Monday, July 28, 2008
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Sin and the Wrath of God
267 years ago on July 8, 1741, in Enfield, Massachusetts, Jonathan Edwards preached one of the most widely recognized sermons ever preached. It was entitled "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," and is the embodiment of traditional "fire and brimstone" preaching common to the revival known as the Great Awakening. Through the use of some pretty horrific imagery, Edwards attempted to "persuade" his hearers to come to Christ through fear of their own damnation in a fiery hell. Did it work? Apparently so well that according to one who recorded the events, Edwards had to stop in the middle of his sermon and ask for silence from the overwhelmed crowd so that he could finish! Click here to go to the actual sermon text.
This kind of preaching has by and large gone out of style in the modern church. But then again, so has most talk about or confrontation of sin! We will call it — mistakes, errors in judgment, unfortunate events, accidents, you name it — anything not to talk about sin. We look the other way. Sin is no longer sin. It's okay, sort of. God understands. We're only human, after all. And the wrath of God? An angry God? No. No. We avoid that one entirely and would never bring it up. That theology just doesn't fit the modern church. God is a God of love, isn't he? Well, he is, but he is not blind.
Psalm 11:5 says, "The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates!" God is loving but he is also just and he absolutely cannot stand sin! He hates sin! It stirs up his anger!
"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 . . . for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger" (Romans 2:5,8).
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), and "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). How important is it for us all once again to acknowledge how horrid and disgusting sin — and I mean all sin from the least to the greatest! — really is. God can't even look at it! Or be anywhere near it. We need to see that sin can't but make us the objects of his wrath. God is angered by sin of any description or magnitude whatsoever!
I believe that we are missing something vitally important in our faith walk if we fail to also embrace this side of God!
To get back to Edwards' sermon, while I may not agree with everything that he said nor some of the way he went about it, it is extremely important to note that the whole point of the sermon is that sinners do not get what they deserve! Sinners do find themselves in the hand of God, even if he be angry. You see, God does not want anyone to perish. He does not want to condemn. And so he hangs on to me and you and everyone, even if we are undeserving, wanting us to choose to hang on to him rather than go against him.
Thank God that sin and the resulting wrath don't need to run their course. Jesus has taken it all upon himself. All the sin. All the wrath of God. For me and you and everyone we meet.
"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice — to be the object of God's wrath — for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10).
God did this because in his justice, his wrath demanded a payment. Jesus made that payment in full with his life. And in that way, God was both "just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:26).
Forgiveness from sin and being no longer objects of God's wrath because of sin is a free gift of grace through Jesus Christ (Romans 3:24). But it is a gift that cost the very life of God to purchase for you and me. So, begin today to take a different view of sin — any and all sin — God's view. It is not okay in any form at all ever! Call sin for what it is, rebellion against God, and,
"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature . . . Because of these the wrath of God is coming . . . But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these . . . and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator" (Colossians 3:5-9).
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