Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Wrath of God" (Chapter 15)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer
“The Wrath of God” (Chapter 15)

Wrath - “deep, intense anger and indignation.”
Anger - “stirring of resentful displeasure and strong antagonism, by a sense of injury or insult”
Indignation - “righteous anger aroused by injustice and baseness.”

• Like the justice of God, the wrath of God, is either completely denied in modern Christianity or significantly downplayed.
• Has God’s wrath against sin ever been a popular subject? Yet, both the OT & NT speak often of it.

“A study of the concordance will show that there are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury, and wrath of God, than there are to His love and tenderness” - A. W. Pink

Nahum 1:2–3 NIV
² The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies. ³ The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.

Nahum 1:6–8 NIV
⁶ Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him. ⁷ The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him, ⁸ but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh; he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness.

2 Thessalonians 1:7–10 NIV
⁷ and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. ⁸ He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might ¹⁰ on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

“Clearly, the theme of God’s wrath is one about which the biblical writers feel no inhibitions whatever. Why, then, should we? Why, when the Bible is vocal about it, should we feel obliged to be silent?” - J. I. Packer

What God’s Wrath Is Like

Is wrath unworthy of God?

• God’s wrath is not like our wrath.
• God’s wrath is not capricious, self-indulgent, or irritable.
• God’s wrath is his holy response to objective moral evil.

Is God’s wrath cruel?

• God’s wrath is judicial - the wrath of the Judge administering justice.

Romans 2:5–6 NIV
⁵ But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. ⁶ God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”

• God’s wrath is proportional - to what each deserves.

Luke 12:47–48 NIV
⁴⁷ “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. ⁴⁸ But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

• God’s wrath is something which people choose for themselves.

John 3:18–19 NIV
¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

“Nobody stands under the wrath of God except those who have chosen to do so. The essence of God’s action in wrath is to give men what they choose, in all its implications: nothing more, and equally nothing less.” - J. I. Packer

Romans on Wrath

1. The meaning of God’s wrath.

• God’s resolute action in punishing sin
• The active manifesting of his hatred of irreligion and moral evil
• An expression of his holy justice

2. The revelation of God’s wrath.

Romans 1:18 NIV
¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,

• a constant disclosure, going on all the time
• a universal disclosure, reaching those whom the gospel has not yet reached.

How is this disclosure of God’s wrath made?

• It imprints itself directly on every person’s conscience.
• Through the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit with the Gospel.
• There are tokens of the active wrath of God all around us in a broken, cursed world.

“If you want proof that the wrath of God, revealed as a fact in your conscience, is already working as a force in the world, Paul would say you need only look at life around you and see what God has ‘given them over to.’” - J. I. Packer

3. The deliverance from God’s wrath.

• The law cannot save us.
• Religious rituals cannot save us.
• Only justification through the blood of Jesus can save us.

Romans 5:9 NIV
⁹ Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!

“Between us sinners and the thunderclouds of divine wrath stands the cross of the Lord Jesus. If we are Christ’s, through faith, then we are justified through his cross, and the wrath will never touch us, neither here nor hereafter.” - J. I. Packer

A Solemn Reality

• This doctrine of the wrath of God must be handled with utmost care and sincere concern for the lost.
• But we cannot ignore it. To ignore it is to lose the gospel.

“...if we would know God, it is vital that we face the truth concerning his wrath, ...Otherwise we shall not understand the gospel of salvation from wrath, nor the propitiatory achievement of the cross, nor the wonder of the redeeming love of God.” - J. I. Packer

We should meditate frequently on the wrath of God:

• To remind us of sin’s hideousness and God’s abhorrence for it
• To nurture within our souls a true fear of God.

Hebrews 12:28–29 NIV
²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, ²⁹ for our “God is a consuming fire.”

• To lead us to fervent praise to Jesus Christ for having delivered us from the wrath to come.

1 Thessalonians 1:10 NIV
¹⁰ and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.