Loving the Wrath of God

            I like shocking titles.  I’m not sure I achieved what I set out to say with the title I chose.  I want to be clear.  The wrath of God is good.  We would be lost without it.  I’m absolutely indebted to the wrath of God.  I can honestly say that when I truly take in God’s wrath, I can sleep better at night knowing that all will be made right in the world.

            Where are these thoughts coming from?  I’ve had a hard couple of weeks.  I’ve had to face some harsh realities of this world.  I have been powerless to change them.  They stink.  There is no other way to say it.  There is so much in this world that is not right and will not be put right in the forseeable future.  It is what it is.

            But it isn’t.  It may appear to be what it is, but it isn’t done.  It’s not over.  What happens in my lifetime is not over when I die.  There is a day when all will be made right by the wrath of God.  The wrath of God is also the righteousness of God.  He is holding back His wrath so that we humans stand a chance.  If God did not hold back His wrath and invoked His righteousness on us before making a way through Jesus Christ, all would be hopeless.  As it is, it is the wrath of God that gives us hope.

            Julian of Norwich explained it this way:

There is a deed that the blessed Trinity shall do on the last day, according to what I saw.  When and how the deed shall be accomplished is, and shall remain, unknown to all creatures beneath Christ until the day it is done.  What our Lord wills that we know, through His goodness and love, is that the deed will be done. ..for by the great deed that our Lord shall do He shall save His word in all things and He shall make well all that is not well—though how it shall be done no creature below Christ knows or shall know until it is done.

This is why I feel safe and good about the wrath of God.  It is not that the wrath of God is not severe.  It is that the wrath of God is as perfect as He is; therefore His wrath will be perfect in every way.  I’m not trying to take the wrath of God lightly.  I know how much my sins deserve His wrath.  I recognize the intensity of His wrath when I meditate of the events of the cross of Jesus Christ.  When I take in the fierceness of His wrath, I better comprehend that from which the righteousness of Christ has saved me. 

David rested in the knowledge of God’s wrath too when he questioned some of the same issues I question.  Psalm 10:13 is David’s question, Why does the wicked man revile God? Why does he say to himself, He won’t call me to account?  Psalm 10:14- 18 is the answer he trusts completely, But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.  Break the arm of the wicked man; call the evildoer to account for his wickedness that would not otherwise be found out. The Lord is King for ever and ever; the nations will perish from his land. You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror.

I’m grateful that God sent Jesus to give me righteousness so that through my faith I can stand before God’s wrath.  I’m also grateful that I can trust and love God’s wrath and wait in faith, believing that all will be made right in this world because of the wrath of God.

Copyright © 2012.  Deborah R. Newman www.teatimeforyoursoul.com  All Rights Reserved.