An article the Wrath of God

[eaglesway]

 The idea that God gets angry at times should not be foreign to anyone who is familiar with the scriptures. Jesus was the express image of the invisible God and He experienced anger. We have been created in the image of God and we get angry. However, it is written, "if you get angry do not sin and let not the sun go down upon your anger". God's anger is limited by His mercy. In wrath He remembers mercy so that we are not consumed. God does not get bitter. He expresses "orge" in such a way that He follows it with forgiveness and restoration. All of His ways are perfect and the ways in which He expresses displeasure are within the parameter of His love and forgiveness. Yet, to say that He does not experience anger or that His anger is somehow not a personal manifestation of His divine nature is a clear dismissal of the scriptures. Sometimes little children would prefer a God who never gets angry so we create Him in our imagination. The enemy wants to portray a God who is always angry so he creates Him in his own fallen image. The balance is revealed in the scriptures, and through the things that are made.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
(Rom 1:18-20)


The word most often translated as "wrath" is "orge", from the root "orgao" meaning "to swell", including a meaning of "reaching forth" and by implication "passion". It is a swelling as if to burst. You could say, the patience of God waits but as the cup of iniquity fills, His personal reaction against sin swells until a point when He reaches forth. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness".  M.R. Vincent concludes that the swelling is not the punishment itself but rather a personal emotion of God. You could liken it to the emotion a parent feels as they instruct and correct a child repeatedly over a certain issue until action must be taken- often for the child's protection, but not always. The house belongs to the parents, and the children must live within certain preferences of the parents. Our house belongs to God and we are learning to live within His good pleasure- both for our own good and for His joy. After His healing of the man with the withered hand, Jesus experienced "orge" in the temple when as He beheld the hardness of the Pharisees hearts . We all know Jesus experienced "orge" as He drove the money changers out of the temple. " My Father's house is a house of prayer for all people, but you have made it a den of thieves."

In the Old Testament, God surrounded Himself with Levites, "so that there would be no wrath on the congregation(Nu 1:53)".  The Levites were charged with knowing, discerning and teaching the people what constituted acceptable service and offering in God's house so the people could in turn keep their charge as a nation separated to worship YHWH. In one instance, the punishment of God was being inflicted upon the people because of a certain violation. One of the Levites stopped the punishment by becoming an intercessor. He became an intercessor by sharing God's emotion about the infraction.

Num 25:11  "Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy.

In like manner, Jesus was jealous with God's jealousy. Through Him the wrath of God was revealed from heaven against the unrighteousness of men who suppressed the truth in unrighteousness, specifically the money changers and the hard hearted Pharisees. The reason He was wrathful was that they were suppressing the truth of God's freely given grace by profiteering and dominating the people in His Father's house. Jesus told several parables further illustrating the process of God's patience as it moves from an expectation of respectful love from His stewards to a corrective response. This response being directed at repeated injustices towards the stewarded subjects and disrespect towards Himself as the "landowner" or the "householder".

It is important to understand that God's wrath is related to His personal character. He does not want to be misrepresented. He wants us to know Him above all else. This is because His ultimate intention for us is fellowship. If the stewards He has placed around Himself and among the congregation are not representing His eternal power and divine nature transparently, it would be better for them to have a millstone around their neck and be thrown into the sea. It is required of stewards that they be faithful.

What they are to be faithful to is the character and divine nature of the I AM. Moses was faithful in all His house as a steward, but Jesus is the owner of the house by inheritance. We as co- heirs with Him in the adoption, must be representatives, "true ambassadors" of God. That is why the highest testimony of the priesthood of Christ is, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father". The second highest is "Take My yoke upon you and learn of me". The third is "Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men".

So, in the new testament we have received charges such as "Entrust your souls to those who by reason of use(experience) have their senses exercised to know the difference between good and evil" and, "The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle to all, patiently instructing them..." . We are taught that, "The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peacable, full of mercy and good fruit, sown in peace by them that make peace". These charges and instructions are all based in participation in the divine nature. "Making peace" means creating the ground of fellowship between men and God. There is a way that we must conduct ourselves in His house. Indeed we are His house, held together in the spirit of unity and the bond of peace, fitly joined by the mortar of brotherly love- living stones. He will tabernacle within us if we are "as He is". If we suppress the truth in unrighteousness, walking in a cloudy mixture of carnality, He will eventually withdraw His manifest presence. Like, when strive and bite as we share the word. When we trumpet our righteousness but ignore the needs of others. When we bite and devour one another God's wrath is revealed from heaven- as we consume one another!

When we walk in the fruit of the Spirit - the joy of God is revealed and light fills His house until all the darkness of the world cannot hide it. "By this shall they know that you are My disciples- by your love for one another." If we abide under His wrath, He is confronting our ways, trying the reins and the hearts in order to lead us back into fellowship with Him. As we fellowship with Him we become transparent reflections of His character(2 Cor 3:16-18). Then the world can in turn begin to see how wonderful He is.

  As Jesus said, "If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me." He was lifted up once and for all on the cross. His lifting up is made visible to men when we, as He commands, "Take up your cross and Come follow me." This is the meek and lowly heart of reconciliation, "Father for give them, for they don't know what they are doing". The lamp of His character must be set upon the lampstand of His people shining light into all the world. When the lamp is under the bushel His character is being hidden by the straw of man's carnal agendas and fallen nature. In the letters to the churches in John's revelation the "orge" of Jesus Christ is expressed to the messengers (presbyters, apostles, stewards) of the churches precisely because they are "suppressing the truth in unrighteousness". They are allowing conduct that obscures the goodness of God, thus misrepresenting Him to the nations. It is not arbitrary violations that bring wrath. It is when our lives cause the misrepresentation of His character.

Our calling is to be partakers of the divine nature. We are called, chosen and predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Jesus is the radiance of the Father's glory and the exact representation of His nature and all things hold together by the power of His word. When we walk in the spirit we manifest the fruit of the spirit and God will set us on the lampstand. His radiance will draw all men. When we walk in the flesh He will warn us extensively but eventually the swelling will grow until He says, "Unless you repent I will remove your lampstand from its place". The further we move away from the radiance of the Father's glory and the exact representaion of His nature, the more things fall apart(wrath/chaos/darkness/destruction). The more we press into the mark of the prize of the upward call of God the more things "hold together" (grace/order/light/multiplication). We as believers are charged, to be a priesthood offering acceptable sacrifices to God, surrounding Him with transparent reflections of His character, ambassadors of reconciliation. This is what it means to be "inside the city".

Outside the city the grapes of the wine wrath of God are being trampled. That's right. His wrath makes wine. When He is through treading out the grapes there is a fragrant aroma of Christ remaining. But only after the "lees" (residue of the grape mash) are separated from the wine (see Jer. 48:10-13 for the Father's wine making recipe). This is the view of the wrath of God I prefer most. He must sometimes tread on us in order to separate out of us the residue of the old man. Then He must pour us from vessel to vessel as our faith is purified through trial and tribulation until a clear fragrant wine remains- worthy to be tasted by the King or shared with the world in the New Wineskin. The more we "Press in to the upward call in Christ" the less we must be "Pressed in the winepress of the wrath of God". One of the rewards of the overcomers is to escape the "hour of trial" that must come upon all those who "dwell on earth". This is the "crown of life".

For believers, it is not given to fellowship in the wrath of God unless we first fellowship in the mercy of God. Then perhaps we might at some time be given a word of correction to stem the plague among God's people- but only in the fellowship of His jealousy for them, not in the self-righteousness of superior knowledge or some sense of superior holiness. Jesus' "orge" arose out of His love for the people and His faithfulness to reveal God as the lover of all, no respecter of persons, a God of freely given grace. Our "orge" usually arises out of our own agendas and desire to be "right". Moses struck the rock and it prevented him from entering the promised land. This illustrates the limitation of the law.  In striking the rock the law could never bring the promised land, which is partaking of the divine nature- "Christ in you the hope of glory". We speak the truth in love- "speaking to the rock" so that living water can come forth from the inner man.

  It is an issue of the character of God in Christ that the "speaking" (life to all people of all nations) is far more effective than the "striking" (life to Israel), for our Rock is Christ. On the day when God shall judge the secrets of men's hearts through Jesus Christ according to my gospel, the kinds of things over which their conscience will convict them are pretty plain. Those who preached the word in hypocrisy (Lord Lord, didn't we do many mighty worked in your name? ....Depart from me I never knew you) will be saved, but as those passing through the flames. Those who did not meet the needs they saw along the way(I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, naked and you gave me no clothes). Those who were abusive in their stewardship over the inheritance(When the landowner was away he began to get drunk and beat the menservants and the maidservants). Those who condoned wickedness and taught sorcery(You tolerate that false prophetess Jezebel....Unless you repent I will throw you with her upon a bed of great tribulation). Those who judge others rather than themselves(With the measure you mete so shall you be measured) Failure to forgive (forgive not and you shall not be forgiven). Of course, only God knows the secrets of our hearts.

   Even now as "the day dawns" everyone is continually brought to the light of day for testing in the fire. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Mercy abounds everywhere in God though men often refuse it. As the full noon approaches, those who persist in disobedience are experiencing -and will experience "orge" and chastisement(for the purpose of correction), those who persevere in doing good, are entering- and will enter the joy eternal life (aionian zoe). So all must flee from the wrath to come into the loving edifying forgiving arms of Jesus and abide there faithful to the end, for he that endures to the end shall be saved. Jesus says, "I am the vine you are the branches, whosoever abides in me will bear much fruit, and that fruit shall remain. If any one abide not he shall be withered as a branch, cut off and cast into the fire", and it is an invitation and an admonition. When we abide in Christ we have not become perfect, in the absolute sense  that our daily conduct never fails. Our perfection is that we walk in love and humility, acknowledging our sins and inadequacies, growing in grace, being transformed into the likeness of Jesus. Then, as we are cleansed continually by the blood of Jesus we walk in "aionian zoe"-eternal life. This is the life(zoe) of God and the life that is in us through Christ, the vine. There is no need for fear in this life because perfect love casts out all fear. We have been perfectly loved, and as we abide we can love perfectly, our perfection being the honesty and humility of those redeemed by grace. This is the great reward of those who believe in this age, and their reward extends into the ages to come.

Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.
(Rom 2:1-11)

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, 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 in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
(Eph 2:1-10)

For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.
(see 1Th 1:2-10)

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.
(1Th 5:4-10)