WEDNESDAY
This week we have been talking about how believers are protected in Christ. When Scripture talks about the protection in Christ it often emphasizes our protection in a couple of different spheres. The first one is the protection in Christ from the divine wrath of God.
When we talk about God’s wrath it often seems to conflict with the image of God that we have heard about. We have heard that God is love and good and merciful. These are certainly true but we must remember that God is also just and holy. His wrath against sin and sinners is simply a result of his holiness and justice. His wrath is even a result of his love for those who have been wronged by evil in this world. His wrath is not like our angry outbursts which are often overreactions and uncontrollable. His wrath is his measured, just response to the sin in his creation.
Because we are all sinners, prior to our salvation in Jesus, we were all under the wrath of God.
Ephesians 2:3b (NIV) Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
Romans 2:5–8 (NIV) 5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
When our faith is in Jesus and we then live righteously out of our faith* we receive God’s eternal life and are exempt from the wrath of God. This same idea is found in the book of Revelation, which we went through together at the end of last year. The book is full of judgment and the wrath of God being poured out but interspersed amidst the judgment scenes are scenes of God’s protection of his people: the woman in chapter 12, the 144,000 following the Lamb in chapter 14, and the two witnesses in chapter 11.
Romans 5:9 says it directly:
Romans 5:9 (NIV) 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
In the context of John 3:16 we see the same theme:
John 3:14–18 (NIV)
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
The snakes in Numbers 21 were sent by God as a judgment for the sin of Israel. When they looked to the snake on the pole they were healed and delivered from God’s just judgment. So when we look to Jesus and believe in him we are delivered from God’s just judgment** that our sin deserves.
In the future day of judgment when Jesus returns to judge his creation, Christians who are in Christ, whose sins have been justified by his blood, will be saved from God’s wrath. We are protected from the just wrath of God against sin because of Jesus.
*Romans 2:7 can be taken to suggest that we earn our eternal life with righteous living. The idea of our righteousness earning our eternal life is contrary to the driving theme of the whole book of Romans. So it is best to take the doing good as a result of saving faith.
**the Greek term translated condemnation here can also be translated as judgment.
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Reflection
The wrath of God is truly a fearful proposition. As Hebrews 10:31 says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Thanks be to Jesus, he has saved us and delivered us from the wrath of God being poured out upon us. He has taken the wrath of the Father for us so to satisfy the just judgment for our sin. Spend some time confessing your sin and acknowledging the just judgment due it. Then thank Jesus for his forgiveness and protection his blood provides us from the wrath of God.