This week's 'thought' comes to you
from J. I Packer, and is
found in his superb book, "Knowing God."It deals with a topic many people (believer and non-believer) struggle with -- the concept, or better yet, the reality of God's wrath. Packer, knowing the confusion people have in regard to this common biblical subject seeks to explain, clarify and clear up some of the common misconceptions with regard to it.
I have also added a second
helpful thought from A. W. Tozer. Years ago I
found them very helpful. I trust some of you might find them helpful as well.
Enjoy.
The
Wrath of God
"The modern habit
throughout the Christian church is to downplay this subject. Those who still
believe in the wrath of God (and not all do) say little about it. To an age
that has unashamedly sold itself to the god's of greed and pride and sex and
self-will, the church mumbles on about God's kindness but says virtually
nothing about His judgment.
How often during the past
year did you hear (or if you are a minister did you preach) on the wrath of
God? How long is it, I wonder, since a Christian spoke straight about this
topic on the radio, or television, or in one of those half-column sermonettes that
appear in the national dailies or magazines. And if they did so, how long
would it be before they were asked to speak or write again. The fact is that
the subject of divine wrath has become taboo, and modern society, and
Christians by and large, have accepted the taboo and agreed never to even bring
the subject up....
[Yet] the theme of God's
wrath is one about which the biblical writers felt no inhibitions whatever. Why
then, should we? Why, when the Bible is vocal about it, should we feel
obliged to be silent? What is it that makes us awkward and embarrassed
when the subject comes up; that prompts us to soft-pedal it and hedge when
asked about it? The root cause of our unhappiness seems to be a disquieting
suspicion that idea of wrath is, in one way or another, unworthy of God.
To some, for instance,
wrath suggests a loss of self-control, an outburst of "seeing red"
which is partly, if not wholly, irrational. To others it suggests the rage of
conscious impotence, or wounded pride, or plain bad temper. Surely, it is said,
it would be wrong to ascribe to God such attitudes as these.
The reply is: Indeed it would.
But the Bible does not ask us to do this. 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
used for talking about human beings. But when Scripture speaks of God
anthropomorphically, it does not imply that the limitations and imperfections
which belong to the personal characteristics of us sinful creatures belong also
to the corresponding qualities in our holy Creator. Rather it takes for granted
that they do not.
Thus, God's love, as the
Bible views it, never leads Him to foolish, impulsive, immoral actions in the
way that its human counterpart too often leads us. And in the same way,
God's wrath in the Bible is never the capricious, self-indulgent, irritable, morally
ignoble thing that human anger so often is. It is, instead, a right and
necessary reaction to objective moral evil. God is only angry where anger
is called for. Even among humans, there is such a thing as righteous
indignation, though it is, perhaps, rarely found. But all God's indignation is
righteous.
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
react adversely to evil in His world be morally perfect? Surely
not. Yet it is precisely this adverse reaction to evil, which is a
necessary part of moral perfection, that the Bible has in view when it speaks
of God's wrath."
It might also help to know
that God's "wrath"
is often devoid of "anger" altogether. It is, rather, a very
intentional and "calm"
determination to "give
people over" (let them have) the sin they want (along with the
consequences of that sin). Paul speaks of this when he tells us that "the wrath of God is being poured
out" -- not in fire from heaven, or cataclysmic disasters -- but in
simply letting people have the sinful things they want (see Romans 1:18-32, and
especially verses 24, 26, and 28). In this sense His wrath is a "calm" form
of judgment upon people who stubbornly persist in their sin and rebellion.
A. W. Tozer's words from his book "The Knowledge of the Holy,"
are also helpful here. There he states:
"Holy is the way God
is. To be holy He does not conform to a standard. He is that standard. He is
absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is
incapable of being other than it is. Because He is holy, His attributes are
holy. That is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as
holy.
God is holy and He has made
holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe. Sin's
temporary presence in the world only serves to accent this. Whatever is holy is
healthy; evil is a moral sickness that must end ultimately in death. The
formation of the language itself suggests this, the English word holy deriving
from the Anglo-Saxon halig, or hal, meaning "well, whole."
Since God's first concern
for His universe is its moral health, that is, its holiness, whatever is
contrary to this is necessarily under His eternal displeasure. To
preserve His creation God must destroy whatever would destroy it. When He
arises to put down iniquity and save the world from irreparable moral collapse,
He is said to be angry. Every wrathful judgment in the history of the world has
been a holy act of preservation. The holiness of God, the wrath of God,
and the health of the creation are inseparably united. God's wrath is His utter
intolerance of whatever degrades and destroys. He hates iniquity as a mother
hates the polio that takes the life of her child."
I hope -- if nothing else -- you
may have gained insight into what God's wrath is; why it is a necessary aspect
of His being as God, and thus be less hesitant to affirm it, speak of it, or
explain it to others.
To the end that we might
worship God as He is and must ever be, Pastor Jeff
