At the onset it must be said that true believers are not under God’s wrath. We are however to fear him. Our worship should be reverent. We are coming into the presence of a holy God. But, when it comes to worshiping God it is not readily apparent how we can do so in light of his wrath. Biblical believers know that they cannot pick and choose which attributes of God they like or dislike. We are to worship God! That’s it. Anything else is idolatry. We do not merely show gratitude for his love and mercy. We must also glorify him for his wrath, justice, righteousness, and holiness. How?
1) Be thankful for justice
God has instituted government (Rom. 13:1-7) in order to punish wickedness and lawlessness. When someone breaks the law by committing a crime and is penalized, then we can be thankful that justice was served. Our judicial system is not perfect. Although it was established by God it is run by fallen sinners. None the less, when sin is punished justly, we can thank God that punishment was dealt, the streets are safer, restitution made, and his character was vindicated (albeit imperfectly). Christians must be careful to rejoice in justice and not cruelty, excessive penalties, torture, or vigilantly justice.
2) Be thankful for God’s patience and warnings
Christians can rejoice in the fact that God delays judgment. We live in a fallen world that deserves to be annihilated by a holy God. But he is longsuffering and patient. When God pours out his wrath in scripture, we can be thankful that we have these warnings that serve as examples to awaken our consciences. Then we pray for mercy and that God would send a true revival. We worship our patient God because he was patient with us before we were converted. Since conversion, has he been any less patient? Of course not. Christians can rejoice. Our God is longsuffering and often warns of impending doom. He is just and will punish the unrepentant. So, believers must proclaim his message during this time of postponement.
3) Reflect on the heinousness of sin
When sin is seen for what it is, lawlessness, God-dethroning rebellion, evil, self-exaltation, unholy and impure filth, then the wrath of God is seen in a different light. It is viewed as necessary. We have such a low view of sin and an even lower view of God’s holiness. Because we are sinners and do not realize the depths of our depravity and the magnitude of its treasonous nature, we see the wrath of God as harsh, over the top, cruel, unnecessary, unfair, extreme, arbitrary, unjust, and unworthy of our “God of love.” We fail to see that God honors himself by justly punishing those who have merited condemnation by dishonoring God and sinning against him. God hates sin; it is an affront on his very nature and character. He will punish evil doers.
4) Run to Calvary
The cross of Christ is where the wrath of God and his mercy meet. We worship a wrathful God by praising him for sending Jesus. We worship because Christ took our punishment and bore the wrath of the Father. He took what we deserve; he took what we merited for being vile wretches. God be praised for pouring out his wrath on our Substitute so we can be forgiven. We worship our God who appeased himself. We praise Jesus for propitiating the wrath of God for us.
The wrath of God is very real. Believers should acknowledge this and preach the gospel. We are to warn others of the wrath to come. But, we are to also tell them the good news of Christ and his wrath satisfying atonement.
So, how do we worship a wrathful God? We can be thankful for the glimpses of justice we see on this side of heaven. Gratitude can be shown to our great God for being so patient and delaying his well deserved judgment. Next, by meditating on the sinfulness of sin, we come to better understand God’s holiness and his hatred of sin and desire to punish it. Then, we dwell at Calvary. We overflow with adoration for our God who punished our sins in Christ and then showered us with grace and mercy. God is wrathful, but praise him for making a way out. His wrath no longer abides on those who repent and trust Christ alone for salvation. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).
How don’t we worship a wrathful God? We don’t revel in violence. We do not promote hatred or inequality. We don’t call down judgment on our enemies. We do not proclaim that every natural disaster is his wrath (we do believe that he is sovereign and controls the wind and rain, but we do not have the right to make this claim. There is no special revelation saying that what happened was sent by God as judgment. It is wise to not make so bold a claim. It may be true, but we do not know how God plans to work and glorify his name in and through certain calamities.) We are not to act wrathful ourselves as if we can do God’s work.
There is one more aspect of this we must explore. Now, we know in part. We are sinful and cannot begin to comprehend completely the wrath of God. We believe it because it is scriptural. But, there will come a day when we are in glory. We will be as he is. We will be before the throne worshiping for all eternity. This same eternity that houses the damned in hell. The same eternity that will be filled with the righteous indignation of the Lord being poured out on unrepentant and unconverted deserving sinners. Our worship will not be stalled or abated. God will get all the glory and all the praise. We do not understand it now because we are imperfect and sinners ourselves. But we will worship God for his wrath forever. We will see him in all his splendor and majesty. We will recognize how holy he is and how unholy sin is. This recognition will cause us to see how sinful sin is and how gracious grace is. This is a difficult truth, I know. We will be transformed; we will be changed. We will understand better by and by. God be praised for his grace and mercy. Soli Deo Gloria.
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