The Wrath Of God Is Revealed

I learned something special this morning. It is one of those 'right in front of your face' kind of things that when you see it you realize it was there all along but somehow in my familiarity I was blind to it.

I warn you beforehand. It isn't a pleasant truth but it is an important one.

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." - Romans 1:18 ESV

This wrath is being revealed right now. It will be revealed later in the time of Jacob's wrath. That will be dramatic and fiery but it is being revealed now.

"But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed." - Romans 2:5 ESV

There is a time in the future when God's wrath will be revealed but right now in the age of grace we see the wrath of God revealed. It is the banishment of man and the resulting chaos that comes from banishment. It isn't God's anger expressed in a storm or tragedy. No. Because of the cross God has forgiven sin and put it far away from Him.

The wrath we see is the banishment of Adam leaving the Garden. It is King David banishing his son Absalom from his presence. Absalom turned from a man who wanted justice into a man willing to use others to get back at his father in that banishment.

"For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools," - Romans 1:19-22 ESV

Perhaps we think that the trouble we see in the world makes God angry. Actually it is the opposite. The trouble we see is evidence that God was angry enough in His holiness to send Adam and Eve out of the garden and into a cold harsh world.

God is still angry at evil. All evil systems will fall. God is not angry at people anymore. Jesus fixed that problem. Jesus mended that fence. God wants to bring every wandering soul home again because His Son has made away for that to happen.

This racial hatred we see welling up in the world is evidence of the wrath of God. Delight in violence and vengeance all point to the fact that people have been orphaned.

God's anger is a holy anger. He had every right to cast Adam out. Anything less would have been sentimentality and compromise. But His mercy rejoiced against judgement and God made a way for there to be reconciliation.

"For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him." - 1 Thessalonians 5:5-10 ESV

God wants every individual to return to His house and once reconciled they will never be banished again.

This is why I believe that the Gospel is the solution for the ills of this world.

The natural man will always have hate simmering under the surface. You can't educate it out of him or her. If you push it down here it will pop up somewhere else. Adam transgressed and was changed by that transgression into someone who can never forgive God for his banishment. He is a spoiled child who hates his loving parents and it can't be cured.

The Gospel is the only message that results in a new nature if we embrace it. God makes us into grateful children who say things like 'if He slays me I will trust Him' because the new birth has a rainbow promise attached to it. No wrath. No banishment. No disconnect.

We have a message like no other. The cross is the only cure for bitterness. It won't be received everywhere but in the places it is received an oasis will form.

"...then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;" - Isaiah 35:6 ESV

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The Definition Of Propitiation

They say that if you are reading a sentence and you get to a word you don't understand and pass over it your reading comprehension and retention drops significantly. Things need to be defined in order to be retained.

For a long while there were words in the Bible that I didn't understand so I would just pass over them but once understood they opened great concepts up to me. Here is one example.

"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 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. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith." - Romans 3:23-27 ESV

What does propitiation (Hilasterion - Strong's G2435) mean?

It is the gesture or thing that causes another person's hardness or problem with another party to go away. It appeases them or softens them again. It satisfies them. It serves as the physical reminder that there is a relationship.

In American culture it might be a gift, or flowers or a phone call. A teacher might be ready to give a low grade but the student does extra credit and hands in the missing assignments so the teacher then chooses to raise the grade.

Jesus' blood is a propitiation to God. That may sound strange to us.

"For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life." - Leviticus 17:11 ESV

Spiritually speaking the 'life' of a person is in their blood. It is what is flowing and moving oxygen and food to the cells. It is what is taking away toxins and what might be harmful. But beyond that it has a spiritual dimension that we only see in part but it is there.

It is kind of how a doctor can take a blood sample and test it. When he does that the blood sample serves as a snapshot of that person's life when the blood was taken from them.

When Jesus' blood was shed it was a snapshot of His righteousness and sacrificial life as person. God sees that and is pleased with humanity again. This one person justifies everyone else who looks at that same snapshot and agrees. No one can boast anymore that what they do pleases God. A propitiation has already been made.

Jesus sent the father a bouquet of roses on our behalf large enough to fill his throne room. There is no room for any other gifts. Everything else has to sit out on the lawn.

God's hardness towards us is gone.

Thank you Jesus. Really. Thank You. The social and legal obligation has been met. God is pleased with man because of what you have done. All the prophets that have gone before rejoice when they look at what you have done. Let the ramifications of your sacrifice reach the deepest part of our hearts today. Let familiarity flee away and our own hardness be softened so that others will know what has already happened on their behalf.

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