Love Can Rage⤒🔗

God takes sin so seriously that he will punish it both now and eternally. The greatness of God’s wrath against sin is measured against Golgotha as we can read it in the classical form for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper: “For the wrath of God against sin is so great that he could not leave it unpunished, but has punished it in his beloved Son Jesus Christ by the bitter and shameful death on the cross.”

The reality of God’s wrath is no less poignant than that of his grace (see Ps. 7:11, Deut. 32:35, Rom. 12:19). In Deuteronomy 27 we read that everyone who listens to God’s Word and walks in his ways, shall live. But whoever turns his back to the Lord and become stiff-necked, such people foolishly choose death instead of life. For them the terrible words of God hold true, “Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them” (Deut. 27:26).

We may not try to construct a contradiction between God’s wrath and God’s love. Love can show itself in wrath and anger. So we read of the “wrath of the Lamb” (Rev. 6:16). Note well: the Lamb who gave himself to the slaughter, out of pure love, will show his wrath on the last day over all those who have rejected the gospel to the end. Christ will react with rage towards the refusal to be saved by his mercy. When he, as the Saviour of sinners, goes out to look for the lost in order to save them; when he receives tax collectors and sinners and eats with them; when he is found to be “in bad company”, then this is not a case that he does not take sin seriously. But precisely the realization of the utter seriousness of the lost state of sinners, lying under the curse of God, motivates him to go out to them, to seek them out.

This coherence between God’s wrath and his love is likewise found in the Old Testament. According to the second commandment the LORD is El qinnà, the active, jealous God. As Lover of his people he tolerates no apostasy and unfaithfulness, precisely because of who he wants to be, and remains to be, in his love to his people. God’s anger is kindled because of the violation of his majesty, the abuse of the justice that is personified in him. But this wrath is at the same time the tip of the flame of his love. It is anger on account of the violation of the covenant, in bitter disappointment, grievous hurt, having been deeply offended in the actions of man.

In this divine wrath we can also see a struggle unto salvation. “Also in his wrath God is busy with his people Israel on the dark, troublesome and impassable ways of his judgment. And in these ways he is the patient, waiting God: until they seek my face” (G.C. Berkouwer).

Against this background we can understand the remarkable words from Isaiah 12:1, “I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me …”

God’s wrath and God’s love do not converge, and neither can you cancel the one against the other. It is the loving Saviour who spoke often of the place where the worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished, the outer darkness as the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Different Forms of Punishment←⤒🔗

Scripture reveals in several instances how sin is punished. Often sin punishes itself and a sort of boomerang-effect is created: a lazy person lapses into beggary, a drunkard becomes a down-and-out character, a harlot runs the risk of contracting a venereal disease or is infected with the feared Aids virus, etcetera. But in addition there are the punishments that God has connected to the offences, based on his wrathful justice, without there being a natural consequence of such sin. Such is the case in Genesis 3. No-the forbidden fruit was not poisonous and the tree did not carry a high voltage, but God had determined the punishment: “the day you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). That actually happened. Immediately following the offense, spiritual death began to reign, followed later also by biological death. And unless God graciously forbids, this ends up in eternal death, an eternal separation from God in suffering punishment and remorse. The wages of sin is therefore a three-fold death.

The whole world has been subjected to futility as a result of the Fall into sin; the entire creation has been disrupted. There are all kinds of fracture lines throughout creation that cannot be traced back to God’s original work of creation as revealed in Gen. 1-2, but as consequence of man’s rebellion against his Creator. In all sorts of modern-day considerations about evil and suffering in this world, the meaning of the Fall is often taken into account insufficiently. Of course, we cannot solve all our why-questions with reference to Gen. 3. Even less can we draw a direct line in all sorts of instances of evil that happens to someone and the sin that he may have committed. Enough damage has been done by such logic already! Jesus himself explicitly rejected such a connection as being the cause of revenge (John 9:3), and Job’s friends are called to account through God’s address to Eliphaz (Job 42:7). Nevertheless there is a deep truth in the old saying, “at the bottom of all questions is the world’s sin and guilt”. The earth is full of God’s mercy, but it is also filled with the signs of his wrath.

One of the heaviest punishments for sin is that God as Judge so ordains it “that mankind becomes a prey to the terror of Satan and his demons as God’s scourge…Satan acts as the accuser of man and as scourge of God to make him feel the consequences of his disobedience” (B. Wentsel). On the one hand Satan acts unlawfully, and yet he also exercises his power over mankind with a certain right. The vanguard of Christ’s work as Saviour is the struggle with, and the conquering, of Satan.

Eternal Judgment←⤒🔗

The Lord can punish sin in this life with temporal punishments. Also his children, the people who have been united with Christ through a true faith, do not sin cheaply. But God settles accounts with them on this side of the grave. It is terrible however to fall into the hands of the living God without being hidden in Christ. For the unrepentant followers of the antichrist there is only the horrifying prospect, “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night” (Rev. 14:11). “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16).

Also in the eternal judgment there will be differentiation. Man has more accountability in relation to how much light of the gospel he has received. Him who has been entrusted with little, of him little shall be demanded. In this way, for example, we may also have an open mind when it comes to the salvation of children who died very young, also outside of the circle of God’s covenant. However, we cannot speak about this with certainty, in the way believing parents may have this comfort (Canons of Dordt I, Art. 17). No rational creature will in the end be excusable, when he or she has known God — even if it was through the general revelation outside of God’s Word — and yet has not glorified or given thanks to him as God (Rom. 1:20-21).

It is clear that in this way we distance ourselves from Karl Barth with his concept of universalistic tendencies. According to God’s word the Lord takes the human negative response “NO” to his grace so utterly seriously, that for an unbeliever who hardens himself in an unrepentant attitude there is absolutely no way of escape from God’s righteous vengeance. The deadly severity of the sin of stiff-necked unbelief is that in this way an eternal damnation is decided for the sinner!