Dismiss God’s wrath and the vileness of sin — and what else goes with it?

The depth of our sin and the wrath of God against sin is not popular teaching. Some say God is only love, and that love does not get angry at sin or that Jesus died so we could be forgiven and just get on with loving God and serving others. His death had nothing to do with appeasing God’s wrath or with being a substitute for sinners who should die because of sin.

However, if the wrath of God against sin is taken out of the Gospel, then there is no need for reconciliation. God can just ignore our sin as if it does not matter, leaving us with no model to show us how to deal with our disputes against each other.  

Without God’s wrath against sin, we do not need to be made new creatures. We can stay as we are and even cut out these verses from the Bible: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

Our sin remains in our ledger, and we have no message to give others that will clear their sin and change their lives. Instead of being ambassadors for Christ through which God makes His appeal, we are left with watered-down statements of what Christ has done. We cannot implore anyone on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. Nor can we say, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:16–21)

Besides the wrath of God, justification by faith is also being excluded from the gospel message. This too is an important part of it, even the core of God’s good news. He says, “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

If I cannot be justified by faith, then I default to a constant striving to ignore God or please Him. This fills me with pride and self-righteousness, or with hopeless despair. Striving and despair are not in the Gospel. Justification by faith is the good news, the good news rediscovered in the Reformation, and the good news that produces rejoicing and hope.

Not only that, this reality enables me to “rejoice in (my) sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put (me) to shame, because God’s love has been poured into (my) heart through the Holy Spirit who has been given to me.” Outrageous, but good news – life changes because God changes me.

Further, Christ died in my place. The idea of substitutionary death cannot be removed from the gospel either. Without it, there is no salvation: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:1–10, some personalized)

Without reconciliation by His death, He cannot present me “holy and blameless and above reproach before Him” (Colossians 1:22) nor give me “the ministry of reconciliation.” That means, just as in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, He entrusts me with the same message. I and all who are justified are “ambassadors for Christ” and He is “making his appeal through us.” We are God’s workmanship and His workers. Life is eternally meaningful!

Without the depth of sin, the wrath of God, the substitutionary death of Christ and the reality of justification by faith, I cannot implore anyone on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:18–20) or invite them into abundant and eternal life.

Without the full truth of the Gospel, Christians cannot settle their differences by being willing to follow the same pattern of loving sacrifice. This is extremely important. Jesus said we are to love one another because it marks us as His people, as those who are a new creation: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34–35) 

Boot camp and sore fingers

This week’s unit of study is justification and sanctification. Justification is God declaring sinners “just” because Christ has taken their sin and replaced it with His righteousness. It is a legal declaration, but not in our experience. It is like enlistment in the army; you become a soldier instantly, but it takes time and training to learn how to live like a soldier.

This is where sanctification comes in. It is the process whereby God makes a justified person into what He has declared they are, His soldiers. This process begins at salvation and continues through life. Sometimes it is delightful, and sometimes it feels like God is ripping out my innards.

Because Jesus lives in me, and because God’s goal is that He is glorified in my life, God must get rid of all that blocks Him from being seen. This can be external activities and attitudes, but for me right now, it is deeply held values and desires. Corrie ten Boom once said, “I’ve learned not to hold too tightly to anything, for it hurts when God pries my fingers loose.”

I’ve not learned that yet. I know the principle, but absolute surrender, even to a loving and faithful God, is not as easy as tossing old or useless possessions. Not only that, He also asks for the new and valued, the near and dear. It hurts as He pries my fingers loose.

The reality is that there is only One Treasure, only One Hero, only One Valuable in my life, this Treasure is in this “jar of clay” and demonstrates that all “surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” And when this jar of clay (a frail, cracked pot) suffers, the more the treasure is relied on and released to serve others. Paul put it this way . . .

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:7–18)

This morning, God gives me this Word to not lose heart for this is “light affliction” and better things are coming. If that isn’t helpful — and thinking of heaven does not always make life here feel better — then He urges me with another Word to wait on Him . . .  

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28–31)

Two more passages also give me a boost. One is the goal of King David who was called a “man after God’s own heart.” As devoted as he was to God, he knew that he was not there yet and prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10) That is God’s goal for me as well, but getting there is a battle.

Israel struggled with inner and outer backsliding and needed encouragement and hope. For them, God said, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” (Jeremiah 29:11–14)

God has not driven me from home and sent me into exile, nor am I being persecuted and struck down. Instead, these current battles are within me, and invisible, except maybe for the pried fingers.