God’s Great Wrath

God’s Great Wrath

“God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” Ps. 7:11. “Swords at the ready! Thrust right! Set your blade! Thrust left—wherever your edge is ordered! I also will beat My fists together, and I will cause My fury to rest; I, the Lord, have spoken.” Ezek. 21:16-17.

“Who knows the power of Your anger, even as the fear of You requires?” Ps. 90:11.

From the above we understand—if we believe—that God is mightily angry at all sin, at all transgressions of His law and His will. If He were not angry, He would be in conflict with Himself. To think or presume something else would be extremely thoughtless. He is angrier than anyone can fully comprehend. That is evident from reading Psalm 90:11.

This does not in any way contradict the fact that He loves sinners. We love Him who loved us first. The more we love Him, the less we will act against His will, the better we understand (believe) how angry and furious He is at sin in all forms and guises, and the more we fear to act against His will.

The more we fear to act against His will, the further we stay away from all sin. We seek not only just to steer clear of sin so that we kind of balance ourselves on the boundary of sin; on the contrary, we stay far away from it for safety’s sake!

Why should we stay on the borderline, on the very edge of the precipice? Why be in a dangerous place needlessly? In any case, that would mean that you are playing with sin whether you actually want to do it or not, in which case you are far from knowing the power of His anger!

Fearing and loving God belong together. Our fear of God—the fear of acting contrary to His will—varies considerably in strength from almost none at all to an indescribably great fear. The greater the fear of God, the less sin. The greater our godly fear, the more protected we are on all our ways.

In order to illustrate this, we can, by way of example, set up a kind of scale:

As an ungodly person, in total darkness: wrong = right.

As a converted person: right is better than wrong.

After some time: right is much better than wrong.

Later still: I love righteousness; unrighteousness is detestable.

Much later still: righteousness is absolutely necessary; wrong is completely unacceptable.

Perfect light: righteousness = heaven; unrighteousness = hell.

Another example:

Suffering wrongfully: never in my life will I stand for it (then I am in gross darkness).

Suffering wrongfully: it is terrible; how will I be able to endure it.

Suffering wrongfully: God help me! Alas! Alas!

Suffering wrongfully: of course, that was the way Jesus went; I must also go this way.

Suffering wrongfully: that is our calling; He will help me to do it.

Suffering wrongfully and requiting with good is a great victory if only it doesn’t go too far.

Suffering wrongfully and being good is just as glorious as doing righteousness.

Perfect light: suffering wrongfully and being good is heaven on earth.

I am ungodly if I dislike doing righteousness. However, if I dislike suffering wrongfully—we are called to suffer wrong—this also testifies to my sinful nature. We also need to have great fear over us to dislike suffering wrongfully, to draw back. Jesus did not draw back. His steps are there so we can walk in them!