God Loves Righteousness Too
Ruth Ann Stites, Staff Writer
A friend and I were discussing the response of some people to the Old Testament accounts of the wrath of God. Her pastor preaches from the Old Testament, but some people “step outside” when he touches on such charged topics because they feel scared or scarred by witnessing, even in the context of a sermon, the terrible wrath of God against persons.
While such a response is understandable, it is also problematic when our understanding of God’s character, His attributes, omits coming to terms with His punishment of unrighteousness. As both the Old and New Testaments make clear, God will judge and punish those who are found guilty.
Robert Rothwell, in “What is the Wrath of God?”, discusses how we should see the attributes of God as either absolute or relative.[1] Relative attributes are only expressed in relation to the actions of God. Thus, His judgement on unrighteousness was unnecessary until there was sin leading to acts of unrighteousness. Absolute attributes are those like His holiness, omnipresence, righteousness, and eternality. These attributes are present regardless of His actions. I think a very good case can be made for love being in that list since He is eternally three-in-one, a Tri-unity as Pastor McCarty phrases it, in an everlasting Perfect-Purpose-Relationship based in an eternal state of love.
So how do we reconcile a loving God with a wrathful God in relation to human beings? I liked the way Rothwell put it:[2]
God executes His wrath upon unrighteousness because of who He is. Scripture testifies that God is righteous and just (Deut. 32:4; Dan. 9:14; Rom. 1:17; Rev. 15:3). He could not be righteous and just if He did not punish evil and evildoers, so His pouring out of wrath upon sin is fully consistent with His righteous character. Sinners must pay for their crimes, and God cannot clear the guilty without executing His just wrath, lest He be unrighteous (Ex. 34:6–9). God is love (1 John 4:7–8), and one of the things He loves is righteousness (Ps. 33:5). Since God is perfect, His love for righteousness must be perfect; consequently, He must hate “the way of the wicked” (Prov. 15:9; see also Deut. 32:4).
Dr. D. A. Carson, Distinguished Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and prolific author, in an interview said that wrath “…sounds condemning, mean spirited, and nasty.”[3] But, he concludes, that the depth of compassion, mercy, and longing expressed when Jesus wept over Jerusalem provides a clear insight into the nature of a loving God in relation to people facing the inevitability of judgment (Luke 13:34-35 and 19:41-44). In one of His discourses with the Jewish leaders Jesus addresses the inevitability of rejecting Him and His message (John 8:31-59). The Master sums up the root of the human problem leading to judgement in John 8:45, “Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!”
In the most famous salvation passage of all Scripture, John 3:16-21, Jesus sums up the relationship between judgement, a loving and long-suffering God, and freedom from wrath:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 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. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
As Cross Disciples it’s important to grasp the depth of love intrinsic to the Godhead we are to imitate. Even in a world deserving of punishment, love makes a way. It is our high privilege to show those we impact how much we, and the God we represent, love them and want them to find mercy, grace, and pardon so that they never know His wrath against all unrighteousness, including theirs.[4]
(Photo credit: R. A. Stites, Lexington, KY, Kentucky Horse Park Mounted Patrol greeting guests)
[1]Source from Ligonier.org What Is the Wrath of God?
[2] Ibid.
[3] Source interview with D.A. Carson, The Doctrine of the Wrath of God | Desiring God.
[4] If you are interested here are couple of other interesting websites I found while researching this article: The Uncomfortable Truth about the Wrath of God — Jesus Restores: Our God is a Consuming Fire and The Wrath Of God In The New Testament: Never Against His New Covenant Community | Bible.org.
