The wrath of a Lamb?
We hear of the meek and lowly Jesus and conclude that anger is foreign to His character. Many view God as either a God of love or a God of anger. Centuries ago, God was seen mostly as a God of anger. Today, the focus is on His love.
The Bible tells us that “God is light” (1 Jn. 1:5) and “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8). The Scriptures never say “God is anger.” But His love and holiness cause Him to have anger and hatred for evil, both because they are opposed to His nature and because they hurt and damage those He loves. Psalm 7:11 tells us, “God is angry with the wicked every day.” All His moral laws are based on His holiness and love, which are given to protect us from evil and the harm caused by actions which damage our relationship with Him and with others.
Anger’s purpose is to alert us to issues of right and wrong, and it is a valid response when wrong has occurred. Anger is the emotion which motivates us to take action against hurtful behavior. Being upset by wrong behavior is normal.
Anger is defined as: “a violent passion of the mind excited by a real or supposed injury; usually accompanied with a propensity to take vengeance, or to obtain satisfaction from the offending party.” We often have a negative view of anger in our normal, everyday life because of the misuse of this God-given emotion. However, not all anger is sinful. Ephesians 4:26 instructs us, “Be angry but do not sin, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil.”
James 1:19 doesn’t forbid anger; it regulates it. The natural (carnal) way to handle anger is to explode, to implode, or to slowly leak out our anger with harmful, hurtful remarks. All of these methods are ineffective and only contribute pain to ourselves and to others. Being angry at destructive and harmful sinful behavior is not sin, but anger needs to be controlled so that sin is not committed in the process of righting wrongs.
Christ’s anger
As we look in the New Testament, we can easily see actions and behaviors that angered the Lord Jesus: the story of the healing of the man with a withered hand in Mark 3, the cleansings of the temple, and His rebuke of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.
The account of the man with the withered hand is found in Mark 3:1-6, Matthew 12:9-13, and Luke 6:6-11. When we consider the three accounts collectively, we see that the Lord entered the Synagogue on the Sabbath and was teaching. There was a man present who had a withered hand, and the Pharisees and scribes were watching intently in order to bring an accusation against the Lord Jesus. They were plotting to use the Lord’s compassion to accuse Him of breaking the law by working on the Sabbath. The Pharisees and scribes began the dialogue by asking, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” The Lord Jesus looked at them with anger and was grieved because of the hardness of their hearts. They were more concerned about their position than about the man with a crippled hand.
Next, consider the cleansing of the temple in John 2. It angered Him to see His Father’s house being desecrated and used as a money-making scheme. In response, He drove the offenders out of the temple, overturning the moneychangers’ tables. He could say, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up” (v. 17).
In these examples and others, we see the Lord’s anger focused on the religious leaders rather than on the people who did not claim to be righteous before God. Matthew 23 contains one of the most scathing condemnations in the Bible. The Lord gave this message to the Pharisees before He left the temple on the last day before His crucifixion. In this passage, the Lord calls the Pharisees hypocrites and blind guides because they were using people for their own self-seeking pride and gain.
The Lord Jesus was utterly sinless and “was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). His anger had the proper focus and motivation and did not arise from petty arguments or personal insults against Him. There was no selfishness nor self-will involved, but He targeted sinful behavior and motives that were true injustices.
God’s anger and us
Today, we see the type of behavior that God condemns in the world. Romans 1:18 says, “But God shows His anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” God’s judgment of those who refuse to accept His guidance in life is to turn them over to a reprobate mind, to give them the desires of their heart. I asked a group of young people to identify things they thought were wrong and should be dealt with by God because of the hurt it had caused in their lives. They mentioned all the hurtful sins that we witness in our society such as lying, stealing, murder, hate, and adultery. I explained to them how each of the Ten Commandments was given to reveal when there is problem in our relationship with God. I asked which came first, a relationship with God or the Ten Commandments. They concluded that a relationship came first and the commandments were given as a measure of the relationship. I asked how many of the hurts they had mentioned would exist if everyone involved in the situations had a personal relationship with God and fulfilled the moral law of God by walking according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. They concluded that none of the sins that had hurt them would have occurred if the ones involved had a personal, saving relationship with God and obeyed His Word.
An unforgiving spirit also angers the Lord. In Matthew 18, Jesus gave the parable of the unmerciful servant who had been forgiven an extremely large debt because he pleaded for mercy, but then refused to forgive a man who owed him far less. This parable reveals God’s anger in judgment on individuals refusing to forgive someone who has offended them.
God has set aside a day when He will right every wrong that has occurred and will judge every sin. We can be thankful it is still future. If God were to instantly judge those who have sinned against Him, no one would be left. All would end up in hell. Therefore, He has postponed judgment to allow us time to repent (2 Pet. 3:9). The only way to have God’s anger turned away from us is to accept the forgiveness He offers us through the finished work of Christ on the cross.
Micah 7:18-19 speaks of the gracious patience of God. “Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” Because God delights in mercy, He has provided a way to have our sins forgiven. The good news for us is that we can flee from the wrath that is to come by coming to the Lord Jesus Christ today. “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21).
Written by Jerry Denny