Is God Angry?
You will find today’s devotional to be slightly longer than my usual offer. I am addressing a very important and timely issue today, and I hope you will read this in its entirety. Naturally, you are free to do as you please with no condemnation from me about it. But I do hope it will pique your interest and curiosity enough to take it all in.
It is becoming increasingly popular today for some to dismiss the idea of God being angry for any reason. They say that since Jesus went to the cross, the wrath of God has been satisfied, and He is no longer angry.
I wholeheartedly agree with that statement when it is applied to those who put their faith in Jesus. But to declare it to the lost who have yet to come to Jesus for life and hope such a statement is misplaced although well-intentioned.
Such an idea seems to come from a place of struggling with the concept that God is able to be loving, forgiving, and a merciful Savior and yet at the same time capable of being holy, righteously angered, and a just judge. I could be mistaken, but it seems that it also comes from those who sat under judgment preaching in the church Sunday after Sunday and thus were made to feel that they will never measure up and that God is continually angry with them because they fail to measure up under the law.
This is why a mixture of preaching of law and grace in the church is a spiritually unhealthy practice to undertake. It sows confusion and discouragement because it feeds a performance mindset that is contrary to the true work of grace made available in Christ. No one will ever measure up to the righteous standards of the law in the flesh. It must be met by faith in Christ, who is the only One who perfectly kept the law and fulfilled it on our behalf and now imputes His own righteousness to us according to faith in Him.
Galatians 5:4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
I fulfill the law only in Christ. It does not exonerate me from good works that are rooted in my life in Christ. It simply sets me free from the condemnation and death that the law ministered to me in order to bring me to Christ so that I might have life in Him.
Using the law regularly on believers in churches is akin to a parent regularly using a belt or paddle on their child just to remind them of what will happen if they get out of line in the hopes that they will never misbehave. This has fueled the anti-fear of punishment movement that is growing in popularity.
Church history would reveal to us that whenever the church predominantly operates in applying the law and an over-emphasis on moralistic performance, universalism arises and grows in popularity as a backlash to believers feeling abused by the church. It enhances the appeal of such teachings.
An overly focused, moralistic church consumed with policing behavior that might embarrass its reputation produces the fruit of extreme positions being taken on by those who flee from it. Being overly focused on performance for a relationship with God as opposed to faith in Christ produces such backlashes.
It is what I believe has produced the increasing popularity of the “God is not angry” mantra.
Although I understand how many arrived at such a position and declaration, it does not mean I agree with such a position when presented in extremes. I do agree that God is not angry with His children who are hidden with Him in Christ. However, I’m not at all convinced that this statement applies to the lost without Christ or to the merely religious who abuse and bring harm to those who desire to be in Christ and seek to know Him according to His goodness and enjoy a real relationship with God through Christ.
We should always turn to Scripture with the aid of the Holy Spirit to help us navigate these conflicting ideas with wisdom. Here are some examples.
Jesus demonstrated anger with the religious leaders who had no compassion for those in great need and thus set out to resist Him in His desire and effort to heal and deliver.
Mark 3:5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.
Luke 3:7 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?
The words anger and wrath in Greek are orge. It is the same Greek word translated as anger in Mark 3:5 and as wrath in John 3:36 as well as many other Scriptures, and this Greek word orge deals with a violent passion, by implication - punishment: anger, indignation, vengeance, wrath. It is at times translated as anger and at other times as wrath.
John 3:36 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.”
Some would say that this application of wrath was diminished once Jesus went to the cross. If that is true, we should not be able to find any idea of it in the New Covenant letters to the churches.
Romans 2:5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: 7 eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; 8 but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, 9 tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; 10 but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 11 For there is no partiality with God.
Romans 3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)
Romans 12:19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
Ephesians 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
Colossians 3:6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience,
I would agree that once someone comes to Christ, the wrath that was once upon them in their unbelief is removed. I think sometimes the difficulty those promoting this idea have is that they struggle with the idea of God loving the world and being angry at the same time. They somehow deduce that He cannot be love and anger simultaneously. But this is rooted in human reasoning and a single idea of what love has to be. Anytime we adopt a doctrinal position, we should be able to confirm it with much Scripture.
Revelation 6:16 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! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
Revelation 14:19 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
Revelation 15:1 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.
Revelation 15:7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever.
It is still true that some are storing up wrath against the day of wrath. I am not sharing this to put fear on anyone, nor am I sharing it to promote the idea of mainly preaching the wrath of God to the lost. I am sharing it to say that yes, God can be angry even though He is love, just as He can be just and yet forgive. The idea of a coming judgment and the means to escape it is still part of the gospel message. The good news is that God’s justice is only satisfied in Christ Jesus, and those who are hidden with God in Christ have escaped that justice that will still inevitably require satisfaction. It can be satisfied in Christ, and when a person comes to Christ in faith, the wrath it calls for is done away with. But to refuse such a gracious offer is to accept to remain under wrath, and there is only the expectation of pending judgment in that case. Is God angry? It depends on the context.
