How God's Wrath Works

Wrath is the self-inflicted consequences of resisting God’s love. When we turn from the Light, we remain in the darkness of the shadow we create. The Light of Christ’s boundless love never stops shining on us. But our rejection of that Light leaves us in the murk. The wrath is the result of sin. “The wages of sin is death.” But it is not God who kills, it’s simply ‘the wages’ of sin. The gift of God is eternal life, (Rom. 6:23). The parable of the prodigal son is a perfect example of how wrath works. The prodigal son ended up in a pigpen. The father did not arrange for him to end up there. It was simply the result of his own actions – he experienced “wrath”. But the suffering he had to endure became a part of the big picture of the son’s redemption. God did not send pigpens his way, but He used it to bring him back to his senses and steer him back home. Thus God’s wrath is passive. The Father consented to the son’s rebellion and let him go. He even gave him the money for him only to squander his wealth in reckless living. This is not typically how we see God’s wrath. The Father should have punished him the moment he even dared to ask for the inheritance, we think. How could a holy God permit such lack of respect? But no, God let him go and sin.

“God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are backbiters, haters of God” and so forth, (Rom. 1:28-30). You would think a holy God would punish us as soon as we win. But no, God consents. He lets us do all kinds of wicked things. He lets us hate Him. He lets us crucify Him. God “gives us over” to those things, but those things in turn come back and bite us in the butt. And this we call “wrath”. If God is a God of wrath, as we see wrath, then He is not very good at it. I can think of plenty of people in history for example that I would punish severely if I was God. For example, Hitler, Genghis Khan, and Idi Amin, to name a few. But they died a somewhat peaceful death. God is God. I am not. But God’s wrath is also active. God’s wrath is God’s love in action. The Greek word for wrath is ‘orgé,’ from which we get the English words “orgasm” or “orgy”. Another translation for it is “passion.” God’s wrath, therefore, is a display of his passion to see us free from that which harms us. Imagine a father walking hand in hand with his son. All of a sudden the son lets go of the hand and takes off into oncoming traffic. The father gets upset, runs after the child and grabs him firmly by the hand. This is how God’s wrath works. He either lets us learn by our mistakes. Or if the consequences of our mistakes would be too grievous, then He saves. His wrath, then, serves only the purpose of our improvement. God makes the ‘children of wrath’ the ‘children of God,’ (Eph. 2:3-5). The same passage teaches us that everything God does He does because of His love; God is rich in mercy “because of His great love”.

“God is not anger though He can be angry, God is not vengeance though He does avenge. These are attributes, love is essence. Therefore, God is unchangeably love. Therefore, in judgment He is love, in wrath He is love, in vengeance He is love – love first, and last, and midst, and without end.” – (Thomas Allin, Christ Triumphant). God is love plus nothing. His attributes flow from His essence which is love. Therefore, anything we say about God’s holiness, justice or wrath (his attributes) can only be said with reference to God’s love. The holiness or justice or wrath that is not loving is not God’s. “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love,” (1 John 4:18). Note that love of God and fear of punishment are set in opposition. Christians agree that God is love, but they are quick to add: “But he’s also holy and just” etc. But God’s holiness is not in opposition with who He is (Love). There’s no unholy love. Love is holy and holiness is loving. Justice is loving. Wrath is loving. His punishments, then, are also loving, (Heb. 12:6). They are parental. We usually associate wrath with punishment, judgment, and condemnation. But God did not send Jesus to judge the world, but to save it from that which caused the world to perish. He did not have to belabor the darkness, and condemn the world for the condition it was in, rather He revealed Himself as the "Light that shone in the darkness," or the "Light which gives light to every man,” (John 1:8; 3:17-19). The world was “condemned already”. Not that God directly condemned it, but the condemnation was that “men loved darkness rather than light”. People lived in the shadow caused by turning from Christ’s light. And this is wrath. But God’s wrath is also active – it's salvific. The sin that destroyed the world made God angry. So He came, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish. As Jesus said, "God so loved the world".