The wrath of God is the response of our holy and righteous God against sin and sinners that have not been covered by the atonement of Christ. Although many people do not like to think of God as being wrathful, Scripture frequently refers to the exercise of the Lord’s wrath against wickedness. Both the Old and New Testaments amply testify that God executes wrath on unrighteousness (see Deut. 9:8; 2 Kings 23:26; Pss. 21:9; 90:11; Isa. 13:9; Mic. 5:15; Zeph. 1:18; John 3:36; Rom. 1:18; Eph. 5:6; Rev. 16:1).
Divine Wrath and the Attributes of God
God executes His wrath upon unrighteousness because of who He is. Scripture testifies that God is righteous and just (Deut. 32:4; Dan. 9:14; Rom. 1:17; Rev. 15:3). He could not be righteous and just if He did not punish evil and evildoers, so His pouring out of wrath upon sin is fully consistent with His righteous character. Sinners must pay for their crimes, and God cannot clear the guilty without executing His just wrath, lest He be unrighteous (Ex. 34:6–9). God is love (1 John 4:7–8), and one of the things He loves is righteousness (Ps. 33:5). Since God is perfect, His love for righteousness must be perfect; consequently, He must hate “the way of the wicked” (Prov. 15:9; see also Deut. 32:4).
The Lord cannot show wrath unless there is sin, and there cannot be sin without the existence of creatures who sin. Divine wrath, therefore, cannot be manifested without creation and its fall into sin. For that reason, many theologians have classified wrath as a relative divine attribute and not an absolute divine attribute. An absolute divine attribute is an attribute of God that would be evident or exercised even if the Lord had never created anything. Absolute divine attributes include such things as eternality and omniscience. Whether or not God ever created the universe, He would be eternal and all-knowing.
Relative divine attributes are not displayed unless there is something outside of God for Him to relate to. As noted above, wrath is a relative divine attribute because if there were no sinners, there would be no manifestation of divine wrath. However, it is not that wrath (or any other relative divine attribute) is something that God gains by virtue of creation. God responds to sin in wrath by virtue of who He is inherently—good and righteous. Divine wrath is manifested because the creature has changed, becoming a sinner, not because God Himself changes. Sinners experience wrath when they come before the inherently righteous God, not because the Lord takes on a new attribute in the fall. After all, God cannot change (Mal. 3:6).
God shows Himself just, for sin is punished in Christ, and also full of mercy, for the atonement of Christ means that He can now be propitious, or favorable, to sinners who turn from their sin and trust in Jesus.
The Experience of God’s Wrath
Scripture makes it clear that God’s wrath is terrible. The Bible often speaks of the burning heat of God’s wrath (Ex. 32:11; Lam. 4:11), and it even describes the place of God’s eternal wrath on sinners who never turn from their sin unto Christ as a “lake of fire” (Rev. 20:10). Picking up on Isaiah 66:24, Jesus says that in hell, “their worm does not die” (Mark 9:42–49). With this image, our Savior pictures God’s judgment as a never-ending, destructive consumption of the sinner. The prophets and Apostles speak of great destruction and doom on the “day of the Lord,” which can refer to the pouring out of God’s judgment at specific moments in history as well as His final judgment at the end of time (Isa. 13:6; Ezek. 30:3; Joel 1:15; 2 Peter 3:10).
Because of the aforementioned descriptions, many people likely think of God’s wrath consisting only of spectacular, fiery displays of judgment. Importantly, however, such displays of judgment are really the consummation of wrath that was first poured out much earlier. Texts such as Romans 1:18–32 indicate that God frequently does not execute His wrath all at once but over time. His wrath, Paul tells us, consists in His handing people over to their sin and allowing them to become more deeply enmeshed in it. God often allows impenitent sinners to engage in the sin they desire long before He crushes it in a fiery judgment. God in His wrath will hand the impenitent over to their sin.
Hope for Those Under God’s Wrath
There is a final day of wrath coming upon sinners. Thankfully, God is also merciful, and He has provided Jesus Christ to save us from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10). Jesus Christ is God the Son, who became incarnate to bear the penalty of our just God against sin. In Jesus Christ, God pours out His wrath, taking it upon Himself. He thereby shows Himself just, for sin is punished in Christ, and also full of mercy, for the atonement of Christ means that He can now be propitious, or favorable, to sinners who turn from their sin and trust in Jesus (Rom. 3:21–31). The Lord delights to show steadfast love and mercy (Mic. 7:18), and all who rest in Jesus alone for salvation will be saved to the uttermost from the eternal wrath of God (Heb. 7:25).
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Robert Rothwell
Rev. Robert Rothwell is senior writer for Ligonier Ministries, associate editor of Tabletalk magazine, resident adjunct professor at Reformation Bible College, and associate pastor of Spruce Creek Presbyterian Church in Port Orange, Fla.
