Modifying the Gospel by Drumming Down the Wrath of God
(Defining the Wrath of God)
Given at Keswick for Minister’s Meeting, 30 January 2006
Reading: Nahum 1 vs 1-7.
1 The burden against Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
2 God is jealous, and the LORD avenges; The LORD avenges and is furious. The LORD will take vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies;
3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And will not at all acquit the wicked. The LORD has His way In the whirlwind and in the storm, And the clouds are the dust of His feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, And dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither, And the flower of Lebanon wilts.
5 The mountains quake before Him, The hills melt, And the earth heaves at His presence, Yes, the world and all who dwell in it.
6 Who can stand before His indignation? And who can endure the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, And the rocks are thrown down by Him.
7 The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him.
MODIFYING THE APOSTOLIC GOSPEL
BY DRUMMING DOWN THE WRATH OF GOD.
INTRODUCTION: THE PREACHING OF DIFFERENT GOSPELS.
The Apostle Paul perceived the possibility that different Gospels would be preached in different places. He wrote his Epistle to the Romans in order to ensure that in Rome they preached the same Gospel that he preached.
The Apostle Paul perceived the possibility that different Gospels would be preached in different places. He wrote his Epistle to the Romans in order to ensure that in Rome they preached the same Gospel that he preached.
Paul rebuked the Galatians for turning away from “Him, Who called you into the grace of Christ, to a different Gospel which is not another.” Some want “to pervert the Gospel of Christ.” He warned, “If we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed,” Galatians 1 vs 8-9. It’s worth noting that it is the preacher who is cursed in the first place.
Today, even among evangelicals, many different Gospels are preached. Souls may be truly saved under inadequate Gospel preaching, for God is full of mercy and slow to wrath. But it is our responsibility as Gospel preachers to preach the Gospel as Paul and the Apostles preached it. Because preachers have failed to preach Paul’s Gospel, there are many unconverted persons even in prominent positions in the churches.
The Gospel declares God’s way of salvation. But ever since man first sinned, people have claimed the right to determine their own way of salvation.
The Gospel declares God’s way of salvation. But ever since man first sinned, people have claimed the right to determine their own way of salvation.
To cite a few examples. Among so-called Christians, many claim to be Christians from birth as though salvation is by birth & parentage. Others claim that name & status as Christians opens heaven for them. Others assume that church membership will save them. Evangelicals identifying with the NPP, the New Perspective on Paul, (eg: Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham), argue that justification is not about being right with God but about membership of the community of God’s people. Such ‘ways of salvation’ are somewhat mechanical and automatic.
A less mechanical approach is to seek to gain heaven by good works. This has some biblical support; the problem is that no sinner can achieve it! Good works is the religion of the natural man. It takes two forms, a secular and a religious form. The secular form uses social involvement and charitable acts as deserving of a heavenly reward. The problem is not the good works as such but using good works to claim access to heaven. The religious form uses religious observances as grounds for salvation, especially baptism and the sacrament(s).
All these are different Gospels offering different ways of salvation.
CHARACTERISTICS OF PAUL’S GOSPEL MISSING TODAY.
It is helpful to compare the preaching of the Apostles with modern Gospel preaching. I have in mind the so-called ‘simple Gospel’. Reformed preachers often get stick from lovers of the simple Gospel. Let us compare ‘the simple Gospel’ with Paul’s Gospel as set forth in Romans.
1st Paul’s language is emphatically Trinitarian; the Father is not squeezed out as in much modern preaching. (1)
3rd God’s righteousness is central to Paul’s Gospel yet hardly gets a look in today. Paul is not ashamed of the Gospel “for it is the power of God to salvation for all who believe.” He then locates Gospel power in its revelation of the righteousness of God: “for in it (the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith,” Romans 1 vs 16-17. Today many preach a psychological Gospel to people’s felt needs and frankly - God’s righteousness is God’s problem, not ours; it is of little or no relevance or concern for us! Yet Paul’s great Gospel statement of Romans 3 vs 21-26 starts, “now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.”
4th The most blatant difference between Paul’s Gospel and today’s Gospel has to do with the wrath of God. After announcing his subject in Romans 1 vs 1-17, he starts to preach the Gospel with these words, Romans 1 v 18: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men!” Much ‘charismatic’ preaching, following modern educational principles, aims to affirm people so it avoids drawing attention to people’s sin or calling people sinners. Few preachers start by telling people that God is angry with them; that our sin offends and enrages Almighty God! As our culture lacks the fear of God, so modern Gospel preaching lacks the fear of God. In this instance, culture affects or even determines Gospel preaching.
NB: It a matter of emphasis. Bible believing preachers may make passing reference to the wrath of God against the sin of man, but they do not dwell on it. They press on quickly. By contrast Paul took 66 verses to hammer home his message, Romans 1 v 18 to 3 v 20. Paul refuses to move on until Gentiles have accepted that they are without excuse before God (Romans 1) and Jews have accepted that their secret sins condemn them (Romans 2). Paul concludes, Romans 3 v 19, “that every mouth may be stopped & all the world may become guilty before God.” If we preached on the wrath of God as Paul did, resentment and impatience might cause some to stop attending.
5th When at last Paul reaches the good news of the Gospel, Romans 3 vs 21-26 , he focuses on propitiation and that is largely lacking from modern Gospel preaching. It is because Paul focused so emphatically on the wrath of God against the sin of man, that he needs to preach propitiation by the blood of Christ. Since modern preachers put little or no weight on the wrath of God, they hardly need to preach propitiation, the turning away of wrath! Of course they preach expiation; but like so many modern Bible versions, (the ESV being a recent exception), they cut out propitiation altogether because the wrath of God has no place in their Gospel.
6th On the basis of propitiation by the blood of Christ, Paul preaches justification by faith which he explains in Romans 4 using the word logged 11 times. (I use ‘logged’ as the neared English equivalent to logizomai.) It is translated ‘counted’, ‘reckoned’, ‘imputed’, ‘credited’. Paul’s doctrine of Justification by faith is rarely preached today. Most evangelical preachers prefer to preach a single imputation, our sin transferred to Christ, rather than double imputation, our sin logged to Christ and His righteousness logged to us.
NB: It becomes obvious that we do not preach Paul’s doctrine of Justification by Faith when preachers are content to explain justification as “just-as-if-I’d-never-sinned”. To be kind, that is like a child answering the question, ‘What is 5 and 6?’ with the answer ‘More than 10!’ It is not wrong but it is inadequate. God does not treat the believer ‘just as if he had never sinned’ but ‘just as if he had always done right’ and ‘just as if he had loved God with all his heart, mind, soul & strength and his neighbour as himself all his days without deviation or a single exception!’ Justification is not wiping the slate clean. It is a change of legal status infinitely more radical than takes place at a Christian wedding, when a couple walk into church as bachelor & spinster and walk out as husband & wife. On the day of my conversion, I awake a sinner, a child of wrath and go to sleep that day having believed as a saint, counted righteous in God’s sight, but not yet made righteous.
If all that is anything near the truth, there can be no doubt that Paul would regard today’s Gospel as another Gospel, however sincerely it is preached. Today we soft-pedal on the Trinity; we don’t make the resurrection half as central as did the Apostles; we leave out the righteousness of God; we avoid the wrath of God; we ignore propitiation by His blood; and we preach a different justification from that which Paul preached.
THE HISTORY OF EXCLUDING WRATH FROM GOSPEL PREACHING.
Let us now focus on one issue, Paul’s emphasis upon the wrath of God because of which he gives a central place to propitiation by the blood of Christ.
Let us now focus on one issue, Paul’s emphasis upon the wrath of God because of which he gives a central place to propitiation by the blood of Christ.
1. The weighting given to the wrath of God in modern Gospel preaching contrasts with its Biblical statistics: 580 references in all; 20 Old Testament terms; wrath used 10 times in Romans; etc.
Eg: Romans 5 v 9, “Having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” It is incredible that a subject as prominent in Scripture should be so sidelined in Biblical Studies, in Theology and in Gospel preaching.
2. In the 2nd century, a bishop’s son, Marcion, set up his own churches teaching that the God of the Old Testament is unknowable, the author of evil whereas the God of the New Testament is loving & gracious, entirely free of wrath! This loving New Testament God sent His Son, not by virgin conception but to appear first in the synagogue at Capernaum. (3) Marcion cut out the wrath of God from Scripture at a terrible price! He truncated the Canon of Scripture, cutting out the Old Testament altogether; the Gospels of Matthew and Mark; as well as Acts and Hebrews. He accepted Luke without the birth narratives; he recognized Paul as the only Apostle without his pastoral letters! But even all that fails to eradicate the wrath of God from Scripture!
3. More recently & more subtly, C.H.Dodd, the editor of the New English Bible, reinterpreted the wrath of God. In 1931 he published an article (4) in which he regarded propitiation as pagan and incompatible with the Hebrew view of God. He turned God’s wrath into an impersonal principle, the cause-effect principle , and argued that there was no personal anger in God. Sadly some scholarship is still influenced by C.H.Dodd’s thesis although his position his been ably refuted. (5) Propitiation as ‘turning away wrath’ is reasserting itself - the truth will out.
4. In the modern scene, many ordinary Bible believing Christians, still have grave difficulties with Paul’s Gospel because of the prominence it gives to the wrath of God against the sin of man. It may be in part a cultural issue; as society has lost the fear of God, its culture has invaded the church today just as contemporary culture invaded the seven churches of Asia Minor in Apostolic times. (6) But it seems that we struggle with a tension in our minds between the wrath of God and the love of God – a tension that does not seem to be present in Scripture. Of course, God may be angry with those He loves for a moment, but we have difficulty reconciling God’s eternal wrath with His love and goodness.
DEFINITIONS OF THE WRATH OF GOD.
It may be that the problem today arises from inadequate definitions of the wrath of God. Definitions are of vital importing in our preaching ministry. If we define a thing mistakenly or inadequately, that mistake will colour all our thinking and teaching on the subject.
A survey of articles in Theological Dictionaries on the wrath of God shows a pattern in defining the wrath of God. Such articles acknowledge the prominence of wrath in Scripture; distinguish man’s sinful anger from God’s righteous anger; insist that if God were not angry with sin, He would be at fault. Some admit that attempts to ease the harshness of God’s anger by examples of “mercy triumphing over justice” and of “in wrath, God remembers mercy”, (7) do not remove many examples of wrath without mercy, such as the destruction of Sodom.
Significantly attempts to define the wrath of God describe it as an expression of the holiness and justice of God against sin and evil. These definitions do not relate the wrath of God to the love of God. (8) If that reflects pulpit ministry also, then it is no wonder that people are left with a great tension in their minds between the wrath of God and the love God without any means to resolve that tension. Yet in Scripture, that tension is largely absent. (9)
The biblical doctrine of the jealousy of God rescues us, for it brings the love of God and the wrath of God together without contradiction and serves to focus attention on the only possible solution to the problem, propitiation by the blood of Christ.
The prophet Nahum addressed the cruel Assyrian overlords of Judah about 100 years after Jonah. His message was “God is jealous.” He expounded the jealousy of God in two ways: 1st, “the LORD avenges; the LORD avenges & is furious. The LORD will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies.” And 2nd, “The LORD is slow to anger & great in power… The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him.”
Both the wrath of God and the goodness of God are expressions of God’s jealousy. The same pattern is found in the 2nd commandment, Exodus 20 vs 5-6: “You shall not bow down to them (images) nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me & keep My commands.”
In Exodus 34 v 14 the Lord names Himself, ‘Jealous!’ “You shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Jealous means zeal for your own. The word operates within exclusive relationships, such as marriage. If jealousy is zeal for our own, God’s jealousy is His passion for His own glory. “I am the LORD, that is My name; & My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images.” (10) The most exclusive relationship of all is within the Godhead. Even in eternity past, God was not ‘the One’, (TO HON) in lonely isolation, as the Greeks taught. From eternity, God dwelt in Triune fellowship, overflowing with passionate love. God loves Himself and He will not give His glory to another. God’s jealousy is His self-love !
Because the Lord loves Himself with holy jealousy, He acts both in fierce wrath against all that denies His glory and with passionate affection towards all who love Him and keep His commandments. Arthur Pink wrote: “God is angry against sin because it is rebelling against His authority, a wrong done to His inviolable sovereignty.” The biblical concept of jealousy takes that thought a stage further and relates the wrath of God not merely to His authority and sovereignty, but more significantly, to His self-love.
THE TENSION RESOLVED ONLY AT THE CROSS OF CHRIST.
In his recent TV programmes entitled “The Root of All Evil”, the evolutionist Richard Dawkins asked, “Why can’t God just forgive sin, if He wants to?” (11) Certainly God desires that none should perish. But God may not just forgive sinners because He must remain righteous.
God’s love for sinners is in effect a forbidden love - forbidden not merely by His holiness and justice but by His self-love, His jealousy! Only the Gospel legitimatises the love of God for sinners.
Therefore let us remain faithful to the biblical Gospel. If we modify it to please the congregation and refuse to preach the wrath of God against the sin of man, people will have no compelling reason to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Unless the souls of men and women are held over hell and forced to contemplate an eternity as children of wrath, without hope, why should they believe in Jesus Christ?
If we fail to preach propitiation, we will rob Jesus Christ of the worst of His sufferings and deprive Him of His greatest glory. There is nothing worse in all human experience than God’s personal displeasure! To be sure, sin is the self-destruct button! It is self-harm. But the worst thing about sin is not that it damages us, which it does, but that it provokes God to fury! That is the unbearable thing – that by my sin, I have insulted, degraded and offended God Almighty and I have provoked His righteous indignation! By contrast, Jesus lived by the rule, “I do always those things that please Him,” (12) and in submission to the will of God, He endured the white heat of God’s fury, the infinite wrath of God on the cross! His purpose? That God might be just and the justifier of all that believe in Him! (13)
Since God set Christ Jesus forth as a propitiation through His blood, there is no tension between the love of God and the wrath of God. God loves Himself and therefore must punish sinners and delight in the righteous. That is easy if the sub-set of “the righteous” is an empty set, for there are none righteous in themselves. Yet due to the work of Jesus Christ, propitiating the wrath of God and earning, by His perfect obedience, the resurrection of the dead, the number of the justified cannot be counted – it is more than the stars of heaven for multitude! So let us preach Paul’s Gospel without modification that Christ be exalted and God glorified in the salvation of sinners.
2. Romans 1 v 4,; 4 v 24, etc. See the prominence of the resurrection in Gospel preaching in Acts. (back)
3. In 207 Tertullian wrote Against Marcion. Marcion, born Sinope, Pontus, son of a bishop, arrived in Rome in 140; excommunicated 144; influenced by Cerdo, a Gnostic; God of OT unknowable, sheer justice, vengeful, author of evil; God of NT loving & gracious & sent His Son, not born of woman, appeared in synagogue at Capernaum in 29; His human experience & suffering was mere appearance, not real; creation the act of evil God so reject world for asceticism; denied resurrection of body. He rejected OT; Matthew, Mark, Acts, Hebrews & pastoral letters; accepted Luke without birth narratives; Paul as only Apostle. He set up his own churches. (back)
4. Hilaskesthai, its Cognates, Derivatives and Synonyms in the Septuagint, C.H.Dodd, JTS, 32, 1931, p.367. (back)
5. C.H.Dodd was answered by Leon Morris in The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, London, Tyndale, 1965, pp.62ff & in The Atonement, Its Meaning and Significance, IVP, 1983, pp.132ff and by Roger Nicole in C.H.Dodd and the dotrine of Propitiation, WTJ, 17, 1955, pp.117ff. (back)
6. Revelation 2-3. (back)
7. James 2 v 13; Habakkuk 3 v 2. (back)
8. Robert Letham in “The Work of Christ” defines wrath as “The wrath of God is His settled, personal antagonism to sin.” Arthur Pink says, “The wrath of God is His eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. It is the displeasure & indignation of Divine equity against evil. It is the holiness of God stirred into activity against sin.” (back)
9. Psalm 85 v 10, “Mercy & truth have met together; righteousness & peace have kissed.” Cf. Ps.89 v 14, “Righteousness & justice are the foundation of Your throne; mercy & truth go before Your face.” (back)
10. Isaiah 42 v 8; “I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.” Also Is.48 v 11. (back)
11. Quote from memory: “The Root of All Evil”, by Richard Dawkins, BBC Channel 4, January 2006. (back)
12. John 8 v 29. (back)
13. Romans 3 vs 25-26. (back)
