God is Wrathful

"God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow, he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts." Psalm 7:11-13

God is a God of wrath. A.W. Tozer writes, "God's justice stands forever against the sinner in utter severity."

John Piper defines wrath from Romans 12 by saying, "the wrath of God is God’s settled anger toward sin expressed in the repayment of suitable vengeance on the guilty sinner."

Wrath as I wrote in the "Attribute Focus" is God's eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. It is God's perfect response to rebellion against authority. Wrath is connected with God’s response to something that deserves vengeance (Romans 12:19-21). And if God's wrath is not poured out on sin then our God is not good. Sin must be punished. And because God is just sin is always punished. Perfectly.

The very nature of God makes Hell as real a necessity as Heaven is. A.W. Pink

In Ephesians, Paul calls those who were once unbelievers "children of wrath."

In Colossians 3:5-6, Paul says, "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming."

God's wrath is coming and will be poured out on a sinful world. This message must not be ignored. That God's wrath is coming is part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If there were no wrath of God then there would not be a need for the cross.

Paul, after calling all mankind "children of wrath" continues,

"BUT God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ -- by grace you have been saved -- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

When meditating on God's wrath at least two things should happen:

1. We should take our eternal future and the eternal future of others very seriously. "The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions. It hushes their fears and allows them to practice all pleasant forms of iniquity while death draws every day nearer and the command to repent goes unregarded. As responsible moral beings we dare not trifle with our eternal future." Take the way you live seriously (Col 1:21-23).

2. We should overflow with thanksgiving. After giving a colorful description of God's wrath against sinners in Psalm 7 the Psalmist ends with thanksgiving. "I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness."

How thankful we should be. We have been saved. Saved from what, you ask? Saved from God's wrath. We, who were once far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. May we proclaim with Paul:

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord."