Steve Grant
Knowing God
The Wrath of God
Selected scriptures
23 March 2014

“How could He who is the Sum of all excellency look with equal satisfaction upon virtue and vice, wisdom and folly? How could He who is infinitely holy disregard sin and refuse to manifest His ‘severity’ toward it? How could He who delights only in that which is pure and lovely, loathe and hate not that which is impure and vile? The very nature of God makes Hell as real a necessity, as imperatively and eternally requisite as Heaven is.” AW Pink

The wrath of God is not His dirty, little secret. It is an attribute of His that the Bible openly speaks about. The problem occurs when we try to understand the wrath of God in human terms. When people get angry and wrathful, they lose control. Therefore, when people hear about God’s wrath, they often imagine Him in a state of uncontrolled aggression. But this is not the case because God's anger never spins out of control. What's more, unlike human anger, His wrath is always justified.

To know the wrath of God is to be reminded of His holiness and His hatred of sin. Therefore, God’s wrath should make us uncomfortable about sin and motivate us to holy living. More importantly, the wrath of God should fill us with a passion for the lost. After all, the cross reveals the wrath of God against sin which He poured out; not against those who deserved it but against the One who didn't deserve it at all - His sinless Son. So now if anyone rejects His Son, God’s wrath is directed towards them. Because they have rejected the One who bore His wrath on their behalf.