Exploring the Character of God: Navigating through God's Wrath, Justice and Love

Ever wondered why God’s anger isn’t akin to a vengeful fury but an act of righteousness against sin and injustice? In this thought-provoking episode of Faithfullyliven  we aim to address this very question, and more. Embarking on this spiritual journey, we'll discuss God’s wrath, justice, and love. Tune in to this enlightening episode to deepen your understanding this character of God.  


References
Systematic Theology 2nd edition by  Wayne Grudem  
Christian Theology  by Millard J. Erickson  
A. W. Tozer and David E. Fessenden, The Attributes of God: A Journey into the Father’s Heart, vol. 1

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to Faithfully Living, the podcast where we learn how to live for Christ in our daily lives. I am Dwan, your host, and I would like to invite you on a journey with me to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ. In today's episode, we're going to talk about the wrath, justice and love of God. We have to remember that all of these attributes help us to somewhat understand God better, even though we will never fully understand and know Him. The wrath of God is not something that we, as Christians, would want to highlight about God. We already have enough trouble with the question of why God lets evil in the world, so why would we want to point out this? Nature of God is wrath. So, as usual, let's define our terms. We're going to go to Wayne Gudum's systematic theology text to help us out. He says God's wrath may be defined as follows God's wrath means that he intensely hates all evil. So we have to remember that God is holy, he's good, he's just, he's morally perfect, so anything that is opposite of His perfection he hates. So scripture mentions the wrath of God multiple times, and we can see that when Israel sinned against God. So, for example, if you remember when Israel built the golden calf at the bottom of Mount Sinai. In Exodus 32-9-10,. I'll just read it for you. It says and the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people and behold, it is a stiff neck people. Now, therefore, let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great nation. And then in John 3.36, it says Whoever believes in the sun has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. We also have in Romans 1.16-18, which says For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believe it, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written the just shall live by faith, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and righteousness of men who hold the truth in our righteousness. So we have to remember that. Remember and know that God hates sin and his wrath or his anger is against it because of his holiness and his goodness. So someday God is going to judge sin and evil and all the wickedness in the world, and it will be God's wrath that will be displayed against that wickedness. So when we think about the wrath of God again, we remember that God hates sin. And then, as believers who are sinners, we owe a debt that Jesus Christ took on the wrath of God to pay the debt of sin for us and then also for all those who believe in him.

Speaker 1: 3:48

Romans 3, 22-24 says we are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ, and this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are, for everyone has sinned and we all fall short of God's glorious standard that God, in His grace, free, makes us right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sin, for God presented Jesus as a sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shed His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and inclined them in that he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for he Himself is fair and just and he makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. So if you go back to episode 7 of Exploring the Attributes of God, we talked about the patience of God. So God is patient and many times God withholds His wrath for a time, when it comes to evil and it comes to sin. We can see this in Psalms 103-8, which tells us the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and step fast love. So we can see that in God's wrath he is also patient, he is merciful and he is gracious. So this kind of leads us into the next attribute of God, which is His justice.

Speaker 1: 5:40

Have you struggled with studying and understanding the Bible? Do you wish you could get some help? Well, go check out the Faithfully Living YouTube channel. There is a library of videos to help you learn how to study and understand the Bible better. There are videos on various topics, such as Bible study tools and how to use them, understanding context and more. You can find a link to the channel in the show notes Happy studying Music.

Speaker 1: 6:44

Yuderon me 32-3-4 says I will proclaim the name of the Lord. How glorious is our God. He is the rock. His deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong. How just and right he is. But before we dive into looking into God's justice we have to look a little bit more deeply and kind of lay a foundation. So we need to mention God's righteousness.

Speaker 1: 7:16

So God's righteousness is defined by Wayne Grudem. He says God's righteousness means that God always acts in accordance with what is right and is himself the final standard of what is right. So we have to remember that God is the standard for all that is right and good. He's perfect. He's in a position to judge those he has created because he's the creator of all things. So he can judge people according to what they deserve. And God does his good, he does his evil and then he also rewards good and then punishes evil. So if God allowed Evil to go uncheck forever, then he would not be good because, as I said before, his moral standard is perfection. So Only he is and he will always be good and perfect. So because God is righteous, his justice is right and good. So we have to frame his justice within the context that he's righteous, which is good and just, good and right. So Millard Erickson defines God's justice as that he administers his law fairly, not showing favoritism or partiality. Erickson goes on to say that God's justice is his official righteousness, his requirement that other moral agents adhere to the standards as well. God is, in other words, like a judge who is a private individual, adheres to the law of society and, in his official capacity, administers the same law, applying it to others.

Speaker 1: 9:09

So sin has clear consequences. In In Genesis 2, 17, we we got warning to Adam and Eve. He says you must not eat From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die. And then let's take a look at the first part of Roman 623, which tells us the wages of sin is death. So because sin, is it wrong against the holy and righteous God? It it deserves punishment. Romans 12, 19 says beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God for his written renders, his mind, our repay, he says to Lord.

Speaker 1: 9:57

So let's look at what a w tozer says. He says justice is not something that God has. Justice is something that God is, and God is always, will always act justly, not by compulsion from the outside, but because that's the way he is, he is himself. Justice must always prevail because God is a sovereign God who will always prevail. So when God kind of looks like in princess looks at people, we were all in the same category in playing field as far as our moral state. We're all sinners. We're gonna be a judge according to our sins. But those of us who have been atoned through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, we have been made right or righteous before a holy God. And then those who have not repented and Believe in Christ as our Savior are going to be judged according to our sin. So evil is going to be punished Rightly by God. This is God's justice, because God is just so.

Speaker 1: 11:08

The promise in 1 John 1 9 says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and the cleanses from all our righteousness. Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins, and that's 1 John 4, 7-10.

Speaker 1: 12:02

So when we look at the sum of all of God's attributes so far that we have explored and you can listen to previous episodes 1-8, I encourage you to go back and look at those. When we talked about other attributes of God, love is probably the one that we most associate with God or people like to associate with God. However, we have to remember that we have to look at all of God's attributes kind of like all on the same plane, that God is not more love than he's more just, just are. His wrath is not less than his love, so they're equally important. So just as God's justice is equally important, his love is equally important.

Speaker 1: 12:56

Dr Grudem tells us that God's love means that he eternally gives of himself to others. So this definition helps us to understand love as self-giving for the benefit of others. So this attribute of God shows that it is part of his nature to give of himself in order to bring about blessing, our good for others. So when we love others, we want the best for that person, because sin has separated us from God. God's love for us is what caused him to sin Christ to pay the debt of sin that we owed.

Speaker 1: 13:37

John 3.16 says. For this is how God loved the world he gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. So God's love is an example for us to follow our imitates. The first commandment tells us to love God and then love others. So the same love that God showed us is the same love that we are to demonstrate and show to others. It's difficult at times, but in Matthew, jesus tells us to love our enemies. So it's easy to love people that are lovable. God gave us an example by loving us when we were unlovable as sinners. So the unconditional, unselfish nature of God's love it offers us hope, forgiveness and redemption to all of us and all those who seek Him.

Speaker 1: 14:48

Okay, so let's recap this episode with some key takeaways. So God's wrath is not something that we should be afraid of as believers in Christ. God's wrath is not a vengeful anger, but more of a righteous response to sin and injustice. So it emphasized the importance and recognized this aspect of God in order to appreciate His holiness and the need for reconciliation with God because of our sins. And then God's justice. It provides us with a moral foundation for the world. It ensures us that wrongs are going to be made right and we have to be accountable for our actions. So it invites us to reflect and have a balance between the mercy and justice of God.

Speaker 1: 15:47

And then, lastly, god's love. We see the unconditional and selfless nature of God's love, which provides and prevents us hope, forgiveness and redemption. So I encourage you to keep learning about God's character and its attributes. All of them provide us with a sense of security and hope and we can be secure in the fact that God gives good things to those who obey and trust Him. And security to know that one day evil will be punished and it will be no more so well. Thank you for listening to this episode and remember that God is always good and is always faithful. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Do me a favor by following the podcast and leaving a review to help spread the word. I look forward to hearing from you.