Resisting the Word Brings God's Wrath
When the anger of God went up against them, killed some of the fattest of them, and struck down the young men of Israel. — Psalms 78:31
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. — Romans 1:18
Author
Dr. Roberto Miranda
Summary: God is loving, patient, and compassionate, but he is also just, and his wrath is revealed against those who resist his will. We must not mistake his love for approval of every kind of conduct. His wrath is holy: it does not arise from selfishness or resentment, but from his justice. The final judgment and the condemnation of unrepentant sinners show how serious it is to resist his Word. Therefore, the Church must not be intimidated or present only the attributes of God that people find pleasing. We must also proclaim his justice and call people to repentance, without joy or personal satisfaction at anyone's condemnation.
I am struck by this idea of the wrath of God. We often do not like to think of an angry God. The image we normally prefer is of God as love: the loving God, the tolerant God, the forgiving, patient, compassionate God. And that is true, because those are aspects of God’s character.
But the Bible also tells us that God is a consuming fire, and I think it is important that we understand this because, nowadays, one of the strongest arguments made by those who promote homosexuality is that God is love and therefore God accepts all people, God accepts their behavior; that if we love people, we must accept them just as they are; and that if we oppose their behavior, we are not expressing God’s love. That is a complete distortion of the truth.
The Bible says that God is love, but, as we have said, it also says that He is a consuming fire. There is an aspect of God that is wrathful, and that aspect is manifested when God is resisted. We see, for example, that on several occasions God became angry with the Hebrew people when they resisted Him, when they murmured against Him, when they despised the saving works He had done in bringing them out of Egypt. On several occasions we see that the wrath of God is terribly frightening and that God, too, has times when He grows angry.
There is a place for the wrath of God; indeed, there is a place for human anger. The Bible says, “Be angry, but do not sin.” The Gospel is serious; God is serious. When people stubbornly persist in resisting the will of God, this definitely brings about divine wrath.
The Church of Christ must understand this so that it will not be intimidated or emotionally manipulated by claims that, no, we must always be gentle and calm, supportive of everything, and patient. There is a place for the Church to declare, too, that God is a God of justice and that there is condemnation for those who resist the Word of the Lord. We do not do this with joy; we do not do it with any kind of personal satisfaction. But it is our duty to know that, for the person who resists God, there is condemnation, there is eternal fire.
At the end of the world, the Bible says, God will judge the living and the dead. God will cast unrepentant sinners into eternal fire; hell is a manifestation of the wrath and justice of God. So we have to understand this from the beginning, don’t we? There is a dimension that is wrathful, and we must say so. It is a holy wrath, a perfect wrath, in the sense that it is not wrath arising from selfishness, hatred, or resentment, but wrath arising from a just, sovereign God who is offended when small, imperfect human beings resist His perfect will and His perfect judgments.
So I think that in this meditation I only want us to establish this fact, don’t I? God has His moments when He grows angry with those who resist His will, and the Church must present that aspect of God as well, so as to present the whole counsel of God’s Word to sinners, that they may repent. Thank you for your attention, and in our next message we will continue studying this passage. God bless you.