Christopher W. Morgan
The story line and message of the Bible is that God is on a gracious mission to save a people and cosmos for his glory (Eph 1:3–14; 2:7; 3:10–11). A major theme in this story is human sin, and a significant subtheme is sin’s fitting consequence: the wrath of God.
Wrath Enters
The Bible teaches that the eternal God exists in all his perfection. He is indivisible and yet appropriately characterized by intrinsic and eternal attributes such as holiness, love, goodness, justice, knowledge, power, and so forth. This means, e.g., that God has always been and always will be loving. But unlike love and other intrinsic attributes, the wrath of God was occasioned by historical events. Indeed, as his personal, active, and settled anger toward and opposition to sin, God’s wrath is an extension of his holiness and justice. Thus, wrath can only be rightly understood as the odious nature of sin is perceived; sin is fundamentally against God, a foolish and damning mutiny against him. (See “Sin”.)
Whether presented as wrath, fury, displeasure, judgment, vengeance, or indignation, God’s wrath first takes stage in the biblical story when sin enters. This does not mean that God’s wrath should be viewed as something external to him or as a depersonalized and inevitable process of cause and effect in a moral universe. Instead, God’s wrath is his holy revulsion against all that is unholy, his righteous judgment against unrighteousness, his firm response to covenant unfaithfulness, his good opposition to the cosmic treason of sin.
These truths about wrath are best understood through the biblical narrative, which begins with God creating everything in a way that pleases him and benefits his creatures (Gen 1–2). The goodness of God and his creation are highlighted by the creation account’s refrain, “And God saw that it was good” (Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). God creates humanity in his image, distinguishing them from the rest of creation and establishing a Creator-creature distinction. Adam and Eve are blessed with an unhindered relationship with God, intimate enjoyment of each other as a human couple, and delegated authority over creation.
Living in God’s holy presence requires obeying his will. But rather than submitting to and finding their pleasure in God, Adam and Eve rebel, wanting ultimate autonomy (Gen 3:6). The couple immediately feels shame (Gen 3:7), estrangement from God (Gen 3:8–10), and fear (Gen 3:10). They are also alienated from each other: the woman blames the serpent, and the man blames the woman and even God (Gen 3:12–13)!
In response, God rightfully pronounces judgments on the serpent (Gen 3:14–15), Eve (Gen 3:16), and Adam (Gen 3:17–19), resulting in pain, sorrow, relational disharmony, and antagonism with the creation. Even worse, the couple is banished from Eden and thus God’s glorious presence (Gen 3:22–24). God’s prior warning, “For when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Gen 2:17), becomes reality in God’s statement, “And to dust you will return” (Gen 3:19).
Unfortunately, though sin enters the garden, it does not remain there. Adam’s sin, while personal and historical, is also corporate and cosmic, plunging all humanity into sin (Rom 5:12–21) and resulting in a creation that longs for freedom (Rom 8:18–23). In Adam, all humans sin, are guilty before God, and die (Rom 5:12–21); they not only are dead in sin, enslaved to sin, and living in sin, but are also by nature children of wrath (Eph 2:1–3) and under the present and future condemnation that comes from suppressing God’s gracious self-revelation (Rom 1:18; 2:5–8). Humans are presently guilty and are now under God’s wrath (John 3:18, 36; Rom 1:18–24; 2:5–8; 3:9–20; 5:5–21).
Wrath Continues
The next episode in the biblical story reveals that sin persists, as Cain murders Abel and God curses him with banishment (Gen 4:8–16). Then Gen 5 lists the descendants of Adam, and after each one it adds the disheartening refrain, “And then he died” (e.g., vv. 5, 8, 11). What a contrast to the previous refrain of Gen 1: “And God saw that it was good”! But awareness of death did not keep humans from rebelling against their Creator. Humanity’s wickedness was enormous and an affront to God, who judges with the flood, sparing Noah (Gen 6–9). Persistent in their quest for autonomy, humans build a tower as a monument to their pride, and God responds by scattering them (Gen 11). These introductory chapters to the Bible (Gen 1–11) typify what follows. Humans continue in their revolt, God judges accordingly, and yet he still saves a people.
God’s wrath is further displayed throughout the biblical story and at key points. It is sometimes directed at his enemies, such as his judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19) and his judgment of the Egyptians through the plagues and destruction of Pharaoh’s army (Exod 7–15). God’s wrath is also directed at his own people. For example, God demonstrates his wrath at Moses’ request for someone else to deliver the people of Israel from slavery (Exod 4:14); at the mistreatment of a foreigner, widow, or orphan (Exod 22:21–24); and at the idolatrous worship of the golden calf, when God’s “fierce anger” is said to “burn” against the people (Exod 32:10–14; cf. Deut 9:13–21). Moses mediates on behalf of the people, and God spares them (Exod 32:14). Unfortunately, God’s people continue to sin, and his wrath follows. Examples abound but include God’s anger with and judgment on the wandering Israelites who complained about their situation (Num 11), on those who worshiped the Baal of Peor (Num 25:3–4), on the generation who refused to seize the promised land (Num 32:1–15; Deut 9:22–29), on the sin of Achan and corresponding judgment on Israel (Josh 7:1; 22:20), on pagan nations who opposed God and his people (Isa 13–23), and even on the nation of Israel, which resulted in exile (2 Kgs 18–25; Zech 1:1–7). But in the midst of many of these passages, God’s grace still emerges: God answers the prayers of his leaders (Exod 4; 32); he provides a mediator to turn back his wrath from the people of Israel (cf. Num 25:1–13); he uses examples of past wrath and warnings of future wrath to urge his people to obey in the present (cf. Deut 9:7; Ps 95:11; Isa 59:18; Heb 3:11; 4:3); and he even brings salvation through judgment (cf. Gen 3:15; 6:1–18; 7:22–23; 19:29; Exod 15:1–18). Even more, God is described as “slow to anger” and “abounding in love and faithfulness” toward his covenant people (Exod 34:6–7; cf. Num 14:18; Neh 9:17; Pss 78:38; 103:8; Nah 1:3), reacting not only as a just judge but also at times like a wounded lover (Hos 11:1–11). Indeed, sometimes his wrath toward his people lasts only “a moment” (Ps 30:5; cf. Isa 54:1–10).
Wrath Propitiated
Although the biblical narrative reveals that God’s wrath is directed toward sin and sinners, Jesus voluntarily saves us from divine wrath by bearing this wrath for us (Rom 3:21–26; 5:6–11). He drinks the cup of wrath (Matt 26:39–42), dies as a substitute (Rom 3:25–26; 1 Pet 3:18), and offers himself as a sacrifice for us (Heb 9–10). Through Christ’s saving work, the Son who merits blessing receives our curse, and believing and repentant sinners who deserve God’s wrath receive mercy (Gal 3:13).
Displaying Trinitarian unity, the loving Father demonstrates his love toward us by sending his unique Son into the world to bear his wrath for us. John states it profoundly: “God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:8–10; cf. John 3:16–18). God’s wrath on our sin is the occasion for Christ’s saving work, and his love is the motive of his saving work. Thus, propitiation—Christ’s loving, atoning self-sacrifice that satisfies God’s wrath on our sin and reconciles us to God (cf. Rom 3:25; Heb 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 4:10)—does not pit the wrathful Father against the loving Son (as some allege); rather, it underscores that the cross both supremely showcases God’s love and perfectly satisfies God’s wrath. As such, salvation is both unto life and from sin (and its fitting penalty, wrath).
Rom 3:25–26 especially underlines this reality: “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith . . . He did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” The Father presents the Son’s atoning sacrifice as the basis of the justification of those who have faith in Christ (cf. Heb 9–10). This justification is needed because all people are presently under the wrath of God and stand condemned as guilty before him (Rom 1:18–24; 3:9–20). Thus, Jesus’ work on the cross addresses the fundamental problem of our human condition: we are sinners, guilty before God, and under his wrath.
Wrath to Come
As previously noted, the wrath of God presently rests on all those outside of Christ (John 3:18, 36), is currently being revealed against ungodliness (Rom 1:18), and is related to the existing state of condemnation that characterizes the universal human condition (Rom 5:12–21; Eph 2:3). But the wrath of God is not only present, it is also future (Rom 2:5–8; 5:6–11; Col 3:6; 1 Thess 1:10; 5:9; Rev 6:16–17; 14:9–11). It is depicted as coming—it is tied to the final judgment and related to the day of the Lord—and as culminating in hell.
The present and future aspects of God’s wrath reflect the progressive nature of salvation history. There is an “already and not yet” or an “inaugurated eschatology” (see “The Consummation: New Testament Fulfillment”) of sin and wrath, just as there is of the kingdom, salvation, the church, etc. God’s wrath presently abides on sinners, and hell is the final and intensified unleashing of that wrath. Sinners are condemned already and await the ultimate condemnation. They are spiritually dead and await the second death. Unbelievers are currently alienated from God and will be finally excluded from his presence. In some sense, the descriptions of coming wrath in hell are culminations and extensions of the current state of sin of every unbeliever. The descriptions also serve to urge repentance and faith in Christ now.
The biblical story sometimes presents the coming wrath as tragic, as it is awful that people rebel against God and persistently spurn the Savior. As previously noted, God is “slow to anger” and “abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exod 34:6–7), and he does not take pleasure in the punishment of the wicked, just as he does not find pleasure in the existence of sin (Ezek 18:23). Jesus likewise grieved and wept over human lostness, sin, and the impending judgment (Matt 23:37; Luke 19:41; 23:34). The apostle Paul also shared this perspective, earnestly longing and praying for the conversion of his lost fellow Israelites, even to the point of being willing to undergo God’s wrath on their behalf (Rom 9:1–5; 10:1).
Yet God’s coming wrath is also victorious, being linked to his righteous judgment and the day of Yahweh, “the day of God’s wrath” (Rom 2:5). As such, the coming wrath answers (not raises) ultimate questions related to the justice of God. Through the coming wrath, judgment, and hell, God’s ultimate victory is displayed over evil, and his righteousness is vindicated (Rev 6:16–17; 11:18; 14:6–20; 15:1—16:21; 19:11–21). There is a “comfort” to wrath and hell. That God will one day avenge his people points to his covenant faithfulness and urges patience, hope, perseverance, and worship (Rom 9:22–23; 12:19; 2 Thess. 1:5–11; Jas 5:1–11; Rev 11:15–19; 15:3–4; 16:5–7; 19:1–10). God will judge everyone, the weak and the powerful (Rev 20:11–15). He and his people will win in the end, and he will ensure that justice prevails. Through his righteous judgment and ultimate victory, God will glorify himself, displaying his greatness and receiving the worship he is due.