Jesus the Wrathful: The gospel we no longer preach on Sundays
If Christians believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, then it stands to reason that every attribute of God as revealed in the Old Testament is also embodied in Him. So this would be not just culturally appropriate attributes like grace and mercy,
“…The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth…”
(Exodus 34:6)
But also the more fierce and wrathful aspects of God as well,
“The Lord is a man of war; The Lord is His name.
Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea;
His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.
The depths have covered them; They sank to the bottom like a stone.
Your right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power;
Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed the enemy in pieces.”
(Exodus 15:3–6)
And this is precisely what we find in scripture about Jesus. On the one hand, it is written of Him,
“…grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
(John 1:17)
On the other hand, it is written of Him, interestingly by the same author,
“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.”
(Revelation 19:11–14)
The same gracious God is also a man of war. Remember one of God’s titles in the Old Testament is “YHWH Sabaoth” translated as “LORD of Hosts” but literally meaning “God of Armies” or as one Hebrew Bible puts it, “Master of Legions”. It is thus no surprise that we find the gracious and loving Jesus Christ at the head of a heavenly army when He returns. All of this though, both the grace and the wrath are all components of the goodness and truth which God abounds in (as per Exodus 34:6 cited above).
The apostle Paul in explaining why he is unashamed of the gospel tells us,
“ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness…”
(Romans 1:16–18)
Two things are revealed by the gospel; God’s righteousness and God’s wrath. And you know what? Jesus is the agent of God for both of these things! Consider the following,
Jesus goes to the synagogue and here is an excerpt of what happens,
“…And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
(Luke 4:16–21)
Now note what happened in the above reading, Jesus closed the book after “the acceptable year of the Lord”. The full reading from Isaiah 61 is reproduced below and observe what Jesus closes the book on,
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God…”
(Isaiah 61:1–2)
What Jesus did not go on to read had to do with “the vengeance of our God” and He did not read it because only the portions He read that day had been fulfilled. The first coming of Jesus was to proclaim an acceptable year, the second coming of Jesus would be to proclaim the vengeance of God. We see this from the very same book of Isaiah which is linked to the reading of Jesus and part of what the book was closed on,
“Who is this who comes from Edom,
With dyed garments from Bozrah,
This One who is glorious in His apparel,
Traveling in the greatness of His strength? —
“I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”
Why is Your apparel red,
And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress?
“I have trodden the winepress alone,
And from the peoples no one was with Me.
For I have trodden them in My anger,
And trampled them in My fury;
Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments,
And I have stained all My robes.
For the day of vengeance is in My heart,
And the year of My redeemed has come.”
(Isaiah 63:1–4)
The same one that came to proclaim the gospel is the same one proclaiming vengeance. Hence the Jesus we see in Revelation is completely different in demeanour from the one we see in the gospels even if it is the very same Jesus.
Bringing this back to the gospel and relating it to the previous point from Paul, Isaiah 63:5, the next verse after the day of vengeance verse quoted above reads,
“I looked, but there was no one to help,
And I wondered
That there was no one to uphold;
Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me;
And My own fury, it sustained Me.”
(Isaiah 63:5)
In a previous verse, it had earlier said,
“He saw that there was no man,
And wondered that there was no intercessor;
Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him;
And His own righteousness, it sustained Him.”
(Isaiah 59:16)
Similar syntax, but spot the difference, if you would. In the first rendition it says righteousness sustained the salvation His arm brought, in the second rendition, it is fury or wrath that sustains it (Side note, Isaiah 59:16 is in the third person but Isaiah 63:5 is in the first person which shows the speaker in Isaiah 63 is God in His own right which lines up perfectly with the Christian theology). This shows that God’s righteousness and God’s anger are two sides to the same coin of salvation. The gospel cannot be completely understood outside the context of God’s anger. Hence Paul says in the verses cited earlier that the gospel reveals not just God’s righteousness but His wrath as well.
So what is the point of all this?
First, an appreciation of the wrath of God deepens our appreciation for the gospel and the salvation that Jesus Christ accomplished for us in His death on the cross. We can use every fancy word in the dictionary but the good news only makes sense against the backdrop of bad news. There is a tendency (particularly in the very comfortable 21st century western world) to phrase the gospel only in terms of God’s love, grace, mercy and forgiveness. The 6 million dollar question is this,
“What exactly has God been gracious about? What do you need forgiveness for? And why is God’s mercy necessary or even relevant at all?”
The answer to these questions in one way, shade or form revolve around the one thing our churches hesitate to mention- sin!
Sin brings with it the wrath of God and it is within this context that grace and mercy come into play. Even love can only come into play because wrath has been dealt with,
“Take words with you,
And return to the Lord.
Say to Him,
“Take away all iniquity;
Receive us graciously,
“I will heal their backsliding,
I will love them freely,
For My anger has turned away from him.”
(Hosea 14:2, 4)
It is when iniquity is taken away that God can graciously receive the sinner and it is when the anger of God has been turned away that God can love freely. In the gospel, the prayer of Habakkuk is answered,
“…In wrath remember mercy”
(Habakkuk 3:2)
Paul himself in his epistles makes a big deal out of, not just the salvation of Jesus Christ, but what Jesus Christ saves us from,
“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
(Romans 5:9)
And again,
“ and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”
(1 Thessalonians 1:10)
Secondly, an appreciation of the wrath of God brings to mind the gravity of the gospel. Jesus is not just some guy whose birth we remember once a year. Christ is not just one more option on the buffet menu of religious figures who you can either mix and match with the others or ignore altogether. Christianity is literally God’s last and final olive branch to a world living in active and conscious rebellion against Him, the day of vengeance is what comes next. It does help us understand the weight behind this statement of Jesus,
“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”
(Matthew 12:30)
Whether a person is on the wielding end of Jesus’ sword, as it is written,
“Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
And a two-edged sword in their hand,
To execute vengeance on the nations,
And punishments on the peoples”
(Psalms 149:6–7)
Or on the receiving end of the sword as it is written,
“For I raise My hand to heaven,
And say, “As I live forever,
If I whet My glittering sword,
And My hand takes hold on judgment,
I will render vengeance to My enemies,
And repay those who hate Me.
I will make My arrows drunk with blood,
And My sword shall devour flesh,
With the blood of the slain and the captives,
From the heads of the leaders of the enemy.”
(Deuteronomy 32:40–42)
Is all determined by how they respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Heavy stuff isn’t it?
So, as a Christian, when next you read the book of Revelation and see the wrath of God poured down in full, understand that is the fate the cross of Christ ransomed you from.
Third, and this follows on from the previous point, having understood the gravity of the gospel, an appreciation of the wrath of God drives us to present the gospel to the unsaved. That friend who is not a Christian but is a really nice and lovely guy or gal is under the wrath of God. Them as well as their loveliness and their niceness will perish at His coming! Their moral compass counts for absolutely nothing! As John the Baptist says,
“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
(John 3:36)
Have you not read that all your righteousness is filthy rags? Your offerings are as if you slew a man and offered pig’s blood on the holy altar of the Almighty? (Isaiah 66:3–4) The one God takes into consideration is the one who is of a poor and contrite spirit, who trembles at His word (Isaiah 66:2).
The poor is the one who is receptive to the gospel, as it is written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;”
(Luke 4:18)
And His word which He has spoken to us by is His Son Jesus Christ,
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son…”
(Hebrews 1:1–2)
This word is to be trembled at. The same author of Hebrews writes,
“ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
(Hebrews 10:31)
This word is the only shot at redemption the sinner has. It is one to be respected and as such, this word should be presented with reverence for its very nature and as such should not be redacted to suit itchy ears or make for pleasurable listening. The pill of the gospel, hard as it is to swallow, is what saves and it is this salvation message with both the mercy and the wrath elements intact that should be presented to the sinner.
Fourth, understanding God’s wrath helps us understand who Jesus really is. It helps us to bridge the gap of this mental dichotomy between the “God of the Old and New Testament” that has been created possibly by years of not grappling with the Old Testament or by terrible Bible teaching. There is no God of the Old Testament or God of the New Testament, there is One God who never changed between both covenants, as it is written,
“For I am the Lord, I do not change…”
(Malachi 3:6)
This good God with His variety of attributes be it grace, mercy, truth, justice, anger, is embodied in Jesus Christ. There is no element of “the God of the Old Testament” that we do not find in Jesus Christ. Jesus, according to Isaiah 61, is anointed to not only bring about good news to the poor and liberty to the captives but to bring about the day of God’s vengeance as we see in the book of Revelation. Jesus is every whit the embodiment of God’s wrath as He is of God’s mercy,
“And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
(Revelation 6:15–17)
Fifth and finally, God’s wrath is a good thing! We switch on the news and see so much crime, war, pain and suffering caused by the greed and wickedness of people. In some cases, news of the great pain some people have caused only come through after their deaths. Some, think of the little “Moustache guy in Germany”, unalive themselves before they can face justice for the great atrocities they have committed. Others are too rich, powerful or influential to be held accountable for their wicked deeds which makes it all the more interesting that in the verse above, it is mainly kings, great men and rich men who try to hide from the wrath of God that Christ brings.
On a personal note, what angers me the most is the numerous Christians that are being oppressed and slaughtered for fun around the world every day, particularly in the Islamic world. It is good that God in His wrath would execute vengeance on the perpetrators of this slaughter, as it is written,
“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people;
For He will avenge the blood of His servants,
And render vengeance to His adversaries…”
(Deuteronomy 32:43)
It is a good thing that God will judge the world in righteousness, justly releasing His wrath. Every old lady swindled off their life savings, every woman forcibly used, every child abused, every person wrongly sentenced to death due to corruption or shortcomings of the current justice system of the world, justice will be served ultimately and the gospel of Christ is a guarantee of this fact,
“ Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
(Acts 17:31)
The aim of the church is not to make everybody welcome. It has one job, to preach the gospel. When last did you hear an Acts 2 sermon? A gospel presented that cut men to the heart and made them ask,
“What shall we do?”
Do we even preach a gospel that gives us a chance to bid men repent?
Perhaps reminding the church and the world around it of the wrath to come would be a step in the right direction. After all it caused men to respond to the preaching of John the Baptist about Christ,
“Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
(Luke 3:7)
Maybe there is something we can learn from the “fire and brimstone” preaching of centuries past.
