Day 8 of 14
The Wrath of God
The Attribute Nobody Wants to Discuss
Scripture Readings
Today's Reading
Read Nahum 1:2-8: "The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty... The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him."
Then read Romans 1:18: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth."
Reflection
No attribute of God makes modern people more uncomfortable than His wrath. We would prefer a God who is endlessly tolerant, who looks at human evil with sadness but never anger. The very word "wrath" sounds primitive, volatile, unworthy of a divine being.
Packer confronts this discomfort head-on: "Would a God who did not react adversely to evil in His world really be morally perfect? Would a God who showed no displeasure at those who ravage and destroy the helpless really be good?" The question reframes everything. Wrath is not the opposite of love. It is the corollary of love. A God who loves the oppressed must be angry at oppression. A God who loves the innocent must be wrathful toward those who destroy them. A God who sees genocide, abuse, exploitation, and trafficking and feels nothing would not be good. He would be monstrous.
Nahum reveals this clearly. The same God who is "slow to anger and great in power" is also the God who "will by no means clear the guilty." And — crucially — the same passage tells us "the LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him." Wrath and goodness are not in tension. They are two sides of the same coin.
Paul opens his exposition of the gospel in Romans not with grace but with wrath: "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." This is deliberate. Grace is meaningless without wrath. If there is no just anger against sin, there is nothing to be saved from. The cross is an empty gesture if God was never truly offended by human rebellion.
Packer makes the connection explicit: "The wrath of God is as personal, and as potent, as His love; and just as the blood-loss and pain of Calvary are the price of God's love for sinners, so they are the measure of His wrath against sin." At the cross, love and wrath meet. God's wrath against sin is fully expressed and fully absorbed. His love for sinners is fully demonstrated and fully offered.
Going Deeper
The doctrine of God's wrath should produce not terror but gratitude in the believer. It means that evil will not have the last word. It means that the injustices of this world are not overlooked by a detached deity. And it means that the cross — where Christ bore the wrath we deserved — is even more magnificent than we imagined. God did not set aside His wrath to save us. He satisfied it, at His own expense, so that we might be free.
Key Quotes
“The wrath of God is as personal, and as potent, as His love; and just as the blood-loss and pain of Calvary are the price of God's love for sinners, so they are the measure of His wrath against sin.”
“Would a God who did not react adversely to evil in His world really be morally perfect? Would a God who showed no displeasure at those who ravage and destroy the helpless really be good?”
Prayer Focus
Asking God to give you a right understanding of His wrath — not as a threat that undermines your security in Christ, but as the holy response of a good God to the evil that destroys His creatures
Meditation
Packer asks: would a God who showed no displeasure at those who ravage the helpless really be good? How does this question reframe the doctrine of God's wrath for you?
Question for Discussion
Many people — including many Christians — are deeply uncomfortable with the idea of God's wrath. Packer argues that a God without wrath would not be morally perfect. Do you agree? How do you hold together God's love and God's wrath without diminishing either?