What is the wrath of God?
Scripture speaks of God's wrath as something real, present, and personal — not a mood in God, but His settled response to evil. What follows works through what commentators say it is, why love does not cancel it, where it fell, and how anyone escapes it.
Righteousness Meeting Evil
Wrath is not a flaw in God's character. Writers describe it as what His justice becomes once sin stands in front of it — and they are careful to distinguish it from hatred.
J. N. DarbyA father full of love may be rightly angry with his child, and when Dr. W. says "wrath in the heart," he is misled altogether, and confuses hatred with judicial anger. There is no hatred in God toward man, certainly. Yet God is a righteous judge, and God is angry every day, and ought to be so.
Not Human Anger
Human anger flares and fades. What Scripture announces is of another order entirely — heavenly in source and character.
J. N. DarbySo the wrath of God from heaven: it is not human wrath or justice on earth, ending there in its nature and quality, nor even divine wrath exercised in an earthly way by earthly instruments. It is divine, from heaven.
There is a gap between the announcement and the execution. One writer marks it precisely, and points to a coming time when the gap closes:
F. B. HoleIt will not be merely a case of men afflicting men, or a nation punishing other nations, as we see so strikingly today, but of God punishing the nations as He settles His accounts with them. Wrath from God is "revealed from heaven" (Rom. 1:18), though not yet executed, and as far as the nations are concerned it will fall at this time.
The Delay Is Patience
The long wait before judgment is not weakness or forgetfulness. Commentators read it as patience — and see that patience as part of what makes the judgment so serious.
J. N. DarbyIt is a solemn thought that, however great His patience, a day is coming which will prove that He does not put up with evil. Yet it is a comforting thought; for the vengeance of God is the deliverance of the world from the oppression and misery of the yoke of the enemy and of lust, so that it may flourish under the peaceful eye of its Deliverer. No doubt He has long allowed evil to go on. He is not impatient, as our poor hearts are. He is slow to wrath — a wrath all the more terrible because it is the justice of One who is never impatient.
Love Does Not Cancel It
A common objection says a loving God could not be angry. The answer given is that a God who shrugged at evil would not be love at all — and would teach us to shrug too.
J. N. DarbyHe is a righteous Judge, as well as a God of love. He takes notice of good and evil, and so He necessarily judges. Yet we are sinners, and as regards such, what can righteousness do? But He is love. Does His love destroy His judgment against sin? Does it put an end to His righteousness? No: that would not be grace and love, but indifference to evil; and it would lead our hearts, sadly, to be indifferent to it too.
Where It Fell
The clearest measure of what God's wrath is comes from the cross, where the Lord Jesus met it in the place of others.
A. J. PollockWhat did the bitter cry mean, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" spoken by Christ on the cross, if He was not bearing the wrath of God against sin? How could the apostle Paul write, "much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God" (Rom. 5:9), if He did not bear that wrath and exhaust it at the cross?
Because someone else was punished in his place, the believer's account is not merely paused. It is settled:
J. N. DarbySuppose another is punished in my place: as far as I am concerned the wrath or punishment is quenched, and it is quenched by justice; and justice is carried out. The justice remains — but I go free, and there is no wrath for me.
Two Outcomes
For the one who refuses the Son, the wrath does not visit and leave. It stays.
F. B. HoleThe Lord Jesus says he shall NOT. He added, "the wrath of God remains on him." … He is there, and the wrath remains on him, without any hint of a moment when it stops remaining.
(Older translations read "abides on him" where the ESV has "remains on him.")
For the believer, the rescue is not endurance but removal.
F. B. HoleA day of wrath is coming… We shall be saved from that day through Christ. From other Scriptures we know that He will save us from it by taking us out of the scene of wrath before the wrath bursts.
Summary
- Cause: Wrath is judicial anger, not hatred — righteousness responding to sin, from a Judge who is angry every day and ought to be.
- Character: It is divine and from heaven, not the passing anger of men; announced now, executed later.
- Compassion: The delay is patience, and the very patience makes the coming justice more solemn — He is slow to wrath, and never impatient.
- Cross: The cry of abandonment measures it; wrath borne there is wrath exhausted, so justice stands and the believer goes free.
- Conclusion: Two destinies — wrath that remains with no hint of ending, or rescue by Christ before the wrath bursts.