Wrath of God
BY JOHN GERSTNER
Romans 1:18 IN A 1985 ISSUE of Christian Century, the standard liberal Christian magazine in America for nearly a decade now, I caught an article that said, "Hell died and nobody noticed."
Hell died in 1985 and nobody noticed!
Well, the Book of Romans noticed. And everybody who's taken the Bible seriously noticed. Hell didn't die.
But in the opinion of a great many people, hell has indeed died. That's because to them, hell is something too hard to propound and defend. That alone shows how awesomely true hell is, when people can't even think about it. It drives them up the wall just to consider the sheer possibility that God would pour out His wrath endlessly on any creature of His.
But no matter what those people think, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, the Bible declares in Romans 1:18.
Parents sometimes punish naughty children and judges punish law breakers. But this judge is Eternal God Himself. So, His wrath ultimately means everlasting, irresistible, intolerable suffering from His hand.
Hell is real. How does God reveal this from heaven? For one thing, He reveals it in His Holy Word. Reference to it is scattered all over the Scripture. Do you know that for every statement in the Bible about the love and mercy and grace of God, there are three dealing with His wrath, His judgment, His fury and His severity?
And not just in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Himself talks about hell and damnation over and over again. He says, for example, "If you don't pluck out your eye or cut off your hand that causes you to sin, you'll go whole into hell."
The Lord, in fact, uses a variety of ways to speak of hell. Sometimes, He uses plain prose. He warns, for example, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matt. 10:28).
Other times, He uses figures of speech. He talks about those who enter the wide gate and broad road that leads to destruction. He speaks of those who will be thrown into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And He lets the Apostle John see in a vision the devil and the false prophets being thrown into hell, where they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever (Rev. 20:10).
Current Wrath. In some of the newer Bible versions, the verb in this verse is "being revealed". The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven. In other words, not only has the wrath of God been revealed in the Bible, but it is being revealed continuously.
How is the wrath of God being revealed from heaven now? Well, God is in His heaven, and out of heaven have come these awful tornadoes and hurricanes, the devastating floods and earthquakes, and the famines and pestilence that have plagued all of humanity ever since the fall of man.
Remember, God is omnipotent; He certainly can prevent anything that causes suffering to any of His creatures. Since He hasn't done that, we must conclude that it is His will that these disasters do take place. They are reminders of the eternal wrath that He will pour out on Judgment Day.
The Ostrich Syndrome
All this is quite obvious even on the surface of things. Nevertheless, there are those who would still foolishly insist: "I don't believe God is that mean. He cannot possibly be responsible for those disasters that kill thousands or millions."The trouble with that line of argument is that as soon as you say that, you are denying His existence. You are saying that He's not the Lord God omnipotent who reigneth, He's not the sovereign God who's in charge of all things.
But doesn't the Bible say that God is love? How then can a God of love kill or injure people with disasters? Worse yet, how can a God of love condemn any person to spend eternity in hell?
You are I are the answer. God saw fit to make the likes of us with the understanding that they could be like Himthat is, with love permeating their whole beingand with the further understanding that if they departed from what they were commanded to be and do, they would have to suffer the wages of sin which is death.
Creation and laws. Just for a moment, think of the Trinity in eternity past. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they love each other perfectly. Every person in the Godhead is full of infinite love for every other person in the Godhead. For a timeless period, God existed that way.
Then, when the creation came into being, God gave His creatures laws by which to live. These creatures were responsible to Him; they were to obey His law. Our first parents were given just a simple command to observe, and they disobeyed.
In and of Himself, God is never angry. He's nothing but love. But when Adam and Eve disobeyed Him, they were hostile to God, and they defiled the image of God. As God is absolutely holy and hates anything that is the antithesis of His very being, He must regard these disobedient creatures as the object of His endless wrath.
All guilty. The sinful nature of Adam and Eve has since been inherited by all mankind.
R.C. Sproul once said something like this to his congregation: "You won't find a single innocent savage in hell." That shook many up because they were under the impressionand correctly so, I might addthat all the unsaved, including primitives who had never heard the gospel, are subject to eternal damnation.
What Sproul was emphasizing in that remark, though, is the word "innocent". God does not send any innocent person to hell, whether he has heard the gospel or not. The trouble is, no one is innocent. We're all guilty of breaking God's law. And that's why God is angry.
That alone shows how awesomely true hell is, when people can't even think about it. What about?
In Romans 1:18, the apostle Paul goes on to tell us what God is angry about. The wrath is "against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness."God is wrathful against men because, first of all, they are godless. By nature, every single human being is godless. Even a new-born baby is without God. According to Psalm 51:5, we were sinful at birth, sinful from the moment we were conceived.
You may be the most upstanding individual in your community by reputation. You may be considered the city's best servant. But unless you are born-again, you are a godless person and you have the wrath of God upon you.
Notice carefully the language of this verse. Paul doesn't start by saying that God is angry because we are killers, murderers, robbers, rapists, or whichever kind of lawbreakers. Our not having God in our heart is alone enough to bring the wrath God from heaven upon us. The fact that we don't have a desire to live and do everything to the glory of God is all that's necessary to condemn us to hell.
Wickedness. We tend to think that God's wrath comes upon a person after he has done something wicked. But it's the other way around. It is because we are godless that we have wicked thoughts and do wicked deeds.
This doesn't mean that our wickedness doesn't count. While our godlessness is that which angered God to start with, our wickedness provokes Him further.
Most people do not consider themselves wicked, though. They think that only "bad" people like murderers and drug pushers are wicked. Most of us think of ourselves as fine citizens. That's because our wickedness has suppressed the truth. We have been believing in a lie.
Motives. The fact is, you can be wicked even when you read the Bibleif you read it in a godless manner. Now, the Bible is the Word of God. Reading the Bible is not like reading pornography, which is the word of filth. Nevertheless, if you read it not with the purpose of finding truths and seeking God, you are engaging in wickedness. And you come under God's wrath as a result not because you're caught reading the Bible, but because you are reading the Bible without God in your heart.
Don't ever fall into the habit, therefore, of thinking that because you are doing a good thing, you are a good person. The ungodly person never does anything that is good by God's standard, even when it may appear to be so. Thus, Proverbs 21:2 says, "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart."
Without God, we are self-centered people. When God weighs our heart and examines our motives, He sees only wickedness.
From wrath to love. As I said earlier, right now, the wrath of God is visible mainly through natural disasters, famines, diseases and so on. But come Judgment Day, that wrath will be eternal damnation in hell for all the unsaved.
By the grace of God, however, there is a way to escape from this horrible wrath of God. If you are unsaved, repent now. God has promised that if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul, you will surely find Him (Deut. 4:29).
So, with fear and trembling humble yourself before Him. Ask for His forgiveness and put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. Thank Him for dying for your sins, and start living your life for Him. If your supplication comes sincerely from your heart, then you can take comfort in knowing that instead of staying under the wrath of God, you will be eternally blessed with the love of God. o
Dr. John H. Gerstner is Professor at Large of Ligonier Ministries. His mailing address is: R.D. 5, Box 134, Ligonier, PA 15658.