Join us as we delve into the profound mystery of the gospel, exploring Romans 1:16-17 and the seemingly contradictory concept of God’s wrath. We discuss how God’s power is revealed through sacrifice, His love manifesting through action, and how the essence of His nature impacts believers’ understanding of divine judgment. This episode challenges common perceptions, encouraging listeners to reflect on God’s nature and His ultimate desire for our salvation.
We are assured then by the book of Romans chapter 1, verse 16 and 17, verses 16 and 17, that the gospel is the power of God. It may seem weak to us. It may seem strange that God should allow his son to die on a cross. and be humiliated in such a way, but the power of God is lying in that very place of the crucifixion. For he suffered for the sins of humanity, for the judgment that humanity deserved, he took it instead. And as a result, the power of God in that salvation brings resurrection for all of us, at the coming of Jesus Christ or the resurrection now in our new life of new birth as we trust in Christ. Everyone who believes can know this. The gospel is the righteousness of God. God’s righteousness is his determined protection and defense of all helpless people. It is his holiness, yes, but his holiness is his love in action. And it is love that is leading to the cross. And the cross leads to the resurrection, and the resurrection leads to eternal life for everyone. But then Paul seems to go off in a totally other direction. He says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Now this can be very upsetting for many Christians. I remember years ago in my legalistic days and when I couldn’t understand the gospel, I shied away from the book of Romans. I couldn’t take this message, the wrath of God. You see, we want to know what God is like, don’t we? We want to be assured. We want to rest in the assurance that God is good, that God is in favor of us, even though we are sinners. You remember in Romans 8, and we’ll get there one day, Romans 8 says, therefore, what shall we say then if God is for us? Who can be against us? Well, how can God be for us if there is a great wrath in him? What is this wrath? There are some Christians, and they are dark alley Christians in my opinion, who hold the view that God is for some people and against others, that he’s going to save some, predestine them actually to salvation, and then predestine the rest to eternal hell. That is a diabolical teaching, and it divides God in such a way that it is impossible for us to comprehend what he’s like. You see, we have to know what God is like if we are to be saved, because knowing what God is like is the foundation for our trust. If God is good, if God is merciful, if God is kind, if God is love, then we have hope, don’t we, that he will be merciful to us and kind to us and that he will love us. But if there is in the back of your mind this sneaky feeling that God is going to snuff out millions and billions of people who didn’t even know about him in many cases, in most cases, Or even if they did know about him, it didn’t matter because he was going to put them in hell. Well, that is a caricature of God that is so impossible to embrace that we either embrace it and become mentally disturbed or we avoid God forever. Now look. We need to search this carefully because Paul has said that the gospel is the good news, the good news about Christ and God’s love for us in Christ. So, what is the wrath of God? What we need to start with is the knowledge of what God is like in Christ. When God loves us, he gives us his only son. God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. And so what we have then here in John 3.16 is the message that our God’s heart is full of love. John, one of the disciples, one of the apostles, you remember, the young man who was very close to Jesus and Jesus loved him in a special way. This man said in 1 John, in his letter called 1 John, chapter 4, verse 8, God is love. Now, the Bible never anywhere says that God is wrath. It says God is wrathful, and the wrath of God is revealed, but it doesn’t say that God is wrath, because that would imply that the essence of God’s nature is wrath. Well, as I say, the Bible doesn’t say that. But what the Bible does say is that God is love. Not that God is loving, which would be an attribute of his nature, but that God in very essence is love. 1 John 4, verse 8. Now, that doesn’t mean a nice sentimental feeling that God has towards us. It means that he is determined to love us back to his kingdom and to do everything necessary to rescue us from our mess. That is God. He is love. Now, let me put this to you. If God is love… the very essence of his nature is love, then when God is wrathful, that wrath is stemming from his love. For God cannot possibly suspend his own nature in order to be wrathful. God does not stop loving in order to express wrath. God’s love, since it is his essence, stimulates his wrath. Now that sounds really odd, I know. But think of it carefully. God loves goodness. He loves to see kindness among human beings. He loves to see his children helping one another and taking care of one another and delivering one another from trouble and forgiving one another. What if humanity doesn’t do that? What if humanity becomes cruel and vicious and tormenting of one another? What if humanity creates weapons of war that are so outrageous that they kill millions? What do you think God thinks about that? Well, God’s wrath, surely, rises up against humanity that torments itself and torments one another. When humanity is cruel, God is angry. Now, you may not like that, but think of it carefully. If God didn’t care what we do, if God simply was absolutely indifferent to pain, what would we feel about God? Wouldn’t we be terrified? Wouldn’t we be horrified? Wouldn’t we feel that God is absolutely mindless of us? He doesn’t care about us. Think of a parent. If a parent has a young child, four or five, let’s say, who has been bullied by a neighbor kid, and the parent finds out about it, is that parent going to be indifferent? Isn’t that parent going to be angry in some way? In other words, isn’t the wrath of the parent going to rise? why would that parent have wrath? Because that parent loves his or her child. And so, you see, wrath is an expression of a deeply wounded love. Wrath is an expression of a loving God who cares about his creatures who are being harmed. Now, Does that wrath become unreasonable and stamp out the whole of humanity or a portion of humanity? Is the wrath so virulent that it doesn’t simply want to correct things but squash them like a bug? Well, some people believe that. Some people believe that God’s wrath is his determination to wipe out sinners forever. But the Bible reveals very clearly that the wrath of God does not live on forever. It is mercy that lives on forever. His mercies are everlasting, and his wrath is to correct and to redeem. His wrath, revealed in the book of Ezekiel, say, if you read from chapters 36 to, well, 30 rather, to 40, you will find that God’s wrath, even though it’s pretty tough, I grant you, nevertheless, redeems Israel. In the midst of the wrath of God, he says, but I will make an atonement for you, the whole house of Israel, and forgive you for all that you have done. So God’s wrath is not a state of mind that is so overwhelming that it destroys the very creation he created. No, his wrath is there to bring us back to our senses. Now, of course, the people of God avoid that wrath. They believe in Jesus Christ who took the wrath for them. And so they are not afraid. They are trusting in God. But you and I know and ought to know that there is incredible wickedness on this planet. People, tormentors, people who are despots in government and who torment their people and do not allow them to go free. There are an incredible number of despots ruling the world today, from China right to the West and to the Americas. And they use and abuse people and are in power for power’s sake. Now, God’s going to be wrathful against that. And so we need to understand that we can trust God, who is a wrathful God sometimes, because that wrath is a determination to take out those who have harmed the world and his people. And yet, that wrath will not be eternal, for he will take out those people only to restore them in the judgment, the final judgment, when every knee shall bow and every tongue shall take an oath that in God alone is their righteousness and strength. So we thank God that he rises up against evil. We thank him that he’s going to wipe out pain and sorrow and the conditions that create pain and sorrow. If he weren’t to do that, we couldn’t trust him, but that is what his wrath is about. But ultimately, God is love. He will use his wrath to bring about love. And that is where you and I can trust our God because we have seen him in the person of Jesus Christ and we know he is safe. Thank you. That’s on KLTT AM 670. But you can also hear the program on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com and key in how it happens with Colin Cook when you get there. And please consider a donation. It’s listener-supported radio. And it costs $39 per 15 minutes. So if you’d like to make a donation, send it to FaithQuest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160. But you can also make a donation online at faithquestradio.com. Thank you very, very much for all your support. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
