Wrath Of God

Something interesting occurred during meditation.

I've often read about God's wrath. I've heard sermons about our God as a "righteous judge" who is solely fit to "separate the sheep from the goats." I've heard that God can be viewed as a "New Testament God" or an "Old Testament God." I've heard that in the past God was vengeful; nowadays He's a lot more easy-going.

God's grace affords us many benefits. We can sin all we want right up to our deathbed, and it will all be forgiven if we say a little prayer of repentance. If this were so, then what's the point in living righteously, denying ourselves of our baser lusts? We can be forgiven. After all, "God's grace is sufficient," isn't it?

Without becoming polemic, Paul's words in Romans certainly apply: "What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?" Does this mean that I should live in fear of GOD ALMIGHTY? How can I love God and still fear his wrath? How can God, who is love, still operate in old-school vengeance-giving?

My studies in Amos have lead me to the conclusion that God loves justice. Without going into much detail, it suffices that God's wrath is levied upon the unjust and the unrighteous. It seems almost like a punishment for ill behavior, much as a parent would discipline their children for neglecting to follow accepted codes of civil conduct. And for the crimes against humanity committed in the book of Amos, God would need to impose equally detrimental retribution to atone for the iniquities of an entire people group.

And what of modern examples of this behavior? Did God enact his justice on the likes of Cambodia's Pol Pot? And what of USSR's Joseph Stalin? Germany's Adolf Hitler? Will God intervene in the Burmese junta? Or Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army? There seems to be more present examples of injustice in the world than there are of harmonious societal bliss.

I think the key to understanding God's wrath lies in this statement: Human depravity hurts God. If I view my proximity to God in terms of relationship, it changes everything. God is no longer of the deist construct. God is everywhere and fills everything with His presence. God desires us to love Him as He first loved us. God desires to restore what has been ravaged and mend what has been broken. Thus, it makes sense that the decisions we as a species make to turn against what God intended for us to be is not only a breech of trust but a painful thrust into the very heart of God.

Imagine raising a child to know all of your love and good intentions for their future. You take great delight in the various stages of their development, and, painful though they may be, it's worth it because you know that in the end the many "blessings" you've afforded them will pass from them to their children and their children's children. You are effectively leaving a legacy of holistic wellness that may last for a thousand generations. Your great patience will have paid off. But what if, after all that you went through to raise your child, they decided to fall away from you? You no longer hear from them. Then much later, you see and hear about all of the horrible things they are doing, but have no influence in their lives to keep them from harming themselves and others. And what if you found out that your child was convicted of murder? Rape? Molestaton? Unspeakable acts of grotesque detail? Though your initial love for them may have never wained, a new feeling grips your heart with an unrelenting ferocity. Perhaps you regret ever having children. Perhaps you decide to disown them. Perhaps you feel compelled to make restitutions for the wrongs your child has committed. Whatever the case, you certainly must come to terms with the feeling that has now crept into your heart and commands your acquiesence:

Inconsolable grief.

There may be no other appropriate response. Watching something that was so cherished become so depraved. Spirit rending grief.

So then, if God is our originator, and if God loves us unconditionally, and if God is just, then God's wrath can be understood in this way. God gives us rules to follow, but reminds us that the most important thing we can do is to love God and love one another as we ourselves are loved by Him. And when something then happens to veer away from the original intent, restitution must be made. And if that veering is committed by an entire people group, then a "cup" of God's wrath begins to fill. And I contend that the cup is not merely filled with innocent blood that has been shed; rather, it is filled with God's tears that God Himself sheds over the damage He contributed to by creating us the way He did in the first place. God knew the unspeakable evils human beings would perpetuate, but it was the only way He could know our unrestricted love. Therefore, when God's cup has been filled and He can shed no more tears—when a people group has become entirely unjust and unrighteous, and the knowledge of God's kingdom has been lost from the people—God then intervenes, and His wrath is often instituted by other people groups. It can be said, then, that the wrath of God is the greatest expression of God's compassion for His children. It means that He not only feels what we feel, but does so all the more deeply, as He is ultimately responsible for judging us for all that we do.

So how do we live in light of this? Is God's wrath merely a past-tense curiosity? Or are there far-reaching effects that we cannot even see? How does the wrath of God apply to me on an individual level? What is my responsibility in intervening in the affairs of the corrupt among us? If you know, please leave a comment so I can get some rest tonight.