Understandably, when Christians are asked to complete the sentence “God is ____,” virtually all will respond with “love” (1 John 4:8) rather than “a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). Yet, both are profoundly biblical — even essential to the Christian faith.
In biblical thought, God’s wrath is His holy and just response to sin, rooted in His righteousness and moral purity, expressed both in the present and in the future, and satisfied in the atoning work of Christ.
The theme of God’s wrath is consistently woven throughout the fabric of Scripture, beginning with God’s judgment against Adam’s sin in the garden to the final judgment in the Book of Revelation, where the Lamb is executing His wrath (Rev. 6:16–17). The Old Testament alone contains nearly 600 references to His anger, wrath, or indignation.
Since the New Testament was written against the backdrop of the Old Testament, not surprisingly, allusions to God’s wrath are not as frequent. Yet, the New Testament is replete with references to God’s wrath. For some examples, see Luke 21:22–24; John 3:36; Rom. 1:18, 2:5, 5:9, 12:19, 13:4–5; 1 Thess. 1:10, 2:16, 5:9; and Rev. 6:16–17, 16:19.
Not the Same as Human Anger
Misunderstandings and caricatures of God’s wrath have led some scholars to deny it altogether and some evangelicals to downplay it as an embarrassment. Human wrath — which is often tainted with a sinful attitude, driven by pride, and often disproportionate and unpredictable — cannot serve as the standard for understanding God’s wrath. Rather, God’s wrath is a holy wrath — never an overreaction, but always appropriate to every situation.
Some theologians have suggested that since God is loving, He cannot experience wrath. But God’s love and wrath are not mutually exclusive. Rather, God’s wrath is an expression of His love, in that it refuses to tolerate evil against His creation. God’s wrath is God taking His love seriously.
God’s wrath should be expected when His righteousness and holiness are violated by sin. Since God is righteous, His laws are righteous, such that breaking His law is not merely violating an abstract principle, but is a personal affront to God — resulting in His wrath, which is righteous and holy.
Not Like the Anger of Pagan Gods
Nor is God’s wrath like the wrath of pagan gods, whose anger is often little more than a temper tantrum over hurt feelings. Whereas pagan sacrifices were human inventions by which they appeased the angry gods, the God of the Bible took the initiative in instituting the sacrificial system, making the sacrifice Himself that satisfies His justice and offering Himself as the sacrifice. Jesus was not only the high priest offering the sacrifice but was also Himself the sacrifice. (See Heb. 7:27, 9:12; Eph. 5:2.)
Some theologians have offered to solve their perceived problem of attributing wrath to God. They argue that the wrath of God is not a personal wrath that God experiences. Rather, God’s “wrath” is merely the natural consequences of wrong attitudes and behaviors. For example, bitterness and envy have serious health consequences. This explanation resembles more the pagan idea of karma than the biblical view of God’s wrath.
God has certainly created a moral universe in which people often reap what they sow, but these results do not comprise the wrath of God. At cursory glance, the myriad of statements concerning God’s wrath reveals that sin constitutes a direct affront to God’s person, and His response is equally direct and personal.
Vital for Understanding the Gospel
A biblical understanding of the cross presupposes the wrath of God, for if people are not facing the wrath of God, then salvation is unnecessary. A central tenet of biblical theology is that, on the cross, Christ bore God’s wrath as man’s substitute. Jesus’s death satisfies, or propitiates, God’s righteous anger, which allows for reconciliation.
Those who reject the idea of God’s wrath necessarily interpret Jesus’s death not as a sacrifice, but as a model for us to follow — we are saved by following His example, not by His bearing our sins.
Propitiation, therefore, is a foundational tenet of biblical salvation. Propitiation is understood as a sacrifice that satisfies God’s wrath by removing man’s sin and guilt. Without God’s wrath being propitiated, mercy could never be shown to the guilty. Consequently, Jesus is described as “the deliverer from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10). Paul can write, “Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Rom. 5:9).
The Old Testament is filled with references to God’s wrath being averted by the sacrifices that He required of the Israelites. Four passages in the New Testament use the word “propitiation” in reference to Christ’s work on the cross (Rom. 3:25; Heb. 2:17; 1 John 2:1–2, 4:10). While the NIV unfortunately translates the word for “propitiation” as “a sacrifice of atonement,” it does offer as an alternative translation “as the one who would turn aside his wrath, taking away sin.”
Jesus’s death did not win God’s love for man. Rather, God’s love motivated Him to send His Son to satisfy His justice and bring forgiveness and reconciliation to all who believe, as John 3:16 testifies. First John 4:10 insists that God’s love is the cause of Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice and not vice versa: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Tempered with His Mercy
Throughout Scripture, God’s wrath is regularly tempered with His mercy. That will not be the case at the final judgment. Ultimately, the wrath of God remains upon all who do not come to the Father by faith in Jesus, through whom alone the wrath of God is averted (John 3:36).
— Walter Johnson is a recently retired dean of the College of Christian Studies at North Greenville University, where he taught and served for 32 years.