Today's Journal
WRATH OF GOD II
In yesterday’s Journal entry, I introduced the basic idea of The Wrath of God from comments by D.A. Carson, theologian and author.Carson makes this comment as well:
“God is love. He is not a God of wrath. His wrath is a secondary attribute, not His nature. His wrath is the required response of a holy God to sin including idolatry, disobedience and rebellion of His children, and all demonic powers and principalities that seek to overthrow His rule and reign.”
God’s wrath is not like our anger. God does not fly off the handle. He does not lose control, and lash out in unpredictable anger. His wrath is not like our emotional anger, which can rise up and take control of our words and actions. His wrath is deliberate, marked by sober judgment, condemnation, and punishment. But it is never arbitrary. God’s wrath is tied to His holiness; judgment is part of His perfection. To deny the wrath of God is to deny His holiness, our sinfulness, the presence of the demonic in creation, or all of these. Where there is no sin there will be no wrath.
God doesn’t get mad and put a fist through a door or through the planet Mars, or throw a chair across the white fluffy clouds knocking down harps and crippling angels. I think The Wrath of God should be seen as a positional contrast. If anything is of darkness, sin, rebellion, evil and idolatry… the Lord is positionally opposed to it and his wrath is his opposition. His love, grace and mercy are the opposite of his wrath.
“The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejects the Son will not see life, but God’s wrath remains on him.” Jesus