Point-of-View

To understand the Doctrine of God, one must examine His love and wrath. God’s love and wrath are different sides of the same coin. His wrath is one aspect of his divine love. Those who reject His love experience God’s wrath.

God’s love is consuming fire. His wrath may be described as the underside of agape love.

The love of God

•All of Christian doctrine is an exposition of the love of God. His creation is an extension of His love. His power and presence are outgrowths of His love. His holiness and righteousness characterize His love. God creates out of, and for, love. Even creation is an exposition of the love of God.

•The love of God is the central quality in God’s nature. His loving nature eternally moves Him to self-communication and self-giving for the redemption of all mankind. The love of God is so complete that one could say that God gives Himself away, especially in the light of his Son, Jesus Christ.

•The love of God in the New Testament is "agape" or unconditional. It is spontaneous, free and outgoing. It is not motivated by the desire of the object or the one being loved. God loves us as a free expression of His nature. It is not motivated by us. God is love. His personal nature is love. Read: John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:10; 1 John 4:8.

•The love of God in theological interpretation must be anchored concretely, personally and historically in Jesus.

•The love of God is a suffering love. In the sense of God as a personal being, His love is a suffering love. Our sin breaks His heart.

•God’s love demands our all. Theologian William Temple, Archbishop of Cantebury, told this story: While speaking to a group of young people he listened as they sang, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." He interrupted and asked them to think of these words as they sang them softly. At that moment, 2,000 young people whispered "Love so amazing...demands my life..." The love of God truly is amazing and demands our all.

The wrath of God

•In the Old Testament, the wrath of God is depicted by the word "aph." The root means to snort or be angry. In the New Testament, wrath is found in the words "thumos," meaning to breathe violently and heavily, and "orga" meaning to be ripe or swelled with juice." Thumos is used of man’s wrath ordinarily in the New Testament.

•The wrath of God cannot be illustrated by the words of man. The wrath of God has no exact counterpart in man’s experience. The wrath of God is as much elevated over the anger of man as "agape" (unconditional) is over "eros" (gratifying) love.

•The New Testament avoids making God the subject of the verb "to be angry." Sometimes the New Testament just avoids speaking of God’s wrath. Consider these verses: John 3:16; Matthew 3:7; Luke 3:7; Luke 21:34; Ephesians 2:3; and 1 Thessalonians 5:9.

The New Testament portrays wrath as judgment more than His inner nature. New Testament scholar C. H. Dodd describes wrath as the inevitable process of cause and effect in a moral universe. Theologian James Stewart said that wrath is everything that man’s rebellion against the moral order brings upon Him, not a direct penal act.

•The wrath of God in the New Testament is not just the working out of moral consequences. God’s wrath is indeed His wrath and may be described as the immediate continuing resistance to evil on the part of God. On occasion it breaks into human history as direct judgment. Mark 3:5; Romans 1:18; Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 3:16; John 3:36.

The book of Revelation deals with the wrath of the Lamb of Christ and uses the term "orga." Rev. 6:16; Rev. 16:19; and Rev. 14:10.

•The wrath of God is revealed in Scripture clearly as God’s love, yet it is always revealed in the context of God’s grace where the redemptive way is made clear. This has caused many theological interpreters to say that the wrath of God is His alien work and the love of God is His primary work. He did not come to bring wrath but love and redemption.

Next week we will examine the Doctrine of the Trinity.

This is sixth in a series called the Doctrine of God.