The Wrath of God

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,"Rom:1:18

Is God angry at us?..Is he about to release his wrath against this sin filled world? Is God angry?

There are sincere Christians who feel that they are the object of God' anger and because of something they have done or not done that is wrath is about to "come down" upon they or even the world around us.

We can read of God's wrath or as it is sometimes called in Scripture "Day of the Lord".

We can envision this time of God's wrath as a moment of divine judgement or righteous indignation.

We can read in the Old Testament of God's divine intervention in the life Israel and other nations this intervention was at statutory. These times of God's "wrath" we are told , by St.Paul, were provide for us ,thru the written word of God , as examples for us who now live after the incarnation of the Eternal Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity in the person of Jesus Christ and his death upon the cross and his glorious resurrection.

St.Paul writing to the Corinth Greece Christians, and Christians throughout the ages, that what we find in the Old Testament Scripture as part of the Holy Word of God is there to convey lessons and examples to us.

"These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.  So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation  has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted  beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,  he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it"1Crth:10:11

St.Paul is writing to here in the context regarding those things which we may find our selves confronting in our lives. That we of our own-selves , need not stand on our own attempting to cope with our own devices in the face of temptation and seek our own solutions as the Children of Israel tried and failed and came to ruin.

We now however, can trust in our Lord and to seek his zealous divine assistance to help us deal with what we face. St.Paul again intones this truth of the example's and admonition of the Word of God for Christians.

"For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope"Rom:15:4

What this is declaring to us is that we can read of Israel's attempts to deal with the issues of life through their own means both personal and as a nation and they failed.

Understanding God's Wrath

What then does the Scripture truly mean when we hear of this "wrath" . St. Paul tells us that God's wrath is being reveled from Heaven.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,"Rom:1:18

What does this tell us about God? The most often used, and translated , word for wrath in the New Testament is the Greek word "orgé". This word can be understood as intense passion or zeal. It carries with it the sense of seizing and shaking. It as well implies that this is not "rage" or an uncontrolled response. but rather, a rational dealing with what ever is harmful or wrong.

This speaks to each and all of us that God is not "angry" at us, and he is not ready to unleash "divine wrath" against us. What it does tell us is that our God is passionate and zealous to deal with what is is harmful in our lives.

This tells us that God's "orge'" is for our good. It carries with it the sense that our Lord wants to seize hold of whatever is harmful or unbefitting us as Christians, and by extension all humanity, and shake it until it's unhealthy hold upon us and our lives is broken and we are set free to live as our Lord has always intended for us as his beloved Children.

This should fill us with great hope that our God will ,and is , zealously, and with divine passion, reaching out to shake loses and set us free. That tell us that rather than anger God is moving out of an eternal love for each and all of us.

That this "wrath", this zeal, this passion is being reveled out of Heaven for each and all to shake lose all that is harmful to us and impedes our relationship with himself and among us.

Wrath Dealt With

We now live, as St.Paul wrote to the Corinth Christians, at the culmination of human history " on whom the culmination of the ages has come" , which is, those who are in the post cross and resurrection period of history. Now that the very Messiah has come .

It is as if the Messiah, Jesus Christ , has come and brought the end of all things into the middle of human history that the "culmination of the ages" dawned that glorious resurrection morning after the tribulation of the cross and the darkness of the ages manifested of upon Calvary.

The "wrath" of God against the nations was made publicly made manifested before all, sin has been dealt with anything that could separate us or impair of relationship with the great God has been dealt with.

The Cross of our Lord Jesus demonstrates for all time and eternity how passionate our God is to size our lives and each and all wickedness and shake all things to set us free. Even at the death of Jesus, the manifestation of the wrath of God was displayed in the shaking of the Earth renting the veil of the Temple which separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies showing us we now have access to God without restraint, there is nothing which can keep us from him. His "wrath" is accomplished.

This zealous shaking also results in life from the dead as saints of God come forth out as their Tombs are broken open and after Jesus' own resurrection entered Jerusalem and were seen by many. This shows us that God's "wrath" brings life not death us.

he Prophet Isaiah, who's writing are so filled with the ministry of Jesus that some scholars call it the fifth Gospel saw the zealous passion of the work of the cross and the satisfaction of the wrath of God.

"Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.…"Isa:50:10-11

There is now nothing that keep us from receiving God's passionate help to resolve our challenges and problems in life.Jesus has come and has brought us near to God the cross in emblematic of God's zeal and passion to aid us.

The Shaking of the Earth

St.John the last of the original Apostles while on the Island of Patmos see God's intervention as human history reaches the point where God's glorious intervention is now made public as St. John writes in the highly symbolic Apocalyptic language of the great earthquake that moves mountains and the islands of the seas.

We can see this as God's intervention manifested in a great global earthquake at the return of Jesus in glorious power to rule all nations at that moment when Jesus descends from the heavens, (which he most certainty will), after Jesus has stripped away the seals from the scroll, exposing the false Messiah's, the war, famine, and epidemics as well as other tragedies in the life of humanity causing many to flee and to hide themselves.Rev:6.

But for a moment, let's see this as a personal thing when we come to see who Jesus is and he has stripped away all that we worshiped and see the conflict, the economics of our personal lives spent to the point of depletion and we are sick of the the very things which cause our problems.

It is then, that Jesus intervenes in our lives and with passionate zeal, that he shakes the world of our lives as the great earthquake of Revelation our mountains and islands , come crumbling down around us ,we then see the heavens open, we see only darkness and distress in coming face to face with Jesus, we maybe filled with fear at his "wrath" , that in fear we,like the great of the world, look to hide ourselves in the face of his "wrath" , but we need not be so filled dread we are now the receiving his passionate zeal to remove from our lives all that we hinder us all arising out of his love for us.

Our Lord is not angry at us but he passion and zeal for us an  has zealously moves with great passion for us all to shake lose all that would hinder us from knowing him, he is not angry at us for any of our short comings he has come for and to us in a most passionate way all to show us his love and his divine desire foe us to be with him for all eternity, for this , we can be thankful for his "wrath"against us.

Benediction: May we each and all be ever grateful for our Lord God;s passionate zeal for us, to remove from us all that would hinder us in our relationship with him, today, tomorrow and forevermore.Amen.

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor 

The Fountain of life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion2101 Old National Pike,  Washington, Pennsylvania, 15301   www.gcfountainoflife.org 

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