Love's Anger

So this topic is the biggest challenge yet to my young writing career. I have been received some positive feedback on my reflections (those of you who I am talking about I thank you honestly, it means a lot) but if I’m honest I’ve been sticking to maybe challenging but generally palatable topics. God’s protection, God’s calling to us and our commitment to building out lives for God. However for the last two weeks I’ve had something very ‘unpalatable’ in my mind, something I’ve never really thought about before and something that many Christians, myself included, tend to avoid thinking or talking about for fear of…well if I’m honest, fear. I believe this topic is not talked about for fear of fear. What is my topic? God’s wrath.

Now the reason for this autobiographical slant to the opening is not because I want to take my blog into a new direction of telling you all about my life and how I went to the post box and posted a letter and came home and am now writing to you about how I went to a the post box and posted a letter and came home (I wish people would stop writing those blogs, I feel they are the written equivalent of Big Brother). No, I am writing more personally because I wish to make something clear. I am no expert in the theology of God’s wrath. I am no trained expositor of scripture. I am not about to try to answer all your questions on God’s wrath. I may run the risk of saying something you don’t agree with. I am not saying I am right.

I was telling my friend Greg yesterday about how I have been enjoying thinking about God’s wrath recently and he said (while trying to find not to run over a cat) ‘I’ve never been able to balance the wrath of the Old Testament with the New Testament’. Unfortunately Greg this isn’t a neat answer to that theological equation but hopefully my thoughts will help you and me get a bit closer to it. I am seeking to provoke thought and encourage, by giving airtime to a subject often deemed, at best, dark, and worst, unmentionable.

So my interest, if that is the right word, began like I said a few weeks ago. I have been power-reading through the Old Testament in the free time I had over the summer and had come up to Isaiah. Isaiah is probably one of the best known prophets in the Bible, quite a big name, yet his writings are probably the least known. This is the boat I was in, ‘Oh Isaiah, yeh he was a great prophet…what did he say you ask? Um…well…I think he mentioned Jesus a few times…err’. That’s me. So I had no idea what to expect from his guy if I’m honest. What I found was quite, well shocking really. I wrote four words in my journal that night ‘God really hates sin!’

Before I go on I want to clear something up quickly. A barrier I feel that maybe forming in your mind. Why am I talking about God’s wrath when God’s love is far more worth talking about? A simple answer is this. God’s scripture talks more about His wrath than His love. I know, I was surprised to when I found that out. Further, it’s not just by a little bit more; it’s a whole lot more. And most of that comes in books like Isaiah. I love talking about God’s love, God is love (1 John 4.16, my italics). In fact I hope that by the end of this I will have explained how God’s wrath and love are inextricably linked through Christ Jesus. So why am I talking about God’s wrath? Because a) God talks about it and b) it necessary to understand Jesus fully!

So back to Isaiah. The opening chapter weaves a majestic speech or vision that came to Isaiah concerning Judah and Jerusalem. ‘Listen, O Earth. For the Lord has spoken’ (v2). When the Lord speaks you listen, when he says you should listen, you listen doubly hard. ‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me’. Oops. The next 20-odd verses detail how they have rebelled and then the Lord sets his response in verse 25, ‘I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities’. Oops again. To say God isn’t best pleased would be an understatement of, well biblical proportions. Isaiah continues in this vain, bringing prophecies of disaster and judgement on Jerusalem and Judah, as well as their enemies including the mighty Babylon. I challenge you to read through Isaiah and see the passion, determination and finality with which God condemns and judges unrighteousness and rebellion. I’m tempted to say ‘it’s not pretty’ but in fact it was actually the opposite for me. It was incredibly beautiful. Why? Two reasons.

One. My God is perfectly just and righteous. My God is perfectly just and righteous. My God is perfectly just and righteous. Say it one more and think about it for a second. My God is perfectly just and righteous.

Imagine the scene. A parents’ nightmare. Their daughter is walking home when she is stopped and attacked and sexually abused. She manages to scrape home and into the arms of her father. The dad sees her and says ‘shame really’ and turns away. Does that sit comfortably with you? If it does I suggest you check your pulse. If it doesn’t then why not? Did you want to father to make sure his daughter was safe before heading out the door with heart in one hand and baseball bat in the other? Did you want the fury, or wrath, of the father to be so great against this unrighteousness that he would leave no stone unturned before that evil was literally wiped from the floor? I did. However two things stop this from happening on earth. Firstly we rarely have the pure heart to take such action out of pure hatred for evil. We are contaminated by desire to save face, to retain personal dignity and glory. And second, we have no authority to rule over life and over good and evil. However there is one person who passes both those tests, the Lord Almighty. So would you rather he said ‘shame really’ or would you rather he wielded his baseball bat of righteous judgement when He saw evil in and to his children? Isaiah is all about him running after his people swinging and swishing and declaring judgement on all evil in his sight! He’s the father who does the right thing and with the authority to do it too! (Note that the bat finally fell with one tremendous force, slamming down on the body of his Son, allowing the real evil doers a second chance).

The second reason why I find it beautiful is that it, as I said earlier, is inextricably tied to God’s immense love for us through the gospel. The most famous verse in the whole Bible is most likely John 3.16, ‘for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life’. It’s a wonderful verse, you read it through and find a lot of comfort, ‘so loved the world…awww…gave his only son…wow…shall not perish…I’m sorry what? Perish? What do you mean I was due to perish? I thought the whole thing was about love? Who brought the tone down by talking about death!?’ As amusing as that monologue sounds, it’s easy to fall into. However ‘perish’ is the total premise of the statement. It’s the state of play before the sentence begun, before the Son was given, before we believed. It is the basis upon which the love has its power. We were in a bad place. The world perish in the Greek is ‘apollymi’. It has a few biblical uses and here are some of the things it means: to destroy, to put out of the way entirely, to abolish, to put an end to ruin, to render useless, to kill, to declare that one must be put to death, to devote or give over to eternal misery in hell and to be lost, ruined or destroyed. Oops.

Why on earth is this beautiful you might ask? Because it’s not the end. ‘Whoever believes in Him may not perish’. Talk about rising from the ashes (or from the dead, whichever phrase you feel is most suitable). God’s love worked alongside God’s wrath to provide a way out. Jesus took the wrath for us. I hope I’ve made clear how powerful that wrath is. We weren’t in line for just a slap on the wrists, and Jesus did not just get a slap on the wrists. If we can truly grasp the terrible magnitude of God’s wrath then we can truly grasp the beautiful magnitude of what God did for us through Jesus. Only then can we worship Jesus in all his glory.

And a final question, why is God’s wrath so firm against unrighteousness, so firm that He sent His only Son to pay the price? ‘I will restore your judges as in the days of old, your counsellors as the beginning. Afterwards you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City’ (Isaiah 1.26) He requires us to be pure so that once again we can be the people he desires, a righteous and faithful people under Him.

So is the wrath of God to be feared? Not since Jesus. I have come to believe that it is to be celebrated. It is part of the cleansing of the past, part of the fullness of the present glory of Jesus and part of the hope of the future in eternity.