Sometimes people lean too far in one direction, boasting of God's love to the exclusion of his divine wrath against sin. It's worthwhile to consider that the two are inseparable. If God is really permissive and tolerant of our sin, would that really be love? The following are quotes from two men who lived long ago but what they say here rings true today as well.
"It is sad to find so many professing Christians who appear to regard the wrath of God as something for which they need to make an apology, or at least they wish there were no such thing.
While some would not go so far as to openly admit that they consider it a blemish on the Divine character, yet they are far from regarding it with delight; they like not to think about it, and they rarely hear it mentioned without a secret resentment rising up in their hearts against it.
Even with those who are more sober in their judgment, not a few seem to imagine that there is a severity about the Divine wrath which is too terrifying to form a theme for profitable contemplation. Others harbor the delusion that God’s wrath is not consistent with His goodness, and so seek to banish it from their thoughts.
Yes, many there are who turn away from a vision of God’s wrath as though they were called to look upon some blotch in the Divine character, or some blot upon the Divine government. But what saith the Scriptures? As we turn to them we find that God has made no attempt to conceal the fact of His wrath. He is not ashamed to make it known that vengeance and fury belong unto Him."
A.W. Pink (1886-1952)
"God would not be a holy God if it were all the same to him whether a man were good or bad.
As a matter of fact, the modern revulsion against the representation of the wrath of God is usually accompanied with weakened corruption of his holiness, and of his moral government of the world.
Instead of exalting, it degrades his love to free it from the admixture of wrath, which is like alloy with gold, giving firmness to what were else too soft for use.
Such a God is not love, but impotent good nature.
If there be no wrath, there is no love; if there were no love, there would be no wrath.
It is more hopeful for sinful men to believe in a God who is angry with the wicked, whom he yet loves, every day, and who cannot look upon sin, than in one who does not love righteousness enough to hate iniquity and from whose too indulgent hand the rod has dropped, to the spoiling of his children."
Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910)
...We all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body
and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--
by grace you have been saved...
Ephesians 2: 3-5
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