The preachers quoted here describe the wrath of God as his settled hatred and punishment of sin, a perfection of his character and not a flaw in it. They say it runs through both Testaments, belongs to the present age as well as the future, and is seen now when God gives people over to their sins.
Paul begins his account of the gospel with it: "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (Romans 1:18). The word is orge.1 In Scripture it is not a loss of temper but the steady opposition of a holy God to evil. The same God is "slow to anger" (Nahum 1:3).
It is at work in the present. Three times in Romans 1 Paul says "God gave them up" to what they had chosen (1:24, 26, 28). John says of the one who does not believe the Son, "the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36), and Paul describes all people by nature as "children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3).
It is also future. The impenitent are storing up "wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God" (Romans 2:5). Revelation speaks of "the wrath of the Lamb" (Revelation 6:16). Believers wait for Jesus, "which delivered us from the wrath to come" (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
The cross is where wrath and mercy meet. God set forth Christ "to be a propitiation through faith in his blood" (Romans 3:25), so that "being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him" (5:9). "Herein is love ... that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). The Heidelberg Catechism states why such a mediator was needed: "no mere creature can sustain the burden of God's eternal wrath against sin, so as to deliver others from it."2
In the twentieth century some scholars argued that wrath in Paul is an impersonal process of cause and effect and that "propitiation" should give way to "expiation". Others answered that the biblical words describe God's personal response to sin and its turning away by sacrifice.
Scripture never sets God's wrath against his love. "His anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life" (Psalm 30:5). "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:9).
- Strong's Greek 3709, orgḗ: "properly, desire (as a reaching forth or excitement of the mind), i.e. (by analogy), violent passion (ire, or...".
- Various, The Heidelberg Catechism, "Question 14 Can there be found anywhere, one, who is a mere creature...".
In their own words
Each line below is quoted exactly from a sermon on this site. Follow the link to hear or read it where it was said.
The wrath of God is His eternal detestation of all unrighteousness.
A.W. Pink
in The Attributes of God 16. the Wrath of God
Read in context
And the wrath of God is an expression of God's hatred of sin, an expression of God's punishment of sin.
Martyn-Lloyd Jones
in The Wrath of God
Read in context
The wrath of God is his indignation and anger against sin and against unrepentant sinners.
William MacDonald
in The Wrath of God Lessons From Scripture
Listen at 0:54
The wrath of God is manifested in the fact that God gives men over to their sins and lets them go.
Charles Leiter
in Rom. 1:16-32 -Pt4- Ungodliness to Unrighteousness
Listen at 22:30
And the wrath of God is not excluded from his divine perfection.
Eli Brayley
in The Wrath of God
Listen at 6:57
The wrath of God is a fundamental truth from the Old Testament all the way through the New Testament.
Michael L. Brown
in Where Is the Wrath of God, What the Prosperity Preachers Will Not Mention by Michael Brown
Listen at 0:55
The wrath of God is a perfection of the Divine character upon which we need to frequently meditate.
A.W. Pink
in The Attributes of God 16. the Wrath of God
Read in context
The wrath of God is as much a part of our present day and our present age as it has ever been in ages past and in the ages to come.
Eli Brayley
in The Wrath of God
Listen at 13:11
What Scripture says
- Romans 1:18 the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
- John 3:36 he that believes not the Son, the wrath of God abides on him
- Romans 5:9 justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him
- 1 Thessalonians 1:10 Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come
- 1 Thessalonians 5:9 God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation
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