Grace - is there a limit to it?

Our church has recently started going through the book of Ephesians in our Sunday morning messages, so I have decided to study it in my own personal devotions alongside this.

I was looking at verses 7 & 8 of Chapter 1, which say "In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, (8) which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight."

The two words that stood out to me are 'riches' and 'lavished'. Both words express not a limit but an abundance! One of the dictionary definitions of 'riches' is 'abundant' or 'plentiful', the dictionary definition of 'lavished' is 'to expend or give in great amounts and without limit'.

Both of these words in context refer to God's grace (grace being the freely given, unmerited favour of God towards undeserving sinners). I have lost count of the times when I approach God, in awareness of a particular sin or sins that I have committed, reminded of my need for grace, and hoping in some part that God will give me a small amount of grace, unworthy as I am. This is wrong and sinful thinking. The words riches and lavished as used here do not express that God is going to limit the amount of grace that he gives us, but that he gives grace to us in abundance!

Psalm 84:11 says "For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly." He withholds no good thing! How incredible is that!

Also, Ephesians 1:3 says "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places..." Note he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

Praise God that he is a God who gives us abundant blessing, he doesn't withhold blessing from us, he delights to give it to us! And what greater blessing than the gift of His Son, Jesus, to give us the wonderful gift of salvation - dying in our place, for our sins, to take the punishment that we daily deserve to pay. What greater reason could there be to approach God with confidence than through Jesus' sacrifice? What a wonderful God we have, and what a wonderful God we serve!

By This We Know Love

Another great song - I love this album!

By This We Know Love from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

C.J.Mahaney sermon - "The Troubled Soul"

Thought I would post a link to this sermon, that I would recommend listening to. It's based on Psalm 42, around talking truth to yourself rather than listening to your own feelings. Here's the link:

http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Resources/CJMahaneySermons/TheTroubledSoul.aspx

That's the audio link, or here's the video:

The Troubled Soul from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

Serving Christ joyfully

"Impatient spirits may fret and fume because they are not called to the highest places in ministry; but, reader, learn to rejoice that Jesus calls those He desires. If He leaves me as a doorkeeper in His house, I will cheerfully bless Him for His grace in allowing me to do anything in His service. The call of Christ's servants comes from above."

(From Alistair Begg's "Truth for Life" Daily Devotional for Thurs 10/9/09- adapted from C.H Spurgeon http://www.truthforlife.org/site/PageServer?pagename=tls_overview)

Really challenging quote for me. We are not just called to be content or put up with what Jesus calls us to do but to rejoice that he would even call any of us! Psalm 84:10 "10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness." Rather than complain about what we have not been called to do, we should return to God with gratefulness for his grace in allowing us to serve him at all!

God's grace and mercy - R.C.Sproul quote

"We soon forget that with our first sin we have forfeited all rights to the gift of life. That I am drawing breath this morning is an act of divine mercy. God owes me nothing. I owe Him everything. If He allows a tower to fall on my head this afternoon, I cannot claim injustice"

(R.C.Sproul - The Holiness of God, Chapter 6 - Holy Justice p126)

Spurgeon - Justification by Grace

In this quote, Spurgeon talks about the level of debt that Christ paid, I have found it helpful when meditating and considering the wonder of Christ's sacrifice at the Cross and the daily wonder of sanctifying & saving grace that we, as Christians, have the joy of experiencing:

"Now, concerning this ransom, we have to observe, that it was all paid, and all paid at once. When Christ redeemed his people, he did it thoroughly; he did not leave a single debt unpaid, nor yet one farthing (penny in modern speech!) for them to settle afterwards. God demanded of Christ the payment for the sins of all his people; Christ stood forward, and to the utmost farthing paid whate'er his people owed. The sacrifice of Calvary was not a part payment; it was not a partial exoneration, it was a complete and perfect payment, and it obtained a complete and perfect remittal of all the debts of all believers that have lived, do live, or shall live, to the very end of time. On that day when Christ hung on the cross, he did not leave a single farthing for us to pay as a satisfaction to God; he did not leave, from a thread even to a shoe-latchet, that he had not satisfied. The whole of the demands of the law were paid down there and then by Jehovah Jesus, the great high priest of all his people. And blessed be his name, he paid it all at once too. So priceless was the ransom, so princely and munificent (lavish) was the price demanded for our souls, one might have thought it would have been marvellous if Christ had paid it by instalments; some of it now, and some of it then. King's ransoms have sometimes been paid part at once, and part in dues afterwards, to run through years. But not so our Saviour: once for all he gave himself a sacrifice; at once he counted down the price, and said, "It is finished," leaving nothing for him to do, nor for us to accomplish. He did not drivel out a part-payment, and then declare that he would come again to die, or that he would again suffer, or that he would again obey; but down upon the nail, to the utmost farthing, the ransom of all people was paid, and a full receipt given to them, and Christ nailed that receipt to his cross, and said, "It is done, it is done; I have taken away the handwriting of ordinances, I have nailed it to the cross; who is he that shall condemn my people, or lay anything to their charge? for I have blotted out like a cloud their transgressions, and like a thick cloud their sins!"

C.H Spurgeon, taken from a sermon entitiled "Justification by Grace" (http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0126.htm)

Take a step back for a moment and consider these words from the quote: "The sacrifice of Calvary was not a part payment; it was not a partial exoneration, it was a complete and perfect payment, and it obtained a complete and perfect remittal of all the debts of all believers that have lived, do live, or shall live, to the very end of time"

If Christ's sacrifice had been in any way lacking in achieving the payment of the debt for our sins, then we would still be dead in our sins, and without hope. But, thanks to God's glorious grace that he has shown us, we are not bound by sin anymore, the complete payment has been paid, Christ took our punishment, stood in our place, and not only that, we have been clothed with Christ's righteousness!! We can enter God's presence without blame or fault, not based on anything we have done, but based on Christ's sacrifice at the Cross, his full and complete payment for our sins!!

Another reminder why our wonderful Saviour, Jesus Christ, is so worthy of all the worship, praise and adoration that he receives!

The Heart of the Gospel

Spurgeon reinforces the necessity of holding fast to the truths of the Gospel and not deviating and being distracted by the latest new thing. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:2: "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified":

"...God grant us this day that our ship may have nothing on board it that may merely gratify the curiosity, or please the taste, but that there may be necessary Truths for the salvation of souls. I would have each one of you say—“Well, it was just the old, old story of Jesus and His love and nothing else.” I have no desire to be famous for anything but preaching the old Gospel. There are plenty who can fiddle to you the new music—it is for me to have no music at any time but that which is heard in Heaven—“Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, to Him be Glory forever and ever!”... "

- C.H.Spurgeon
(http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols31-33/chs1910.pdf)
from Monergism.com

New Song from Sovereign Grace's Next 2009 album

All I Have Is Christ from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.


Fantastic album, I've just downloaded it myself. Available from here

http://sovereigngracemusic.org/albums/category/sovereign_grace_music/next_2009_live

Only costs $5.00 (currently £3.08 to be precise) for 15 songs! 2 of them are free downloads

God's Justice - 2

Continuing with some quotes from 'The Holiness of God' by R.C Sproul.

Sometimes, in fact often, we forget the seriousness of our sin in the face of a righteous, upright, Holy God. We forget the message it portrays to others but most importantly the true act of defiance every one of our sins are against God. As I wrote and quoted in the previous post
http://outstandingchristianquotes.blogspot.com/2009/05/gods-justice-1.html every time we sin, we deserve to die.

Sproul writes "Sin is cosmic treason. Sin is treason against a perfectly pure Sovereign. It is an act of supreme ingratitude toward the One who has given us life itself. Have you ever considered the deeper implications of the slightest sin, of the most minute peccadillo (small sin)? What are we saying to our Creator when we disobey Him at the slightest point? We are saying no to the righteousness of God. We are saying, "God, Your law is not good. My judgement is better than Yours. Your authority does not apply to me. I am above and beyond Your jurisdiction. I have the right to do what I want to do, not what You command me to do."

He continues "The slightest sin is an act of defiance against cosmic authority. It is a revolutionary act, a rebellious act in which we are setting ourselves in opposition to the One to whom we owe everything. It is an insult to His holiness..." (p116 Ch 6 Holy Justice)

As it says in Romans 5:10 - 18:

"...as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. 13 Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. 14 Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known. 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

What hope do we have? Romans 5:6-11:

"6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."

Here lies the amazing dilemma of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ! We as sinners commit cosmic treason against a perfectly pure Sovereign God. We daily commit acts of defiance and ingratitude towards the One who gave us life itself! As the Rom 5:10-18 passage tells us "NONE is righteous, no NOT ONE"

But Romans 5:6 "...at the right time, Christ died for the UNGODLY..." and verse 8 "...but God shows his love for us in that WHILE WERE STILL SINNERS, Christ died for us"!! & verse 9 "Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more SHALL WE BE SAVED BY HIM FROM THE WRATH OF GOD" (my emphasis added)

As Christians, we are saved from our unrighteousness, our ungodliness, while we were still sinners, from the wrath of God!!! Amazing Grace! What a glorious Saviour we have in Jesus! We have and can do NOTHING to add to our salvation. We did nothing to deserve our salvation. Every time we sin we deserve God's wrath to be poured out in its entirety on us. We deserve to spend eternity in hell. I can't even begin to imagine the seriousness and terror of God's wrath. As a mere creation of God, a human being, I can't relate to what it meant to Jesus to bear God's wrath upon himself. But the response has to be of gratitude and worship! What else could we do?

Sproul talks about the Cross as follows:

"The most violent expression of God's wrath and justice is seen in the Cross. If ever a person had room to complain of injustice, it was Jesus. He was the only innocent man ever to be punished by God. If we stagger at the wrath of God, let us stagger at the Cross. Here is where our astonishment should be focused. If we have cause for moral outrage, let it be directed at Golgotha.

The Cross was at once the most horrible and the most beautiful example of God's wrath. It was the most just and most gracious act in history. God would have been more than unjust, He would have been diabolical to punish Jesus if Jesus had not first willingly taken upon Himself the sins of the world. Once Christ had done that, once He volunteered to be the Lamb of God, laden with our sin, then He became the most grotesque and vile thing on this planet. With the concentrated load of sin He carried, He became utterly repugnant to the Father. God poured out His wrath on this obscene thing. God made Christ accursed for the sin He bore. Herein was God's holy justice perfectly manifest. Yet it was done for us. He took what justice demanded from us. This "for us" aspect of the Cross is what displays the majesty of its grace. At the same time justice and grace, wrath and mercy. It is too astonishing to fathom." (p121-122 Ch 6 Holy Justice)

What a wonderful, fresh reminder of grace, of God's free, unmerited favour, that he shows to us daily, indeed that he sustains and transforms us with! As Christians we should be the most grateful people on the planet. Let us never lose sight of the wonder of the Cross and what it accomplished.

Recommended Books about Christ

Justin Taylor provides some very helpful recommendations for books about Christ (other than the Bible!):

http://www.thisisnext.org/webzine#spotlight1

God's Justice - 1

Following on from some of the posts below, I have recently finished reading R.C.Sproul's EXCELLENT book - 'The Holiness of God'. I'm going to share some of the quotes from the book that have specifically affected me and reminded me of the truth of who God is. (By the way anything that is in blue text are my thoughts, and everything else...isn't!)

The purpose of this post isn't to become introspective and burdened by sin. It is a chance to take a fresh look at God's justice. When looking at God's justice afresh, the first and primary point is that his justice has been fully and completely satisfied at the Cross. Nothing we can do can ever go any way to appeasing his wrath and satisfying his justice. As J.I.Packer writes in his book, 'Knowing God'

"...Our sins have been punished; the wheel of retribution has turned; judgement has been inflicted for our ungodliness - not on us, but on Jesus, the lamb of God standing in our place" (Knowing God Ch 18 p212)

Speaking in relation to creation, Sproul writes:

"In creation God is not obliged to give us the gift of life. He is not in debt to us. The gift of life comes by His grace and stands under His divine authority. The task that is given to mankind in creation is to bear witness to the holiness of God, to be His image bearer. We are made to mirror and reflect the holiness of God. We are made to be His ambassadors.
God put Adam and Eve on probation and said "If you sin, you will die." Sin brings the loss of the gift of life. The right to life is forfeited by sin. Once people sin, they forfeit any claim on God to human existence" (Ch 6 "Holy Justice" p109)

As Romans 6:23 says "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord"

When we were created by God, we were created in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26), as Dr Sproul writes, we were created to bear witness to His holiness, but when sin came into the world it marred that image.

Adrian Warnock quotes C.J.Mahaney from his sermon 'The Holiness of God':

"I don't believe it's unjust for God to take away the gift of life that he gave freely if it wasn't used for the purpose for which he gave it. Because when we sin, what we are saying is—we are not just making a mistake—we are saying no to God's law; we are saying your law is not good; we're saying—God, your law does not cut it, I'm not under your authority; my judgment is superior to yours; I'm defying and opposing you, who in reality I owe everything to."

(http://adrianwarnock.com/2008/06/c-j-mahaney-on-people-god-killed-sermon.htm)

So as soon as Adam and Eve sinned and ate the apple in active disobedience against God, they should have been wiped out for their transgression. However God chose delay his righteous justice


Sproul continues:

"In the case of creation and mankind's fall, the full measure of justice was delayed so that grace would have time to work. Here the delay of justice was not the denial of justice but the establishing of mercy and grace"(p115)

Ultimately God's purpose in everything is to bring glory to himself first and foremost. If he had, quite righteously, wiped out Adam & Eve as soon as they sinned, he would not have been any less just. But he chose to display his attribute of grace in delaying the display of his justice.


To be continued...

He see the depths of our hearts...

Ok, so not so much of a quote, but at church this morning we were singing the song 'Indescribable' and one of the lines of the song blew me away in a way that it hasn't done before. The refrain at the end goes 'Incomparable, Unchangeable, You see the depths of my heart and you love me the same...'

What really stood out to me was that God knows us inside out, he knows our sinful nature and our sinful motivations for doing things that seem good to other people. He knows our deepest thoughts that no-one else every finds out and we would be utterly ashamed if anyone else ever found out. These sins are abhorrent to God, he cannot abide sin in any way shape or form. He is Holy and every time we even think like this we instantly deserve death, because we have disobeyed God. The Bible teaches that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) but then the verse follows on to say that the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

How can a God that knows us so completely, better than we know ourselves and so completely Holy love us at all? Romans 5 speaks of this in verse 6 onwards:

"6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."

And also in Ephesians 2:

"1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

What a glorious gospel! What an amazing mystery! What scandalous grace! God doesn't only love us even though he knows us inside out, he has made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him in the heavenly places. He has provided Christ as our mediator to stand between us and the Father, to pay the penalty for our sins that we could not have paid, he lived the perfect life for us and died the perfect death for us.

Psalm 139 perfectly illustrates the extent to which God knows us. He knew us before we were even formed in the womb. I found verse 4 a particularly challenging verse "Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether." Whether that word is glorifying to God or not, he knows it. He can use it to work out his purposes in our lives. He can use it to carry out his sanctifying work in order to help form us and shape us to be more like Him. He can use it as an opportunity to reveal areas of our heart that need to change, in order to help us become more like Him. Here is the Psalm in its entirety:

"1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.

13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.

19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
20 They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain!
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting! "

I trust that this truth will spur us on to a greater trust and a deeper faith in our glorious God. He knows us inside out yet he has shown us the ultimate example of love in fulfilling our greatest need, which is our need for a Saviour, a rescue from the punishment that we so richly deserve. Praise Him!

Some quotes on Atonement

Atonement means making amends, blotting out the offense, and giving satisfaction for wrong done; thus reconciling to oneself the alienated other and restoring the disrupted relationship.

Scripture depicts all human beings as needing to atone for their sins but lacking all power and resources for doing so.We have offended our holy Creator, whose nature it is to hate sin (Jer. 44:4; Hab. 1:13) and to punish it (Ps. 5:4-6; Rom. 1:18; 2:5-9). No acceptance by, or fellowship with, such a God can be expected unless atonement is made, and since there is sin in even our best actions, anything we do in hopes of making amends can only increase our guilt or worsen our situation. This makes it ruinous folly to seek to establish one’s own righteousness before God (Job 15:14-16; Rom. 10:2-3); it simply cannot be done.

But against this background of human hopelessness, Scripture sets forth the love, grace, mercy, pity, kindness, and compassion of God, the offended Creator, in himself providing the atonement that our sin has made necessary. This amazing grace is the focal center of New Testament faith, hope, worship, ethics, and spiritual life; from Matthew to Revelation it shines out with breathtaking glory.

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As a perfect sacrifice for sin (Rom. 8:3; Eph. 5:2; 1 Pet. 1:18-19), Christ’s death was our redemption (i.e., our rescue by ransom: the paying of a price that freed us from the jeopardy of guilt, enslavement to sin, and expectation of wrath; Rom. 3:24; Gal. 4:4-5; Col. 1:14). Christ’s death was God’s act of reconciling us to himself, overcoming his own hostility to us that our sins provoked (Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:18-19; Col. 1:20-22). The Cross propitiated God (i.e., quenched his wrath against us by expiating our sins and so removing them from his sight). Key texts here are Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2 and 4:10, in each of which the Greek expresses propitiation explicitly. The cross had this propitiatory effect because in his suffering Christ assumed our identity, as it were, and endured the retributive judgment due to us (“the curse of the law,” Gal. 3:13) as our substitute, in our place, with the damning record of our transgressions nailed by God to his cross as the tally of crimes for which he was now dying (Col. 2:14; cf. Matt. 27:37; Isa. 53:4- 6; Luke 22:37).

- J.I.Packer (Sacrifice, Jesus Christ made Atonement for Sin - from Concise Theology)

The wrath of God continued...

What kind of wrath is it? Well, it is the wrath of God, it is divine wrath and that is a very important beginning. It is divine wrath. It isn’t like anything else that we know in this world. It isn’t like your wrath or my wrath; it isn’t like when we get angry. It isn’t like when we get mad. We get angry and we get mad when we are offended. And, frankly, we have pride in the way. Our passion, our anger and our wrath is not like this, this is the wrath of God. And like every other attribute of God it is as perfect as His holy person. His wrath is righteous wrath. It is the right kind of wrath, it is holy wrath. The passion that we call anger in this world, the thing that we call wrath in this human world is always reflective of the evil heart of man. But we must not impose that on God.

One writer said, “We cannot think with full consistency of God in terms of the highest human ideals of personality and yet attribute to Him the rational passion of anger.” In other words, this writer was saying ‑ God could never be angry because we know anger is a bad thing. But he is simply trying to say that God’s like us, and He’s not. Don’t push our concept of anger on God. God is angry in a holy way, ‘in a perfect way. God’s anger is not some capricious, irrational rage.

In fact, let me go a step further. And you’re getting a lesson in theology proper here about the nature of God. God could not be God and be holy and be holy good if He didn’t react to evil. Do you understand that? He has to. He can’t be God. You cannot be holy and tolerate unholiness. It can’t be done. That’s why Habakkuk the prophet said: “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity.” God can’t tolerate it. And I’ll tell you something, the more Godlike you become; the more angry you will get at certain things.

Even in this warped world of men, indignation against wickedness is essential of human goodness. We expect people to get mad about certain injustice. For God is infinitely beyond that because even when we get mad about the right things it’s usually polluted by our sinfulness.

A classic illustration was Jesus in John 2 cleansing the temple, made a whip and just started whipping people all out of the temple. I mean, that’s a very dramatic scene. Do you want to know something? That was His first public act in Jerusalem. That is not the way you start a crusade. You don’t go into the religious places, take a whip and start flagellating everybody and overturning tables and crying about their sin, you’ll never get a crowd that way. You’ve got to send the advance committee, make it sound like harps and flowers. Jesus was furious because God was being dishonored. There was dishonesty there, there was cheating and lying and extortion and desecration.

So, don’t look at the low, irrational, selfish anger of men and then push that off on God. The wrath of God is always perfect, always. The wrath of men is always somehow compromised by the presence of sin.

- John MacArthur Jr

More challenging thoughts on God's wrath

"The truth is that God exists. He is eternal and infinitely powerful. He supplies us with all we have. Therefore he is gloriously self-sufficient with no needs that we can meet. The truth is that our reason for being is to be thankful for all he has given us and to display his glory by the way we think and feel and act (Psalm 50:23 - 'The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
to one who orders his way rightly, I will show the salvation of God!')."

"The truth is that the universe is radically God-centered: it comes from him, it exists for the display of his glory. And human life is supposed to be radically God-centered - not by working for God as if he were a needy deity, but by our being thankful to him and exulting in the grace that so much good comes to us, even amid terrible suffering."

"...God has created a universe in which we get the blessings and he gets the glory. And the way God gets the glory is by our exulting in him as the all-sufficient Giver of all things"

"So here is the truth: God exists. God is eternal and infinitely powerful. God is the giver of every good gift. And therefore our reason for being - our chief duty, the end for which we were created, and the commandment written on every heart - is to display the glory of this great God every day, hour by hour, as we live in the exultation over his bounty to us. "


- John Piper - http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByTopic/78/1049_The_Wrath_of_God_Against_Holding_Down_the_Truth/

Sobering thoughts about the wrath of God

Now the wrath of God is as much a Divine perfection as is His faithfulness, power, or mercy. It must be so, for there is no blemish whatever, not the slightest defect in the character of God; yet there would be if "wrath" were absent from Him! Indifference to sin is a moral blemish, and he who hates it not is a moral leper. How could He who is the Sum of all excellency look with equal satisfaction upon virtue and vice, wisdom and folly? How could He who is infinitely holy disregard sin and refuse to manifest His "severity" (Rom. 9:12) toward it? How could He who delights only in that which is pure and lovely, loathe and hate not that which is impure and vile? The very nature of God makes Hell as real a necessity, as imperatively and eternally requisite as Heaven is. Not only is there no imperfection in God, but there is no perfection in Him that is less perfect than another.

The wrath of God is His eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. It is the displeasure and indignation of Divine equity against evil. It is the holiness of God stirred into activity against sin. It is the moving cause of that just sentence which He passes upon evil-doers. God is angry against sin because it is a rebelling against His authority, a wrong done to His inviolable sovereignty. Insurrectionists against God’s government shall be made to know that God is the Lord. They shall be made to feel how great that Majesty is which they despise, and how dreadful is that threatened wrath which they so little regarded. Not that God’s anger is a malignant and malicious retaliation, inflicting injury for the sake of it, or in return for injury received. No; while God will vindicate His dominion as the Governor of the universe, He will not be vindictive.

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The wrath of God is a perfection of the Divine character upon which we need to frequently meditate. First, that our hearts may be duly impressed by God’s detestation of sin. We are ever prone to regard sin lightly, to gloss over its hideousness, to make excuses for it. But the more we study and ponder God’s abhorrence of sin and His frightful vengeance upon it, the more likely are we to realize its heinousness. Second, to beget a true fear in our souls for God: "Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:28,29). We cannot serve Him "acceptably" unless there is due "reverence" for His awful Majesty and "godly fear" of His righteous anger, and these are best promoted by frequently calling to mind that "our God is a consuming fire." Third, to draw out our souls in fervent praise for having delivered us from "the wrath to come" (1 Thess. 1:10).

Our readiness or our reluctancy to meditate upon the wrath of God becomes a sure test of how our hearts’ really stand affected toward Him. If we do not truly rejoice in God, for what He is in Himself, and that because of all the perfections which are eternally resident in Him, then how dwelleth the love of God in us? Each of us needs to be most prayerfully on his guard against devising an image of God in our thoughts which is patterned after our own evil inclinations. Of old the Lord complained, "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether as thyself" (Ps. 50:21), If we rejoice not "at the remembrance of His holiness" (Ps. 97:12), if we rejoice not to know that in a soon coming Day God will make a most glorious display of His wrath, by taking vengeance on all who now oppose Him, it is proof positive that our hearts are not in subjection to Him, that we are yet in our sins, on the way to the everlasting burnings.

- A.W.Pink


Wow! What a challenging passage to consider. What a motivation to look again upon the cross in awe and amazement as Christ has once for all paid the full penalty for our sins and taken the full wrath of God upon himself. Standing in our place where we daily deserve to be standing because of our disobedience to God. Hallelujah! What a Saviour!