In this episode, Colin Cook delves deep into the complex relationship between the wrath of God and humanity’s inherent nature. Through a thought-provoking examination of Scripture, he explains how God’s wrath is not an indication of hatred but rather an expression of His profound love for the world. The episode challenges listeners to confront their understanding of divinity, urging them to see the love that motivates divine wrath and the urgent need for humanity to align itself with God’s righteousness.
So we look now a little more closely at the verse, “…the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” Now, you know, I teach the Word of God, and I’m one of the preachers, I suppose, of the world, but that doesn’t mean to say that I’m comfortable with what I’m reading. I’m on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of God’s righteousness by being a human being, a fallen human being. Although I know by God’s grace I’m redeemed and that I’m not counted in my brokenness and sin, and that I am counted in Christ’s righteousness, so I can agree with God by faith. But my humanity doesn’t want to agree with him, and nor does yours, in the sense that we don’t want to believe in the wrath of God. We don’t want to believe that he can be angry with the world and judge the world. But we have to, by faith, accept the reality, because the world has become cruel and destructive. So let’s look a little bit more closely at the verse itself, remembering this— that the wrath of God is motivated by love. Only a God who loves goodness and purity and innocence can hate badness and impurity and sin. Only a God who loves peace can hate what is destructive and harmful to the human race. God’s wrath is motivated by love, and he is wrathful against the world not because he hates the world, but He actually loves the world, but because the world is destroying itself. That is what we need to see by faith in Jesus Christ. So the wrath of God is revealed against humanity, and yet God loves humanity. And so while God is having wrath, he is loving at the same time. And what is he wrathful about? For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, now listen to this, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Now the key word in this verse is suppress, which is to hold the truth in unrighteousness, but not to hold it up, but to hold it down. I’ve used the illustration before of a soccer ball, say, in a large bowl of water. and you hold the soccer ball down, that’s the truth, and as a result of that, holding it down, the water is dispersed from the large bowl. We do not have room to contain the truth because we are pushing out the space for truth. Now, when human beings suppress the truth, that’s all of us, we actually suppress the reality of who we are as human beings. For God is life, and in him we see light. That’s Psalm 36. In him there is no darkness at all. But if we suppress the truth of God from our consciousness, then we are in darkness. We have lost our sense of self and our identity. God made man in his image, male and female he made them. And so when we are open to God, We are open to our own identity as joyful, loving, merciful, good human beings. And without that knowledge of God, we have lost our way and we are vulnerable to any force of evil. When humanity forgets what God is, it is capable ultimately of doing anything. And we saw in the Holocaust, we saw in the Second World War, the capacity of human beings to do unspeakable evil. How could that happen? Only by forgetting who the true God is, who created us in the first place and who redeemed us. So when God is wrathful, it doesn’t mean he is personally pointing his finger and poking you in the chest for your personal sins. It means that God has to do something with the human race that came under the power of sin and death at the fall of Adam. God has to act in judgment against that human race, because that human race, broken by sin and in death, cannot survive into eternity. If God were to take this human race into eternity, well, of course, it would be eternal. And what would that be? Eternal suffering, eternal death, eternal sin. He can’t do that. He wants to create and have joy. For the human race to bring innocence and no pain and no suffering, but all joy in his presence. Psalm 16. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. God has a great and magnificent goal for the human race, but it cannot be accomplished as the human race is now. And so he has to place a judgment upon it. It doesn’t mean he hates the human race. It means he loves the human race while placing a judgment on it. He’s saying to us, listen, trust me, I cannot take your humanity into eternity, but I can redeem you and I can create a new humanity in you that will be forever joyful in my presence. That’s what God is saying here. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Now notice, it is unrighteousness that enables us to suppress the truth. We do not sin because we are sinners. I hope I can say this correctly. We do not sin because we are sinners. We are sinners. I can’t get it, but let’s go on. But what is happening in these verses is that Paul is telling us that we suppress the truth by being unrighteous. We keep on sinning so that the truth may not be known. We are sinning to suppress the truth. We are not suppressing the truth in order to sin. I think I got that right. You can hear me muddled up right now, but think it through yourself. Romans 1.18. Now, the next thing I want to point out, which is tremendously important, is that the suppression of truth is the natural state of our humanity. We don’t know we’re doing it. Now you say, but I’m a Christian, I don’t suppress the truth. Oh yes, you do. You suppress the truth every day, even though you know Jesus Christ, even though you are a saved man or woman. Jesus said, when asked, how many times shall I forgive a man? Shall I forgive a man seven times a day? Jesus said, seventy times seven. Why did he say that? Because he was implying that humanity is in a constant state of sinning. a constant state of sinning, and is being forgiven constantly all the time. And so God’s action of love and forgiveness is being gifted to the world even while he has wrath, which is the urge, not simply the urge, but the actual plan to judge the human race and change that human race. By the time Jesus comes, the corruptible shall put on incorruption, the mortal shall put on immortality. God has to make a new creation. It’s still our souls, but he gives us a new body, a new mind that can live for eternity. He cannot take this mind through and this heart of ours through to eternity. Now you say, but Colin, how is it that I’m suppressing the truth as a Christian? Well, we compartmentalize, don’t we? We accept Jesus. We receive him into our hearts. We believe we are saved. We thank him so much for our salvation. But we have become increasingly aware as time goes on that there are pockets of resistance to God that we have not yet given up and handed over to him. We haven’t let him come into those pockets and take out what’s in those pockets and have it destroyed. And so we are in a state where we love God, we believe in him, and yet a great part of us and a portion of us is still holding out against him. Now this may still be incomprehensible to you, except when you think of this— Are we more guilty of sin, or are we more guilty of not doing good? In other words, is it sins of commission that we are most guilty of, or sins of omission? When you think of the world… overseas, and the world in suffering places like Yemen and South Sudan and the famines of Ethiopia and many other places, North Korea and so on, when you think of those places, Do you do much about it? Do I do much about it? I do my little bit to help a family or two in these foreign countries, in particular, for instance, Nigeria. But for the most part, we Christians let it go. We say we can’t do much. What can we do? We don’t help them. Now, I don’t know what, I don’t want to lay a burden on you that you cannot possibly fulfill. That’s wrong of me. I wouldn’t do that. But we can at least pray for these people, many of whom hope to have one meal today, some of whom hope to have one meal this week. That’s how starving people experience life, and food becomes the one obsession. And so, we are capable of not only sinning, but omitting to do good. It is that we are not only sinning by commission, but sinning by omission, omission of the good that we possibly could do. Now, don’t lay guilt on yourself if you can’t do anything about it, but if you can, reach out and help somebody beyond these shores, Well, let’s do it for the sake of Jesus, to give that cup of water in the name of Christ, to give that loaf of bread in the name of Christ. But do you see what we need to accept? That we are in a state of suppression, and we need to say, Father, even though I believe in you and you are my Savior in Jesus your Son, I recognize too that I suppress you so often that And don’t go berating yourself endlessly and saying, oh, please forgive me, dear God, because I didn’t think about you today. But rather say, Father, thank you that though I forgot you for so many hours today, you never forgot me. You remembered me and you keep watching over me and having mercy upon me and forgiving me 70 times 7 of this suppression that I have towards you. Now, why are we, of course, suppressing God? That’s an important question. Why is it that the suppression of God is a natural state of humanity? Because we inherited Adam’s sin, which was to block God in order to take that forbidden fruit. And so we are laden with a guilt and a shame and a fear. You remember what Adam did when he heard God coming through the garden in the cool of the day. He hid. And why did he hide? Because he was ashamed. because he was naked of soul. And so the hiding is the guilt, and the shame is what comes from the guilt. And then what happens then? We hide. That is fear. So we have guilt and shame and fear, and it is an automatic condition. And we need to open our hearts up to him and say, Father, I receive you. Thank you for reminding me of you today. Thank you for listening today. This is Colin Cook and you’re listening to my broadcast, How It Happens, which you can hear any time of the day or night 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, would you consider a donation? You can make it online at faithquestradio.com. Each broadcast is $39 per 15 minutes. That’s about $200 for a week’s programs. Thanks so much. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
