How did his soul boil under the fire of wrath, and his blood leak through every pore of the vessel by the extremity of the flame.”[3]
Since in these essential interests of justice the wrath of God came upon the Lamb we can only conclude that that wrath is a terrible reality.
3. THE WRATH OF GOD EXPRESSED
“God's wrath is being revealed continually.”
As I write this, the mass media are at work to expose to the world's view the atrocities taking place in what used to be Yugoslavia. World opinion has been quickly aroused to demand that action be taken to stop genocide. Scripture speaks plainly of events of this kind and of calamities such as wars, famines, floods, hurricanes and volcanoes. It plainly warns of the facts of God's judgments in history.
The fall of Adam and Eve. The first expression of God's wrath is that which came in inexorable fulfilment of his words, “for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen 2:17). A curse was pronounced on the first sinners, woman in the main orbit of her life and man in his. The ground was also cursed. All the progeny of Adam and Eve in one stroke by their space-time fall became “sinful at birth” (Psalm 51:5). Every person born into this world is guilty of Adam's first sin, is destitute of that righteousness in which Adam was created and is corrupt by nature (Rom 5:12-21). That means every person born into this world emerges as a sinner who accrues guilt and subsequently wrath by the ever multiplying sins he commits.
Delay in the application of punishment pronounced in Genesis 2:17 is seen in a number of ways. Adam did not immediately expire physically. Cain's punishment for the murder of Abel was deferred even though it is evident that he was a reprobate.
The Cainite civilisation described in Genesis 4:16-24 was richly endued with the benefits of common grace and excelled in technical and cultural progress. At the same time it was a prototype of godlessness and humanism.[4]
The deluge of Noah's day. The degeneration of mankind in consequence of the fall has its own commentary in the observation of Jahweh who complained that the inclination of the thought of man's heart was only evil all the time! Sin always brings the reaction of wrath. The LORD declared, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth” (Gen 6:7). The evils of indifference and gross sin characterised Noah's generation. The pursuit of lawful activity, eating, drinking, building, marrying, if followed without God-centred motives incites God's wrath. Increasing crime was also a harbinger of the flood. The earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence, so God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people” (Gen 6:11-13). In alluding to the sin of world-centredness in Noah's day, our Lord declared plainly that a similar state of worldliness will precede His second coming (Luke 17:26).
Sodom and Gomorrah . According to Calvin, the case of Sodom was brought before the attention of Abraham to teach him that the Sodomites justly deserved to be destroyed. “In saying that the `cry was great' he indicates the grievousness of their crimes, because, although the wicked may promise themselves impunity, by concealing their evils, yet their sin will necessarily sound aloud in the ears of God.”[5]
The appalling evil of what has come to be called Sodomy was fully revealed on the night before Lot was removed from the city when “all the men from every part of the city of Sodom, both young and old” demanded to “have sex” with the two angelic visitors (Gen 19:5). Romans 1 shows this particular sin to be an evidence of reprobation, a sign that God has given men over to destruction. Paul says it is impos- sible for a practising homosexual to inherit the kingdom, but some in Corinth did repent of this sin and find salvation (1 Cor 6:9-11).
The case of Sodom teaches us that sins that destroy the institution of the family and make life intolerable for little children invoke God's wrath. The alarming exposure of child sex abuse today surely provokes God's wrath. The sin of the Amorites became unbearable when it reached its full measure at the time when that nation was put to the sword by Israel. The invasion was an act not of war merely, but of justice (Gen 15:16, 1 Kings 21:26—2 Kings 21:11).
The manner in which the cities of the plain were destroyed is not without significance. Their crimes called for an act of indignation which was expressed by fire from heaven, not a fire of annihilation, but a fire of never-ending torment, a fact endorsed by Jude 7: “Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”
Wrath falling on individuals. The wrath of God is continual in expression and universal in application. God is a righteous judge, who expresses his wrath every day. This wrath can be traced in the lives of people like Ahab and Jezebel in the Old Testament; and in the New Testament, Ananias and Sapphira, and then in King Herod, who was struck down when he received adulation, which should be ascribed to the Lord alone; and in modern times in the demise of evil dictators such as Hitler and the Ceaucescus.
Nations and empires. Nations as well as worldwide empires are all weighed in God's balances. Whole sections of the prophetic utterances are devoted to this theme (Isa 13-15, Jer 46-50, Eze 25-32 and Amos 1-2). The burden of Nahum was to show that the time of God's wrath had come for Nineveh because she “enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft” (3:4). For these reasons, “his wrath is poured out like fire” (1:6). Daniel 2 describes God's judgment on four successive proud empires all of which have been totally demolished.
The seven bowls of wrath (Revelation 16). The golden bowls of Revelation 16 are bowls of wrath. Some of the horrors of the judgments described in symbolic fashion in the Apocalypse are with us to a marked degree. Drought, famine and pollution are awful realities. We are constantly plied with questions as to why God permits the dreadful disasters of civil wars (Sudan for 25 years, Mozambique for 16 years, the recent Iran/Iraq conflict, etc); famines (as in Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia); holocausts (Nazi Germany, Russia, and more recently in Campuchea). Isaiah 24:5,6 tells us, “The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt.”
The wrath of God revealed against his covenant people. Privilege brings responsibility. God's covenant as outlined in Deuter- onomy lays great stress on the importance of faithfulness. Fidelity would be rewarded with abundant prosperity. They would “lend to many nations but borrow from none” (Deut 28:11-13). On the other hand disobedience, especially if shown in their service to worthless idols would provoke the jealousy of the Lord and kindle the fire of His wrath (Deut 32:21-24).
Perhaps the allegory of unfaithful Jerusalem recorded in Ezekiel 16 provides the most striking lesson of wrath. This was provoked by Israel's promiscuity and prostitution. Having been picked up from the rubble heap as an infant—cast out in its blood and with its cord still uncut—Jerusalem had been made beautiful by her Saviour and lover. But she had slept with her lustful neighbours on all sides. Hence he says, “I will bring upon you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger” (Ezek 16:38).
The New Testament parallel is to be found in Hebrews chapters 6 and 10. God's justice is commensurate with human responsibility. Those who profess faith, join the church, receive light, teaching, and the benefits of the gospel, and then spurn these privileges will be punished accordingly:
How much more severely do you think that a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, `It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' and again, `I will repay,' and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb 10:29-31).
4. THE PROPITIATION OF GOD'S WRATH
“Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith (Rom 3:25).
Nothing is as profound or so wonderfully effectual as the once-for-all substitutionary sacrifice of Christ to propitiate the wrath of God. So terrible was that wrath that even Christ, who knew all things, when he came to drink the cup said, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Mark 14:34).
In his exposition of Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer.” Manton says:
Hence learn: (1) The heinousness of sin. It cost Christ a life of sorrows and a painful, shameful, accursed death and an amazing sense of the wrath of God to reconcile sinners; (2) The terribleness of God's wrath. It put Jesus Christ upon dying;(3) The greatness of our obligations to Christ in condescending to bear God's wrath; (4) That we must be willing to suffer anything for Christ. Since he endured the anger and wrath of God for us, shall we not endure the anger and wrath of men for his sake?[6]
To propitiate (from the Latin propitiare ) means to appease, render favourable or conciliate. The personal element enters in. An offended person is conciliated. God is propitiated in the sense that his wrath is removed.
The gift of Christ to be our propitiation is the fullest expression and proof of the love of God. “This is love: not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Here is effectual love, a love determined to save, a love that would go so far as to transfer wrath from those who earned it, to him who so loved us that he was prepared to bear it. On the basis of the same propitiation all benevolent and common grace is exercised, wrath restrained and judgment delayed. “All the favours which even the reprobate receive in this world,” says John Murray, “are related in one way or another to the atonement and may be said to flow from it.”[7]
CONCLUSION
The reality of God's wrath as an attribute—an intrinsic, essential part of His being—should act as a bulwark to resist false teaching and wishful thinking that there is no hell. The actuality of God's wrath as seen in historical acts of judgment should further strengthen us against the influences of ethical liberalism. The truth that God's wrath lies upon men should urge us to share the gospel with them. It is significant that a recession of missionary zeal can be traced to the shift in emphasis away from preaching on this theme which characterised our evangelical forefathers. The propitiation of Christ's cross is in itself a testimony of the reality of divine wrath. That wrath, and the propitiation which silences it, should propel us forward in the full use of all our available resources to evangelize the world.
References
[1] William G.T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, vol. 2, p 726
[2] Hugh Martin, The Atonement, Knox Press, Edinburgh, 1976, p 80
[3] Stephen Charnock, Works, Parsons edn. 1815, vol. 5, p 354
[4] Donald Macleod, `The Cainite Civilization,' Reformation Today no. 32
[5] John Calvin, Genesis, Banner of Truth 1965, p 483
[6] T. Manton, Works, Maranatha PA, USA 1975, vol. 3 p 404
[7] John Murray, The Encyclopedia of Christianity, USA 1964, p 469