God's Loving Wrath
If you're anything like me, you've probably also struggled to reconcile God's wrath with what you thought you knew to be true about Him. His wrath is confronting, especially throughout the Old Testament – He is merciful and gracious, yet he orders the killing of all male Midianite children in Numbers 31; He is slow to anger, yet He ordains the slaughter of "anything that breathes" in Deuteronomy 20; He is abounding in steadfast love, yet He instructs "men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys" to be put to the sword in Joshua 6. And those are just the first three examples I could find. So how can this be? How can our merciful, gracious and loving God also be a God of what seems like such cold justice and intense wrath?
It seems that this very question can easily become one of the largest stumbling blocks to both unbelievers and Christians alike, an almost insurmountable obstacle in putting our faith in the Lord and keeping it there. Now, this isn't necessarily illogical. Our experiences with emotions are invariably tainted by sin; we are constantly proven to be flippant, inconsistent and unfaithful in how we feel towards a great number of things. So, it makes a lot of sense that we see God's anger through the same flawed, unmistakably human lens. But this can be a dangerous association to make…
Because when we get angry, it is not always just, rarely holy, and certainly never perfect, unlike the Lord's wrath.
In the same way, when we love, it is only sometimes gracious, not often unconditional, and assuredly not eternal, unlike the Lord's love.
God's emotions are not fallible, like ours – they are always perfect. God's love must be taken in stride with His wrath; they cannot be viewed as two competing and opposite emotions, but rather as both informing each other. As Peter Adam points out in one of his TGC articles1, the Lord's love and judgement are jointly and absolutely proclaimed, like in Exodus 34:6-7, with neither being truer nor more consistent with His character:
"The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation."
Adam also dispels what may be a common notion for some as they struggle to resolve the complexity of God's character: that God the Father is wrathful, while God the Son is loving. He suggests that Jesus is the most accurate humanly depiction of God's emotions, thus both the Father and the Son are wrathful towards our sin, yet loving towards sinners.
In another article seeking to clarify God's wrath2, Jeremy Treat reinforces the idea that it is not only simply possible for love and anger to coexist, but necessary. He gives the example of being angry with his children when they do wrong, not in spite of loving them, but because he loves them. Treat goes on to say that "God is love. God is holy. God is just. God is not wrath", explaining that God exercises holy wrath upon wickedness in response to his holy love, for the purpose of protecting His holy nation.
So, as someone still struggling to fully reconcile how the Lord's wrath and love go hand in hand, I've found it helpful to a) recognise that God's ways and thoughts are higher than any of our own (Isaiah 55:8-9) and b) to consider Jesus, who propitiated God's rightful anger towards us and expiated our sin3, that we may "draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water" (Hebrews 10:22).
Grace & peace,
Hana Baigrie (Ministry Intern)
References:
- Adam, P. Wrath or Love? Speaking the Truth About God. The Gospel Coalition | Australia. 2018. Available at: https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/wrath-love-speaking-truth-god/
- Treat, J. Wrath Is Not an Attribute of God. The Gospel Coalition | Australia. 2023. Available at: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/wrath-not-attribute-god/
- Adam, P. Wrath or Love? More Questions…. The Gospel Coalition | Australia. 2018. Available at: https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/wrath-love-important-questions/
