“ Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your vile images and detestable practices, I myself will withdraw my favor; I will not look on you with pity or spare you. A third of your people will die of the plague or perish by famine inside you; a third will fall by the sword outside your walls; and a third I will scatter to the winds and pursue with drawn sword. Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged. And when I have spent my wrath upon them, they will know that I the LORD have spoken in my zeal. ”
- Ezekiel 5:11-17
A dear friend once shared with me a personal experience which left much impact on her and also, vicariously, on me. At that time, she was in a long-distant relationship (with also another close friend of mine) for a particular period of time. During this time, she was under much stress at work and under the influence of her colleagues, picked up certain bad worldly habits. She, however, was quick to realise her sin and stopped herself; yet, she did not tell her boyfriend about it. When she flew over to visit him, she broke the news about it.
At this point when she was narrating the story, I stopped and thought about what he would do; he’d probably meditate for a while before saying to her, “it’s alright. But please don’t do it again.”
I was wrong. He went into a fit of anger that he even kicked down a short brick wall at the porch outside! I remember her recounting what he had said to her – “anyone else can do it, but not you! By doing it, you have defiled yourself, cheapened yourself to the lowest, basest level…!”*
Now, I can vouch that they love each other very, very much. Anyone who knows this couple can attest to that too. And I must add a caveat that this ‘thing’ she did was really, in my opinion, not a very ‘bad thing’ – at least not enough to warrant kicking down a broken brick wall with his foot! But does the guy’s love for my friend mean that he should not have gotten so angry over the matter? Does the show of anger mean that he does not love her?** Is love mutually exclusive from wrath and vice-versa?
Wrath is defined by the Oxford American Dictionary as extreme anger. In the Bible, ‘wrath’ is exemplified as God’s righteous anger. The anecdote above illustrates rather clearly something I believe most of us can understand or relate to; that is, because we love someone, we expect certain standards from him or her, that when they fail our expectations, we not only become disappointed, but also, angry. Did you think God had a very ‘cool’ persona? Did you think Jesus was a very ‘cool’ guy? You’re very wrong. He’s probably one of the most emotional persons in the Bible***.
In fact, God loves His children so much that when He pours out His wrath, it is very, very nasty. The great flood that Noah survived wiped out the entire world. The Israelites were horribly devastated by the Assyrians and Philistines, not because God was powerless but because He wanted to teach His own chosen nation a lesson (Isaiah 10:5). Check out Ezekiel 5:11-17 (above). Read Revelation 14. The imagery of blood flowing out of the winepress, as much as one may argue is metaphorical, is used not to show us that God is a ‘cool’, singularly loving person who’d just go, “okay, we’ll let these people off… with detention.” It was meant to describe God’s wrath on those who reject Him; and from what I can comprehend of it, it will be nasty.
Yes, God hates the sin, loves the sinner; but the sinner who continues to live in sin and rejects God will ultimately bear His wrath at Judgment. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.” (John 3:36) Yes, God loves the sinner. So much that He gave His Son for the sinner, but He is also holy and just: He shall not tolerate evil, not an iota of it. Ultimately, the sinner must account for his refusal to repent. And God’s wrath upon him will be spilled.
Yet, some of us carry a notion that the God of the OT was a wrathful God – always sending plagues, floods, wars, and even striking down seemingly innocent people – while the God of the NT is a such a gentle, loving God – after all, Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, and you can get this impression simply by counting the number of times the word “love” is used in the NT. This is a rather skewed misconception that crept in from agnostic commentators – I have read about such analyses in the writings of many popular agnostic thinkers. Didn’t Scripture tell us “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8)? If you haven’t noticed, the Jesus who rattles on and on about ‘love’ is the same Jesus who tells us about the blood pouring from winepress and about eternal damnation, the very same God who pours out seven bowls of wrath in Revelation 16; and they sure sound nasty.
So, does all this talk about God’s wrath negate the love that we have been talking about at length before this? Of course not. How then is this reconciled? Look to the Cross! The Father and the Son are both in this stately plan of redemption. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that the Father is hesitant to redeem and the Son ultimately wins Him over; this is definitely not the case because it is the Father who loves us so much that sends His Son and the Son who loves His Father and also us, thus, in obedience, fulfils the plan.
Look to the Cross. The Cross is where God’s cup of wrath is poured onto His Son – every drop of it, for every single sin that every human being has committed, across all time. The Cross is where God’s love for us is crystallised, with His Son shielding us from the Father’s wrath.
Look to the Cross, because there is no other way. There is no other way that God’s wrath for the whole world can ever be appeased. If He should relent and write off His wrath, He would then become not the holy, perfect God that He is. He also cannot allow any compromise – even one small blot of ink on a perfectly white canvas is still a blot – for if He does, then His holiness and perfection is compromised.
Truth be told, I wish that I could wish there was a backdoor of some sorts for my unbelieving family and friends to pass through; for the unbelieving victims of Cyclone Nargis, and those of the 2004 tsunami to pass through the gates of His kingdom. But I cannot even wish this, because to do so would make me believe in an imperfect, unholy God.
Our Lord is holy and perfect. We humans have always insisted on a God who is absolutely perfect. It has become rather axiomatic: He must be perfect, otherwise, He is not God. In the same breath, we seem to not be able to accept His holiness and perfection. We demand for compromise. We bend and twist His word to suit our purposes. We demand our own notions of love and justice. But why are we the ones demanding when we are the ones who have fallen; we the ones who are imperfect, and unholy; we the ones who have a distorted understanding of good and evil. It brings us back to the forbidden fruit in Eden, doesn’t it?
I wonder why He has to be this holy and perfect. After all, doesn’t it seem a little pompous to remain on that moral high horse, knowing that we can never attain His standards? It does remind me of the Shakespearean Julius Caesar’s arrogance when he said, “I am constant as the Northern Star”. But God is different.
Firstly, He deserves to be this insistent about His holiness because He is God, and Creator, the Alpha and Omega. He is perfect. None of us are. Nothing else is.
Secondly, He has to be, because He loves us. He has planned the best for us. He created the world perfect, and called it good (Genesis 1:31); then sin came along. But He has also already prepared a perfect place for us (John 14:1-3). He has prepared to restore the world to perfection. Like a brilliant architect and builder, He has chosen the best materials, the best craftsmen, the best workers, and nothing but the best to build this new home for us.
Sounds great! Can I then let my unbelieving best friend in? Unfortunately, no. Because this friend of mine is still steeped in sin. With his sin comes a threat to the perfect home that God has prepared. I groan and protest, but I know it is only right. Instead of insisting that I introduce sin into the picture all over again, tainting and corrupting the perfect beautiful home, I should be trying my best to get rid of that sin – by turning my best friend to Jesus so that Christ will wipe out my friend’s blemishes, so that he can gain entry and share the beautiful perfect home with me. Because I love my friend, I want him to enjoy nothing but the best. Because God loves us, He wants nothing but the best for us. And the best means only the perfect and holy standards of God can suffice.
Is it really so hard to accept God for who He really is? Yes, it is. Remember all the distortions of God’s love in chapter 2? It falls under this umbrella of distortions. The worst thing about committing such a mistake is that it is in itself a sin of creating our own image of God, an idol.
“Do not have any other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” (Exodus 20:3,4)
Yes, we may justify that we are still pursing after the true God. But remember the Israelites also thought they were worshipping the God of Abraham and of Moses, the same God who just brought them out of Egypt when they created a golden calf to bow to. They were not worshipping ‘another’ god, but merely tried to create an image of Yahweh to bow to. I think many of us are guilty of that same sin today. Sometimes when I pray to our holy Lord, I pray before all else that I, the real I, am praying to God, the true God. The poem by CS Lewis below succinctly crystallises all these thoughts.
“ He whom I bow to only knows to whom I bowAs a conclusion to this entire series on the Love of God, I would like to suggest that you take everything you’ve read, dump them into an imaginary box, and hide it under a cobweb-infested corner of your mind. We must admit that our human minds are utterly incapable of grasping and comprehending God’s perfect wisdom and knowledge, His mysterious ways and love; if any of us could, the Church would not be as divided as it is today. There is however one mortal thing which keeps the universal Church intact: our faith in a perfect God.
When I attempt the ineffable Name, murmuring Thou,
And dream of Pheidian fancies and embrace in heart
Symbols (I know) which cannot be the thing Thou art.
Thus always, taken at their word, all prayers blaspheme
Worshiping with frail images a folk-lore dream,
And all men in their praying, self-deceived, address
The coinage of their own unquiet thoughts, unless
Thou in magnetic mercy to Thyself divert
Our arrows, aimed unskillfully, beyond desert;
And all men are idolaters, crying unheard
To a deaf idol, if Thou take them at their word.
Take not, O Lord, our literal sense. Lord, in thy great
Unbroken speech our limping metaphor translate.”
- A Footnote to Prayer, CS Lewis
If we can believe that He is God, perfect in His wisdom, knowledge, power, justice and love, then we should let Him be God. Instead of asking “Why can’t He save every single one He created? Why must He do this? Or that? What’s wrong with God?” we should be asking “what’s wrong with us? Why can’t we trust that God knows what He’s doing?” Everything we’ve discussed would all be meaningless study and meaningless chatter if we cannot even trust God to be God!
The best way to end this series is for you to read the book of Ecclesiastes, and be reminded how “Everything is meaningless!” (Ecclesiastes 1:2); then come to an inevitable conclusion: “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13,14) I shan’t expound on Ecclesiastes, for one because I am no expert on it, and two because it requires an entire independent series to do it justice. There is one necessary thing, however, that we must draw as Christians today reading that book. Ecclesiastes premised on a belief that there was no afterlife, hence the pervading theme of the meaningless nature of life. We, as Christians today, however, have the joyous hope in knowing that not only is there an afterlife, there is also the resurrection and the eternal kingdom. This stark contrast reinforces one of the themes expounded in Ecclesiastes – that of God’s mystery – “then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it.” (Ecclesiastes 8:17)
God’s secrets will remain as secrets until the time is due for Him to reveal: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) Perhaps it is best to leave it as that; to trust God that His beautiful plan will be revealed in His own time. An obsession to unravel these secrets before the time is due may just drive us to lunacy.
Admittedly, it is singularly my utter faith in God that preserves my sanity till today. For me, any other way is self-destruction, and in the words of CS Lewis, “I gave in, and admitted that God was God.”
“ To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. ”
- Jude 1:24,25
Soli Deo Gloria,
Ronald
* Pardon me, the two of you, for recounting this narrative rather inaccurately; and I hope you do not mind me using this anecdote.
** The ending of this anecdote bears much weight but was not relevant to what I was writing about, so I have shifted the ending to this footnote. So, we left the story off at him kicking down the brick wall with his foot. After that event, he went for a long run and later returned to tell her that he forgives her. Now, one might be thinking, surely since he would have forgiven her anyway, why the big fuss? It was definitely not a ‘show’ that he purposefully put up. It was genuine anger, which stems from his high expectation of her. In the same way, God expects perfect righteousness because He is holy, and our failure to meet His expectations incurs His wrath. Jesus, however, is the only one who meets this standard and He alone is able to carry the weight of God’s wrath on us on behalf of us. The point, however, is that at the end, God does get angry, but He also loves and forgives. Wrath and love are not mutually exclusive.
*** Do read Phillip Yancey’s “The Jesus I Never Knew”.
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