Silencing God’s Wrath⤒🔗

In speaking about reconciliation, we come across the expression “the silencing of God’s wrath”. This term has caused a feeling of surprise and bewilderment. Can you still speak about the wrath of God as well as about reparation, about reconciliation through satisfaction? Did not Augustine write: “We are reconciled with him who already loved us”?

Should not all such terms used by the church throughout the centuries, be referred to the museum of antiquities as curiosities? And not only because they are insufficient to indicate the mystery of reconciliation, but also because they are unbiblical, absolutely wrong and not intelligible in our time? Anyone who still maintains this terminology would give cause to particular misunderstandings and aversion. In any case, in the so-called teaching of alternative reconciliation, you will go against the grain when you maintain these expressions.

Tailored to the confessions that we have, we would be advised to scrap certain offensive articles and phrases. What to do with Article 21 of the Belgic Confession of Faith, where it is stated: “We believe that Jesus Christ was confirmed by an oath to be a High Priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek. He presented himself in our place before his Father, appeasing God’s wrath by his full satisfaction, offering himself on the tree of the cross, where he poured out his precious blood to purge away our sins, as the prophets had foretold.”? The Heidelberg Catechism also mentions God’s dreadful wrath at various places (Lord’s Days 4, 5, 6, 15). And in the Canons of Dordt we get to hear the same ideas expressed. Is this speaking really according to the Scriptures, or is this an all-too human interpretation?

What Does the Word of God Say?←⤒🔗

Both in the Old and New Testaments God’s wrath is mentioned in many places. It is striking that the wrath or anger is closely connected with the covenant that the LORD has made with his people. When the God of the covenant voices or shows his anger against Israel, it is all the worse for them.

When the people are unfaithful to him, disobedient and persistently so, God does not accept this and he lets his people know and feel it. Woe to those who reject his love and justice and who violate his honour. He is zealous for his honour and wants to have his people for himself alone and keep them holy. Israel may never believe on the ground of his election, to be covered or protected in advance against God’s judgment. When the people live in that delusion, the prophets come to help them out of that dream. In the exile it has been shown that God will not leave idolatry and fornication unpunished.

How to Escape the Wrath?←⤒🔗

In the Law and in the prophetic preaching, Israel is shown the way to escape the wrath of God and to remain the people of his pleasure. The cultus, i.e., the worship, is of great importance to save the people in the covenant. Only in the way of the fear of the Lord can his blessings and gifts be expected. When the pious suffer with the unfaithful part of Israel under the judgment of God — e.g., through disasters, enemies, in diseases and imminent (dangers of) death (and not just in a temporary sense only!) — the call goes forth for a timely repentance and conversion; for humiliation and for confession of guilt. In that way, escape and reconciliation are possible. The people or individuals within the nation may pray for mercy in the wrath of God. Intercession is very important. We therefore can hear the appeal to his name, to his covenant, his faithfulness and honour. Sometimes it is accompanied by the testimony that we are such fragile creatures. May God have mercy on them. He is able — he desires it — he will do it!

Sometimes the turning away from his burning anger is possible through sacrifices. Either this, or there is both punishment and reconciliation: the wicked are punished, the guilty are put to death, but afterwards comes a gracious continuation for the remnant who repents.

It is never such that the people or certain persons can turn away the wrath of God with all sorts of magical means, e.g., incantations or extra sacrifices.

Slow To Anger←⤒🔗

It is often reasoned that God is slow to anger. He is indulgent and long-suffering. His patience is incredibly great. There is therefore never an unreasonable, uncontrolled outburst of anger as with us humans.

Before he executes his judgments, the Lord sounds warnings time and again, penetrating and moving pleas to return to him. And he grants room for such return. He works it out. He grants repentance. He knows remorse not only against his own people of Israel, but also in the case of Nineveh.

The consolation for God’s people is: “His anger is but for a moment, and his favour is for a lifetime” (Ps. 30:5).

Yes, the enemies may oppress his people for a while. But it is his intention that the people will be put to the test in this chastisement and that they will return to God. God takes it ill of the enemies when they do not behave as his instruments, but when in fact they are keen to let his property disappear from the face of the earth. The enemies are severely punished for that.

When God goes so far as to say, “Do not intercede anymore, because the evil has been made complete” that is Israel’s own fault.

Also Others Besides His People←⤒🔗

In the Bible, there is not only mention of God’s anger against Israel, but also against the Gentile people and their leaders. Certainly that is the case when, through their sins, they provoke God to such an extent that their existence as people and nation is put to an end. Or, when they have abused God’s people. In all kinds of images, taken from the forces of nature, the judicial intervention of God is pictured. In its radical effect, God’s wrath is destructive for humans and animals, for creation. The expression is familiar: “the day of the Lord” as the day of his burning anger.

In the end-time his anger will even strike the whole earth as he did once in the flood, and all God-opposing forces will be subdued for good.

Wrath is therefore a feature of the essence of the righteous and glorious God. He maintains his absolute sovereignty and he will not endure any injustice. The connection between holiness and wrath is indisputable.

Christ Saves From God’s Wrath←⤒🔗

The anger of the Lord also has everything to do with his justice. Yet his anger is not identical to it. In the midst of wrath people turn, along with Job, to their Judge who does justice and who is merciful. But God’s wrath never cancels his justice, so that he would act against it. But his justice — his doing justice, his putting things right, his demand to maintain his ordinances — is strictly just. Justice comes in two forms: there is the punishing justice and the saving justice. He repays and he saves. It is evident from Golgotha how true this is.

In the New Testament the wrath of God is not denied or erased as if it were a human error. On the contrary. John the Baptist testifies to it.

Christ himself speaks about it with emotion and he calls his people to fear him who has power to cast people into hell. It is a terrible prospect to fall into the hands of the living God when we are not reconciled to him.

The proclamation of the Scriptures is: only Jesus Christ saves us from God’s wrath (Rom. 5:9, 1 Thess. 1:10, 5:9). We are saved by his blood alone. He experienced and suffered in his body under the wrath of God. The cup of the wrath was emptied to the last drop. He has been abandoned by God. God’s anger and justice demanded of the Guarantee and Mediator the reconciliation for the sins and guilt against God (Rom. 3). Christ has made this payment, this satisfaction, with heart and soul, out of love for God and for the benefit of those who belong to him. He has glorified the Name. The justice as well as the holiness of the Lord has gripped the mind as none other. He fulfilled all righteousness. He acquired God’s fellowship, for the Father has fully agreed with the Mediator’s work. God has all his pleasure satisfied through Christ’s atoning action. In Christ Jesus alone there is the breakthrough of God’s eternal wrath. We and our children are safe, being covered by his blood.

Anyone who rejects him remains under God’s wrath with all the disastrous consequences of it, both now and later. He who believes in him is not condemned, but has eternal life! The deliverance from God’s wrath is connected with faith in the Mediator (John 3:36). On the basis of reconciliation through satisfaction we are eternally blessed and free!

This is underscored in baptism, as well as in the Lord’s Supper. By the Spirit we acknowledge God’s judgment over our life as being fully deserved. But through that same Spirit of Christ and the Father, we may share in the acquittal and in the life that was redeemed! God, who has not spared his own Son, will give us all things with him! To speak about the silencing of God’s wrath, i.e., the ceasing of God’s wrath thanks to Christ’s atoning sacrifice, is an attempt to translate and profess the word “kipper, kofér”. (Hebrew words for “ransom” and “payment for release”, trl.)

The Suffering God?←⤒🔗

In all sorts of expositions about the work of reconciliation, both former as well as current, we come across expressions such as “God suffers”, “God’s own heart suffers on the cross”, or “God himself in Jesus suffers the curse”.

It is important that we do not use these terms. Why not? Well, it is because the Bible teaches that God the Father does not suffer. Anyone who claims this is to be regarded as someone who teaches “patripassianism” i.e., the teaching that God the Father suffers. In close connection with this teaching is “theopaschitism”i.e., the doctrine of the suffering God. How does one come to this line of thought? These teachings are defended by stating that God is a “God who is moved”. He is not the “unaffected God”. It is said of God that it “repented him” and “something grieved his heart” (e.g., Gen. 6:6).

It cannot be denied that there may be reason to think that God is only angry, unmoved, as a counter-reaction to the teachings mentioned above. But misuse and inaccuracy do not eliminate proper use.

When struggle and suffering are placed in God’s Father heart, as is the case in theopaschitism, then that is incorrect. This thinking goes against the doctrine of the Trinity! We are not allowed to mix the Person and work of the Son with that of the Father and the Holy Spirit. However much both are involved in the work of the atonement, we never read in Scripture that the Father has made himself to be sin, or that he has taken the blame and has denied himself and turned judgment against himself. The Son suffered as Mediator under Pontius Pilate; God the Son was crucified, died and buried.

Whoever speaks of a suffering God not only does damage to the mystery of the Trinity, but shifts the atonement to the eternity, to an event in God himself, and therefore does not take seriously the history of salvation. We do not hereby deny that the origin of the atonement is in the counsel and plan of the eternal God. But that reconciliation is not an “inter-trinitarian drama of love”, but it is God’s deed in history. On Calvary the atonement was accomplished by the Mediator. We must not violate God’s saving deeds in Christ.

Is God Object or Subject of Reconciliation?←⤒🔗

These expressions are used several times in the doctrine of reconciliation. What do they mean?

When people say that the atonement is initiated by God and that he brings the sacrifice to reconcile the people to him we call this the subjective doctrine of atonement. When it is said that there is not only an action, a line from God to man, but also from the sacrifice to God, where the sacrifice is thus directed toward God, we speak of objective reconciliation.

Now the Bible teaches that God is not only the Subject but also the Object in the atonement. This means that he brings the sacrifice and he demands the sacrifice. He has given his Son, but also arranged for him to bring satisfaction through his obedience. Therefore on Golgotha ​​something substantial is happening between the Father and Christ. The point of the atonement is first of all directed towards God. Christ has sacrificed himself to God even though he himself was without guilt or sin. His atonement takes place before God’s face, and is a blessing for sinners. Therefore the Bible places the full beam of light on this fact of salvation; the focus is on this historic act of our Mediator.

When we only adhere to the subjective doctrine of reconciliation nothing is happening between the Father and the Mediator. Then all attention is shifted to man, to his change, to his reciprocal love.

Does this confession of both now mean that from the outside there is an “Um-stimmung”, (a German word for “changeover”), an attempt to turn God around like has happened with the Gentiles? No. We maintain that the atonement was inititated by God. He gives his Son. But we acknowledge by faith that there is a change in the inclination of God, of a turning away from his wrath whenever and as often as he looks at the perfect work of his Son. There is in God a turning away from his wrath toward his love, through Christ’s atonement. There is the testimony that his anger has been satisfied. “There is an influence on God, but then an influence applied by himself” (G. Boer).

Therefore we have to deal with a living God, a God who is moved, whose legal order has become evident on Golgotha ​​and whose rule of law has been fully respected and honoured by the Mediator.

Substitution-Representation-Solidarity←⤒🔗

In the testimony of the reconciliation with God through Christ there is substitution and representation. These two terms cannot be played off against each other. In the New Testament Christ is called the second Adam. The first Adam sinned and brought therefore guilt, judgment and death into the world. Christ comes in the fullness of time to do what God has commanded him in the place of the first Adam with his offspring. He is the Servant of the Lord, the obedient and loving One who has accomplished everything. He has brought mercy, peace and life to a world lost in guilt. Both — the first and the second Adam — are not mere individuals: they do not stand alone, but they represent a greater corporative whole. That is to say: all people are understood to be in the first Adam. All people who belong to Christ, the believers, the new humanity, are therefore included in the second Adam.

But it becomes necessary to distinguish well! The representation takes place by substitution, covering our place. These two go hand in hand. Christ has both borne the penalty for sin and reconciled the guilt, in our place.

And it is precisely in his representation and substitution that Jesus Christ is in solidarity with sinners. He is with us: IMMANUEL. He is never without his church, not on earth and neither in heaven. That is why Scripture speaks of us being crucified with him, buried, raised, and placed in heaven. Paul testifies to this connectivity and uses the words: to be in Christ. This solidarity is wonderful and full of salvation. But this solidarity has consequences for everyday living, for the life of sanctification and imitation. It must be seen that we are of Christ, with him, and in him!

He Has Paid In Full!←⤒🔗

In the atonement it may be stated that Christ has fulfilled all the demands of God. All Scripture regards the work of Christ as the fulfillment of God’s law. He bore the law of God “in his bowels” (Ps. 40, Hebrew). His whole life is testimony to that. Under satisfaction and compensation we can thus understand the total obedience of the Mediator in our place and for our benefit. He has undergone the penalty; has kept and fulfilled the law. The obedient Son had to, and wanted to, suffer to fulfill all righteousness. That suited him. He has achieved the atonement through satisfaction. God’s justice and God’s love shine forth in everything!

All these words, concepts and notions that were mentioned are incorporated in the following chapters. We may discover that God himself proves his mercy in the way of righteousness through Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and men.