Only God’s Wrath Makes Sense of the Cross
Only when we face the fact that we each deserve the full wrath of God will we grasp the importance of what Christ did for us on the cross. I believe understanding this is THE dividing line, not only between the saved and the unsaved, but between those who will grow in a gratitude and joy and those who will grow only more entitled and discontent. It is THAT important!
The hard, cold reality of a sinful human’s relationship with a holy God must be faced head on by those of us who profess to follow Jesus Christ. Nancy Guthrie, author of the devotional book, Jesus in The Old Testament, says it so well, “God will punish every sin in one of two ways-either personally in hell or substitutionally in Christ’s experience on the cross.” She writes in another page of her devotional, “…The marvelous truth that God is not keeping a record of our wrongs does not mean that he has gone soft in his sense of justice, refusing to require payment. That’s not the case at all. The reason God will not require us to pay our debt to him is because somebody else has already paid our debt on our behalf..” We all know who that Somebody is!
When I can talk to someone about the importance of trusting in what Christ did on the cross for us, I have usually spoken about the consequences of not trusting in Him in the terms of being eternally separated from God. Perhaps, in not seeking to offend modern sensibilities, I am trying to make the message a little more palatable. (God forgive me!). I have emphasized the “softer side “of hell, the fact that in that place we will be forever separated from God. I have not centered upon the wrath of God, His angry judgment poured out upon those who go there by either actively or passively rejecting the merciful provision of His Son. In my reasoning, presenting a largely loving God (and He is) is much more attractive than an angry, wrathful God (and He is that too) so I tell an imbalanced message. By doing that I don’t help that person understand the utter necessity for what Jesus did for us on the cross. I don’t work together with the Holy Spirit who is promised to convict sinners (“the world”) of “sin, righteousness AND JUDGMENT.” (John 16:8 emphasis added)
Separation from God may not sound as frightening as it should be to a person already separated from God but freely enjoying many of the blessings that a life without God on this earth graciously provides. This is referred to by theologians as “common grace,” the sun that shines and showers that fall of God’s blessing on the just and the unjust alike. (Matthew 5:45) The rejector of God’s provision is unaware that like a dam that is holding back a growing destructive flood of water, the wrath of God, is being stored up for him. It is restrained only by the patience of a God who doesn’t want anyone to perish, waiting for repentance to occur.
Someone has wisely said, “If you have to choose between a smooth flight and a crash landing or a bumpy flight and a safe landing, opt for the bumpy flight!” The crash landing vs. safe landing analogy is actually an understatement when it comes to our choice of Jesus Christ. The “crash landing” means suffering God’s fearsome wrath forever, not a just moment’s terror. And the safe landing is not just being able to walk out of the plane safely, but it is enjoying God’s favor and fellowship forever.
In John 3:17-18 right after the very well-known John 3:16 Jesus speaks of judgment (the wrath of God) very strongly. “God sent His Son into the world not to JUDGE the world but to save the world through Him. There is no JUDGMENT against anyone who believes in Him but anyone who does not believe in Him has already been JUDGED for not believing in God’s one and only Son.” (emphasis added) And what does this judgment look like? I recently decided to skim through the book of Matthew to see how many times I could discover Jesus speak of judgment in hell. I found 15 instances in just that one gospel! Each time he describes it as a horrible place of torment that never ends.
The psychological suffering will be magnified by the knowledge that the way out could have been avoided if the merciful provision of Jesus had been received. This message of warning should be given to all who scoff at or simply ignore what Jesus did on the cross for the whole world. But how should that impact those of us who follow Christ?
Listen to what the Apostle Paul writes and consider how this truth will impact us, in what I said in the first part of this blog, in how we have hope and joy in our relationship with God during these challenging times. “You are looking forward to the coming of God’s Son from heaven-Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. He is the One who has rescued us from the terror of the coming judgment.” (I Thessalonians 1:10) Then he writes in his second letter to the Thessalonian church, “And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. He will come with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the good news of the Lord Jesus (that He took the wrath of God that we deserved on Himself at the cross) then will be punished with eternal destruction forever separated from the Lord and His glorious power.” (2 Thessalonians 2:7-9 parenthetic phrase added) Notice that separation from God is only a “subset” within the all-encompassing wrath and judgment of God.
We must think often upon and not to be afraid to speak boldly about the wrath of a holy God upon a sinful people. We must put reverence of Him over the fear of what an ignorant and arrogant people will say about us. Nobody wants to be labeled to be a judgmental “religious bigot” or a “hater?” But we must articulate how God’s Son Jesus, the God-Man took our place on the cross. He did it all for us so that we would not have to experience God’s wrath ourselves forever in the horrible place he created for the devil and his angels. The good news must be preceded by the bad news---how very much our sin has offended a holy God. It is only the wrath of God that makes sense of His merciful provision for us through the cross. If we allow it to, it will also produce increasingly within us, a growing reverential joy and gratitude for paying the debt we could never pay.
Dear Father, please forgive me for not “rightly explaining the word of truth” as you have commanded me to do. I know I am not alone in this so forgive many of us for seeking to please people and not you, our Savior. Thank you, Jesus, for taking the punishment in your own body, pouring out your own blood and paying the debt to a holy God that we could never pay throughout all eternity. I thank you forever for exchanging my sin for your righteousness on the cross. Let THIS be THE simple message we give to those who desperately need to hear it!
In Your Holy Name,
Amen
Jamie Bohnett
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