Is God angry with me?
Whether God is angry with you depends on something the Bible treats as settled and knowable, not on how you feel today. Scripture speaks plainly of God's wrath, and just as plainly of a wrath that has been turned away — so the real question is which side of the cross you are standing on.
An anger that is real, not a mood
God's anger is not irritation or a lost temper. One writer, commenting on the confession that God's anger consumes us, asks why it should be so and answers from ordinary human instinct:
L. M. GrantThis is anger of a pure and righteous character, by no means the losing of temper. But we generally have little sense of the dreadful seriousness of our sins, both public and secret. Do we not ourselves have anger against anyone who would viciously harm our children for no reason? — or against children who would deliberately despise their parents? So if we harm others who are God's creatures, or if we despise God and His Word, is it not only right that God should be angry with us?
That kind of anger must never be read as dislike of you. Commentators are careful to separate the two:
J. N. DarbyIt is not true, therefore, that wrath cannot be where there is love. A father full of love may be rightly angry with his child... he confuses hatred with judicial anger. There is no hatred in God to man, certainly.
No pleasure in judging
If you picture God as eager to condemn you, Scripture says the opposite about His desire:
W. W. FeredayThe great truth stamped on the opening verses of 1 Timothy 2 is that God is every man's sincere well-wisher. He desires all men to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth. It is a lie of Satan that some people come into the world marked out beforehand for ruin. If this were true, every gospel offer in Holy Scripture would be a mockery and a sham. "As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live" (Ezekiel 33:11).
Where the wrath fell
For those who trust Christ, the anger has already been spent — and not on them:
James BoydWe no longer dread the judgment we were rightly exposed to because of our offences; that judgment was measured out to our blessed Substitute on the cross... Our sins have been forgiven us, every one of them... they can never come up against us again. They are all gone in the death of Christ, and though He has been raised again, it was for our justification — there has been no resurrection of our sins. So it is all peace between us and God, and our Lord Jesus Christ delights to lead us into the calm that has come because the storm of divine wrath against sin has spent itself on His devoted head.
Nothing left between
That leaves the believer able to say something very specific about God's attitude:
W. T. P. WolstonThe knowledge that He has nothing against me, and that there is nothing between Him and me; that the claims of His infinitely holy throne have all been met regarding myself and my sins, and I can look at that throne knowing I am perfectly fit for it... Not because He is pleased with what I have done. No! Because of the finished work of Christ.
Lingering fear, then, is a signal about our grasp of His love rather than about His attitude to us:
J. N. DarbyIf there is any fear, we do not know the love of God fully. I am not afraid of God loving me too much. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" — and He is for us in every detail of our life, too.
Hard times are not proof of anger
When life turns painful, believers often read it as God turning on them. Writers point instead to the Father's discipline, which is love at work — and not always a response to something done wrong:
William Kelly"For whom the Lord loves He chastens, even as a father the son in whom he delights." However, it is not always because of evil done; His chastening may guard us from evil. It may be preventive as well as corrective. Shall we not, as children trusting Him, accept it with thanksgiving? We have clear proof of His love. Let us never doubt, but believe and bow.
Anger that can be turned away
Scripture does not soften the position of unbelief, but it holds out a real change:
J. N. DarbyScripture does know the expression of the anger or "wrath of God"... "God's wrath is revealed from heaven," and if we do not believe, it remains on us (John 3:36). And it is written, "You were angry, but your anger has turned away" (Isaiah 12:1). The passages that speak of it are very many.
Summary
- Wrath is real. God's anger is a righteous judgment on sin, never a temper and never hatred of you.
- Wrath is unwanted. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked; He is every person's sincere well-wisher, calling them to turn and live.
- Wrath was borne. The storm spent itself on Christ; His sins-bearing was so complete that they can never be raised against the believer again.
- Wrath is replaced by peace. The believer can say God has nothing against him — not because of his record, but because of the finished work of Christ.
- What remains is fatherly. Painful dealings with His children are chastening, sometimes preventive rather than corrective, and they are proof of love, not anger.