The Nature of God s Wrath

Jesus: Bearer of Sin At the crossroads of history stands a single and singular cross. There were many crosses erected of similar size and purpose both before Jesus and after Jesus, but none that shared the significance and value of his cross. His cross was singular because of who he was and what he accomplished in his dying. When we talk about the cross of Jesus and all that it accomplished and represents, there are many facets that cry out for focus: the torture, the public shame, the fulfillment of prophecy, the fulfillment of God s redemptive plan, the concept of substitutionary sacrifice, the defeat of Satan, the love of God expressed in sacrifice, Jesus absolute submission to his Father, the concept of a free-will offering, the connection between sacrifice and the forgiveness of sin, among others. In this paper, I will focus on a single phrase used in scripture to describe Jesus work on the cross: Jesus bore our sins. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls (1 Peter 2:22 25). The Nature of God s Wrath The obstacle that threatens to stand between mankind and God was man s sin and God s holy wrath. Wrath is not God s out-of-control, maniacal rage against sinners; rather, it is his logical, reasoned response to evil. God is holy, God is good, and God is just. A God who ignored evil or who did not respond against evil would be neither good nor just. Our God s holy nature demands that his wrath be set against evil and work for its destruction. Therein lies the rub. We have all, in the course of our lives, chosen evil over good. We have, metaphorically, partaken of the forbidden fruit. We have set our minds against that which is good and wholesome. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned (Romans 5:12). Being among those who have indulged in evil and promoted evil and spread evil, God s wrath is naturally turned against us. You were dead in the trespasses and sins 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 among whom we all once

Page 2 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 (Ephesians 2:1 3). As those who stand guilty before God, we are a part of the problem of evil in the world, and we have no means within ourselves to expunge the evil done or even to live a perfectly good life from this day forward. Left to ourselves, we are, as Paul says, objects of God s wrath; and the justice of God demands that his wrath be satisfied. It is not that God is an angry monster looking to squash us unless he receives appeasement; rather, he is a loving and holy God whose own justice must be preserved, else he himself would cease to be holy and just. God s loving and gracious nature is seen in the fact that he provides appeasement himself and at his own expense! Understanding Atonement The chief task Jesus came to accomplish was our atonement (m. reconciliation, harmony, at-one-ment), to reconcile mankind to God, to bring us back into relationship with our Creator by appeasing his holy wrath. The concept of an offering that appeases the wrath of God is expressed by the English word propitiation (Gr. hilasmos). The bad news is that we have nothing to offer as a propitiatory gift for our sins. The good news is that our God is loving and gracious, and provides the sacrifice necessary in order to satisfy his own just and holy wrath. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:1 2). In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:9 10). The consummate passage regarding propitiation is in Paul s letter to the Romans. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over

Page 3 former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:21 26). Leading up to this passage, Paul s main point is that all sinners are under the wrath of God (Romans 1:18; 2:5 9; 3:9 20) and that all humans are sinners. Sin and God s consequent wrath is man s basic and universal problem. In the section, Paul presents the solution to the problem: God, in his grace, provided Jesus as a propitiatory sacrifice to satisfy his own wrath and thus rescue us from the pit of condemnation. He did this, Paul says, as a display of his righteousness (i.e., justice), so that he might accomplish two goals: (1) that he might be just, and (2) that he might justify us, his creation. Notice the time and means of the propitiation: it was a propitiation of blood accomplished at the cross. The Cross as a Means of Atonement A propitiatory sacrifice for our atonement was the heart of Jesus redemptive work. But how does the blood of Jesus turn away God s wrath? In simplest terms, Jesus absorbed the wrath of God, paying the penalty for our sin in his suffering on the cross. The New Testament is clear on this fact. Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6) While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8) Christ died for our sins in accordance to the scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3) We have concluded this: that one has died for all (2 Corinthians 5:14) God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us (1 Thessalonians 5:9 10) We are reconciled to God by the death of his Son (Romans 5:10) Many other passages could be cited, and no passages would speak to the contrary. In some real way, Jesus bore our sins in his body and suffered the wrath of God on our behalf and in our place. This event occurred, the scriptures are clear, not in his life or his miracles or even his resurrection, but in his death on the cross. The principle underlying Jesus atoning death is found in the Old Testament. Have you ever wondered why, when Israelites sinned, God commanded them to sacrifice animals as a means of atonement? Was God angry with animals or was he an animal hater? Of course not. Through the animal sacrifices, God was teaching Israel (specifically) and mankind (generally) about the reality of sin and its remedy. Here are some of the lessons God taught through animal sacrifices:

Page 4 1. The penalty of sin is death. Israelites who followed the law would have brought animals to sacrifice each time they became aware of their sin. The connection between sin and death would have become obvious. The animals were not negligible and disposable assets they were of great value to the family for milk, wool, food, and trade; so sin resulted in a considerable cost to the family unit. 2. Substitutionary sacrifice is acceptable. When animals were slain as sin offerings to God, the animal was taking the place of the person who had sinned. The penalty of death rightly rested on the sinner himself, not on the animal. The reason for the animal was because the penalty for the sin had to be paid in order to satisfy the holy justice of God, and God, in his grace, allowed the price to be paid by the animal instead of the sinner. 3. Substitutionary sacrifice must involve an innocent party taking the place of the guilty party. The reason God chose animals as the substitute was because the animal was innocent of sin. To further emphasize this principle, God gave specific direction that the animals sacrificed were to be of perfect health and by all appearances spotless. This system of animals substituting for sinful humans may seem like a pretty good system. It was costly for families to lose the best of their animals as a penalty for sin, but it sure beat the alternative of paying the penalty oneself. But the animal sacrifices are inadequate: It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (Hebrews 10:4). Animal sacrifices are not effective as a causal basis of atonement. Why not? The problem is that the animals are, well, animals. They are innocent, but that is only because they are incapable of sin. They are not a fair and equal substitute an animal cannot substitute for a human. The animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were simply pictures of coming realities, shadows of the good things to come. Enter Jesus, the perfect, sinless human. Have you ever wondered why God had to come to the earth as a human and live as a human and suffer as a human and be tempted as a human? Yes, he became our example for living, but there was much more to it. Only an innocent human could take the place of guilty humans, suffering the wrath of God in their stead. Thus, God came in the form of a man. Peter said: For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh (1 Peter 3:18). As a sinless man who was willing to accept the wrath of God in the place of sinful man, Jesus satisfied God s justice. Isaiah wrote of this concept in his messianic prophecy:

Page 5 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities (53:10 11; cf 1:11). Jesus sacrifice satisfied God s demand for justice, and opened for us a pathway of forgiveness. It is for this reason that Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). How Did Jesus Bear Our Sin? Returning to the text and thought with which we began, Peter declares that Jesus bore our sins in his body. Similarly, Isaiah said of the Messiah: He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors (Isaiah 53:5, 6, 8, 12). But what does it mean that Jesus bore our sins? Was our sin removed from us and placed on Jesus, so that he became the vilest, most repugnant sinner of history, becoming personally guilty of every sin ever committed? That is what Luther (and many others) concluded; he calls it the great exchange : our sin was transferred to Jesus, and Jesus perfect state of righteousness was transferred to us. The key verse is 2 Corinthians 5:21: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. While the great exchange theory seems reasonable on the surface, it does not hold up to scrutiny. First, notice that the passage actually says nothing about our sins being transferred to Jesus; rather, it says Jesus became sin. Second, notice that the passage says nothing about Jesus righteousness being transferred to us; rather, it says that in Jesus, we become the righteousness of God. So, in reality, the passage says nothing about our personal sin or Jesus personal righteousness. This verse does not teach that God made Jesus a sinner. God cannot make anyone a sinner, for to do so would violate his righteous character. He does not even tempt people to sin (James 1:13). Paul says Jesus was made sin on our behalf; yet, in all that he did, Jesus remained holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners (Hebrews 7:26).

Page 6 So what does this verse mean? The figure employed is a metaphor. A metaphor states that something is something else for the purpose of representation or comparison. For example, Jesus said, This cup is the New Covenant in my blood (1 Corinthians 11:25). The cup of the fruit of the vine is not literally the New Covenant; rather, it serves as a symbol and representation of the New Covenant. If I say, Bob is a snake, I do not mean that Bob is a reptile that crawls on his belly; rather, I am making a point of comparison between Bob and a snake that everyone in American society understands. If I say, John made his secretary a doormat for people to wipe their feet on, we would all understand that the secretary did not turn into a literal doormat, nor did people literally wipe their feet on the secretary. Similarly, God made his Son to be sin. That is, God made Jesus the representative of sin and unleashed his wrath upon him accordingly. God did this to his Son on our behalf, that is, for our benefit and in our stead. We rightly deserve to be treated as sin objects of God s wrath (Ephesians 2:3) and under a curse (Galatians 3:13) because we all have sinned and fallen short of God s glory (Romans 3:23); but instead, Jesus was made sin for us, and thus he endured the penalty for our sin in our stead. Lenski writes: Now the astounding thing is that this sinless One God was made sin for us. Sin is to be taken in the same comprehensive sense. God did not make Him a sinner. God did less, and He did more. God left Jesus as sinless as He was. The idea of God making anyone a sinner, to say nothing of His own Son, is unthinkable. God did something else entirely: He laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Is. 53:6) so that He bore our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Pet. 2:24), so that He was made a curse for us (Gal. 3:13), so that He died for all (vv. 14 15). God made Christ sin by charging all that is sin in us against Him, letting Him bear all this burden with all its guilt and penalty in our stead in order to deliver us (Interpretation of 1 and 2 Corinthians). Jesus Received God s Wrath Jesus endured the wrath of God in our stead, the wrath that was due us because of our sin, in order to satisfy God s holy justice. But what does that mean in practical terms? What did Jesus suffer and when did he suffer it? We know Jesus suffered incredible emotional stress as he contemplated the cross (e.g., in Gethsemane). We know he endured ridicule and physical torture in the events surrounding his trial. We know he endured incredible physical agony during his six hours on the cross. We know he endured physical death.

Page 7 Was that the extent of God s wrath against us? Untold thousands of people including Christians have suffered similar tortures and deaths. Paul says that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and the Hebrews writer says that Jesus tasted (i.e., experienced) death for everyone (Hebrews 2:9). Physical death is present in the world because of sin, but Paul is not saying that the wages of sin is physical death; and Jesus tasted physical death, but he did not taste physical death in our stead (we will experience physical death for ourselves). The death that comes as a penalty for sin and as a satisfaction of God s holy wrath is spiritual death. Spiritual death, as the term suggests, is a death of the spirit. The only thing that can kill the spirit is sin, and the consequence is the wrath of God that brings about separation from his presence and intense suffering. Although Jesus never sinned personally, he endured the separation from the Father and the intense suffering that the spiritually dead sinner experiences following physical death. Thus, although Jesus suffered much in his body both before the cross and while on the cross, that suffering does not compare to the suffering he endured when the wrath of God was unleashed upon him. The prospect of God s wrath is what caused Jesus to recoil as he faced the cross. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name (John 12:27 28). And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground (Luke 22:41 44). When we think about the cross, we often think about the physical pain because that is the part to which we can relate. But we would do well look past the physical suffering to see Jesus, at his death, receiving in his body and his spirit the outpouring of God s wrath against sin. That pain, no doubt, is what led him to cry out in a loud voice and his body to yield to death. Fulfillment of the Figure of the Scapegoat The concept of Jesus bearing our sins is pictured in every animal sacrifice for sin ostensibly, the animals were taking the place of the sinner. But Jesus as the bearer of our

Page 8 sin is prefigured in a unique way in the Day of Atonement rituals. Once per year, the High Priest was to make a special series of sin offerings. He first sacrificed a bull as a sin offering for himself and his family. He then cast lots in order to choose one of two goats to be killed as a sin offering for the nation. The blood of this goat he poured out on the Mercy Seat ( place of propitiation ) for the sins of the people, and then used the rest of the blood to sanctify the holy place and its stations of ritual offerings. Then came the matter of the second goat. And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness (Leviticus 16:20 22). This goat was called the scapegoat, and it was driven alive into the wilderness to signify to Israel that the sins of the nations had been carried away. The goat was, of course, innocent, but the goat received the blame and the penalty for the sins of the people. Similarly, Jesus, though personally innocent, received the blame and the penalty for the sins of the people. Thus, Jesus bears our sins in the sense that he bears the penalty of our sins, but he also bears them in the sense that he carries them away so that we are no longer held accountable. John declared: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). Again, He appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin (1 John 3:5). An Act of Redemptive Love Lest we conclude that our God is an angry, maniacal being who gets so angry with sin that he just has to take it anger out on somebody (Ever seen someone get so angry that they lost control and started hitting or throwing things?), we should close with a brief look at God s motivation in our redemption. Our God does not get out of control nor is his behavior at the mercy of emotional outbursts. God s wrath is a reasonable and proper reaction of a holy God toward that which is evil. If God overlooked evil, he would cease to be a good and holy God. Further,

Page 9 wrath is not God s nature, else he would be wrathful all the time, even in the age of the eternal kingdom. Wrath is his holy behavioral response to evil. In contrast, God s nature is love and goodness. God is loving and good at all times in all situations in all eternity because that is his the core of his nature. God is love. God is good. He will never cease to be either of these. It is God s love for us his relentless desire to act on our behalf and for our well-being that caused him to save us through Jesus sacrifice. God loves his creation, but he hates the evil that has corrupted his good creation. In every way possible, God seeks to save and to restore his good creation. But there are two things God cannot do: (1) he cannot ignore evil, and (2) he cannot / will not override the will of his creatures, forcing them into submission, forcing them to love. Such would violate the nature of love, and God is love. And so, God pursues us relentlessly to provide a means of atonement and to win our hearts. Further, he does so at great personal expense. God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son (John 3:16). He poured out his wrath against his innocent Son, the wrath that belonged to us. Conclusion The chief task Jesus came to accomplish was our atonement (m. reconciliation, harmony, at-one-ment), to reconcile us to himself. In an indirect sense, everything about Jesus life is connected with this mission his birth, his sinless life, his ministry to those in need, his teaching, his miracles. But in the direct and specific sense, atonement was accomplished at the cross where he bore our sins in his body. Further, it is only in understanding atonement for sin that we understand the meaning of the cross. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him (Hebrews 9:23 28).