OF THE ANGER AND
WRATH OF GOD
John Gill
Besides the love and kindness
of God, his grace, favour, and good will, his mercy, pity, and compassion; and his
longsuffering and forbearance; which flow from the goodness of his nature;
there are other things to be considered, which may come under
the notion of affections; as anger, wrath, hatred, &c. The anger and wrath
of God are often used promiscuously in Scripture, to signify the same thing,
and yet they sometimes seem to be distinct; and according to our notion of
them, as in men, they may be distinguished: anger is a lower and lesser degree
of wrath, and wrath is the height of anger; and accordingly I shall distinctly
consider them, as in God.
1. The Anger of God. And
shall, first, show that it belongs to God; and in what sense, and on what
account. And, secondly, with whom he is angry; or on whom his anger is
exercised.
1a. First,
That Anger belongs to God, or may be predicated of him. This is denied by some
philosophers of the Cynic and Stoic sects, because it is a passion; they allow
grace, good will, and beneficence in God to men, but not anger; this they
suppose to be a weakness, and even a sort of madness {1}, and what is
unbecoming a wise and good man, and much more unbecoming Deity. The Epicureans
deny that either is in God; neither favour and good will,
nor anger and wrath {2}; for they imagine he has no concern in the affairs of
men, and neither regards their good actions, nor their bad ones; and so is
neither pleased nor displeased with them; and is neither kind and favourable to
them; nor is angry with them, nor resents what is done by them. But the
scriptures everywhere ascribe anger to God; and often speak of it, as being kindled against particular persons, and against whole bodies of
men; and give many particular instances of it: to produce the whole proof of
this, would be to transcribe a great part of the Bible. But then anger is to be
considered not as a passion, or affection in God, as it is in men; and
especially as it may be defined from the etymology of the Latin word for it
"ira", as given by a learned grammarian {3}, deriving
it from "ire", "to go"; as if a man, when in anger, goes out
of himself; and when he lays it down, returns to himself again; this cannot, in
any sense, be ascribed to God: rather it may be, as if it was "ura",
and so is "ab urendo", from burning; or rather from the Hebrew word
hrx which signifies to burn; and the anger of God is compared to fire in
Scripture, and is often said to be kindled; but then we are not to imagine, when God is said to be angry, that there is any
commotion or perturbation in God's mind; that he is ruffled and discomposed, or
that there is any pain or uneasiness in him, as in human minds; so it may be in
finite created spirits, but not in an infinite and uncreated one, as God is:
and much less is this to be considered as a criminal passion in him, as it too
often is in men; for God is a pure and holy being; without
iniquity: besides, there may be anger in men without sin; we are exhorted to be
angry and sin not, #Eph 4:26 and it is certain there was anger in the human
nature of Christ, in whom there was no sin, nor was he conscious of any, #Mr
3:5 and so there may be in the divine mind, without an imputation of weakness
or sin. Anger in God is no other than a disgust with sin, and with sinners, on
account of it; it is often said in Scripture, that such and
such a thing displeased him, or was evil, and not right in his sight, #Nu 11:1
2Sa 11:27 Ps 60:1 Isa 59:15. All sin is displeasing to God; he cannot take any
pleasure in it, nor look upon it with delight; it is so contrary to his nature,
and repugnant to his will, he cannot but have an aversion to it, and an
abhorrence of it; and there are some sins more especially which provoke him to anger; as the sins against the first table of the law,
particularly idolatry; which, of all sins, is the most provoking to him: since
it strikes at his very being, and robs him of his glory; see #De 32:16,21 Jud
2:12,13 #1Ki 16:33. Likewise distrust of the power and providence of God,
murmuring at it, and complaining of it; which was often the case of the
Israelites; and by which they provoked the Lord to anger; so
perjury, false swearing, the taking of the name of God in vain, and blasphemy
of it; profanation of the Lord's day, and neglect of his word, worship, and
ordinances: and not these only, but sins against the second table of the law,
are highly displeasing to God, and resented by him; as disobedience to parents,
murder, adultery, theft, false witness, covetousness, and every evil thing, see
#Isa 5:24,25. Now "who knoweth the power of God's
anger?" #Ps 90:11 nothing can resist it, nor stand before it; not rocks
and mountains, which are overturned and cast down by it; nor the mightiest
monarchs, nor the proudest mortals, nor the stoutest and adamantine hearts;
none can stand before God when once he is angry, #Job 9:5,13 Ps 76:7 Na 1:6.
1b. Secondly, The objects of
the anger of God, or on whom it is exercised. "God is angry with the
wicked every day", #Ps 7:11 because they are daily sinning against him;
their whole lives are one continued series and course of wickedness; all they
do is sin; their very actions in civil life, the ploughing of the wicked, is
sin; and all their religious services are but
"splendida peccata", "shining sins", and so are displeasing
to God, and resented by him; their sacrifices, brought with a wicked mind,
without a right principle, and a right end, are an abomination to him, #Pr
21:4,27 being in the flesh, in an unregenerate state, they cannot please God,
nor do the things which are pleasing in his sight; being destitute of the grace
of God, and particularly of faith; "without which it is
impossible to please him." These, though God is angry with them
continually, yet they do not always appear under the visible and public tokens
of his resentment; the "rod of God" is not on them; nor are they in
trouble, as other men, and have more than heart can wish; oftentimes their
families, flocks, and herds, increase; and they spend their days in health,
wealth, and pleasure, #Job 21:7-13 #Ps 73:3-12 and seem as
if they were the favourites of heaven, and think themselves to be such. But
though God is slow to anger, as he is often described, moves slowly to express
his anger; yet he will most certainly do it in the issue of things; and though
men may promise themselves impunity in sin, and fancy they shall have peace
when they walk after the imagination of their evil hearts, and add sin to sin; yet at length God will not spare them; but his
anger and jealousy shall smoke against them, and all the curses written in the
law shall come upon them, #De 29:19,20.
Moreover, God is angry with
his own special people, holy and good men; we read of his
anger being kindled against Aaron and Miriam, for speaking against Moses; and
against Moses and Aaron, for not sanctifying him before the children of Israel;
insomuch that neither of them were admitted to enter the land of Canaan; and
against David, Solomon, and others, for sins committed by them. And this is not
at all inconsistent with the love of God unto them: anger is not opposite to
love; there may be anger in the nearest and dearest
relatives; and where there is the most affectionate regard to each other: the
anger of Jacob was kindled against his beloved Rachel; a father may be angry
with his son, and chastise him for a fault, and yet dearly love him; and a son
may be angry with a father, as Jonathan was with Saul, yet bear a true filial
affection for him. God loves his people with an everlasting
and unchangeable love, and never alters and varies in it; and yet may be angry,
that is, displeased with them, and show his resentment at sin committed by
them, by his chastisement of them, and still continue his love to them; for
even that is done in love. Besides, the anger of God towards them, is often
only in their sense and apprehension of it; when God goes forth towards them,
in some dispensations of his, which are not agreeable to
them, they conclude he is angry with them; and when these dispensations are
varied, then they suppose his anger is turned away from them, #Isa 12:1 so when
he hides his face from them, and unbelief prevails, they interpret it, putting
them away in anger, and shutting up his tender mercies in anger, #Ps 27:9 77:9
when he seems to turn a deaf ear to their prayers, and does not give an immediate answer to them; this they call being angry
against the prayer of his people, #Ps 80:4 and when he afflicts them, in one
way or another, then they apprehend he comes forth in anger against them; and
"they have no soundness in their flesh, because of his anger; nor rest in
their bones, because of their sins", #Ps 38:3 but when he takes off his
afflicting hand, grants his gracious presence, and manifests
his pardoning love and grace, then they conclude he has turned himself from the
fierceness of his anger, #Ps 85:2,3. Now this apparent anger, or appearance of
anger, "endures but for a moment", #Ps 30:5 a very short space of
time indeed; though God hides his face from his people, and chides them for
their sins: yet he does not keep anger for ever: this is the criterion by which
he is distinguished from other gods, in that he retains not
his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy, #Ps 103:9 Mic 7:18 and in
this the anger of God towards his people, differs from his anger to wicked men,
since the one is but for a moment, and the other is continual.
2. The Wrath of God is the
heat of his great anger, #De 29:24 it is his anger not only kindled
and incensed, but blown up into a flame; it is the "indignation" of
his anger, the "fury" and "fierceness" of it, #Isa 30:30
42:25 Ho 11:9 and it seems to be no other than his punitive justice, and
includes his will to punish sinners according to the demerit of their sins in
strict justice; his threatenings to do it, and the actual execution of it;
which is the vengeance that belongs to him, and he will recompense; even his vindictive wrath, or vengeful judgment; "What if
God willing to show his wrath", &c.? #Ro 9:22. Now the wrath of God
may be considered,
2a. As temporary, or what is executed in the present life; of
which there have been many instances and examples, and there will be more; and
a brief review of them will give a more enlarged idea of
the wrath of God. Not to take notice of the apostate angels, whom God has cast
down to hell; where, though they may not be in full torment, yet are dreadful
instances of the wrath of God against sin; since not one of them have been
spared, or have shared in pardoning grace and mercy. I shall only observe what
examples of it have been, or will be, among men. The first instance of it is in the condemnation of Adam, and all his posterity, for
the first sin, and for only one single sin of his. How great must that sin be!
what sinfulness must there be in it! how greatly must the divine Being be
incensed by it! in that, for it, he has caused death, that is, his wrath to
pass in judgment on him, and all his offspring; so that, in consequence of it,
all the children of Adam are the children of God's wrath. The next
is the drowning of the old world, when full of violence and corruption; so that
God repented he had made man in it, and it grieved him to the heart; and in his
wrath he determined to destroy man and beast in it; and which he did, by
bringing a flood on the world of the ungodly. Then follows another, though not
so general; but limited and restrained to a part of the world; the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah, and others of the plain; whose
inhabitants being notorious sinners, provoked the eyes of God's glory to such a
degree, that he rained fire and brimstone from heaven upon them; and set them
as an example and emblem of mens' suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. The
plagues inflicted on the Egyptians, for not letting Israel go, when demanded of
them, is another instance of the wrath of God; for by inflicting
these on them, he not only made a way to his anger, to show it forth, as the
Psalmist says; but, as he also observes, "he cast upon them the fierceness
of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble", #Ps 78:49,50. The children
of Israel themselves often provoked the Lord to wrath; and brought it down upon
them, for their sins; as at Horeb, when they made the calf; at Taberah, Massah,
and Kibrothhattaavah, where they murmured against the Lord,
#De 9:8,19,22 as they did likewise at the report of the spies, concerning the
land of Canaan; when "God swore in his wrath, they should not enter into
his rest." And again, upon the affair of Korah, and his accomplices, when
wrath went forth from the Lord, and the plague began, #Nu 14:23 16:46. Witness,
also, each of their captivities; particularly their
captivity in Babylon, through their mocking at, and misuse of the prophets of
the Lord; so that wrath arose against them; and there was no remedy; and their
last captivity, and destruction, by the Romans; when wrath came upon them to
the uttermost; and under which wrath, and in which captivity they are to this
day. Whenever the four sore judgments of God, the sword, famine, pestilence,
and wild beasts, have been exercised in the world, as they
often have been; they are always in wrath; and these with earthquakes, and such
like uncommon events, are presignifications, and foretokens of greater wrath
yet to come; and in a little while, the seven vials full of the wrath of God,
will be poured forth on antichrist, and on the antichristian states; and the
judgment of God will come on Babylon in one day. And when
the end of all things is come, the earth, and all in it will be burnt with
fire, and the heavens melt away with fervent heat; the day of the Lord will
burn like an oven, and the wicked, like stubble, will be burnt up by it, and
will have neither root nor branch left: all which will be expressive of the
great wrath of God. But there is no greater instance of it, or what more fully
demonstrates it, than what our Lord Jesus Christ suffered
and endured as the Surety of his people, in their room and stead; when, their
sins being imputed to him, were found on him, and he was stricken for them; the
sword of justice was sheathed in him; the vindictive wrath of God was poured
forth upon him, to the uttermost of the demerit of sin; God spared him not: how
inconceivably great must his wrath be against sin, when God spared not in the least his own dearly beloved Son, but suffered him
to be put to the most exquisite pain, both in body and soul, for the sins of
his people!
2b. There is the wrath of God
that is yet to come: the Scriptures speak of future wrath; wrath that will take
place in the life which is to come; which in part, commences
at the death of wicked men; and will be complete at their resurrection from the
dead, #Mt 3:7 1Th 1:10. This is expressed by fire, than which nothing is more
intolerable; even devouring fire and everlasting burnings, not to be endured;
this is no other than the curse of the law that is broken; which not only
reaches to this life, but to that which is to come; it is the same with the
second death; which lies in a separation from God, and, in
a sense of his hot displeasure; it is called hell and hell fire; the word for
which, in the New Testament, is taken from Gehinnom, or the valley of Hinnom;
where the Jews burnt their children in sacrifice to Molech; and which place,
from the beating of drums in it, that the shrieks of the children might not be
heard by their parents, was called Tophet; of which the prophet says, as an emblem of hell fire, or the fire of divine wrath; "Tophet
is ordained of old--the pile thereof is fire, and much wood: the breath of the
Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it", #Isa 30:33 which is an
awful representation of the wrath of God. And by whatsoever term this state of
wrath is expressed, it is always spoken of as what will continue for ever: it
is called everlasting fire, everlasting punishment, everlasting
destruction, "the smoke of torment, that ascends for ever and ever";
and for the commencement of which, in its full extent, there is a day fixed,
called, "the day of wrath, and righteous judgment of God"; until
which time God reserves wrath for his adversaries; it is laid up in store with
him, among his treasures, and will be ever laying out, and pouring forth.
As to the objects of this
wrath, seeing it is revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of
men; it lies against all that are unrighteous and ungodly; and as all have
sinned, and are under sin, all are "children of wrath", #Eph 2:3 Ro
1:18 3:9,23 but there are some particularly described, on whom this wrath
comes, and they are called "children of
disobedience", #Eph 5:5,6 #Col 3:5,6 such who are disobedient to the light
of nature, rebel against it, and hold truth in unrighteousness, which that
discovers; and so as they sin without law, they perish without law, #Ro
1:18,19,21,28 2:12 and who also are disobedient to the law of God, break it,
and are convicted by it, as transgressors, whom it pronounces guilty, and is
the ministration of condemnation and death unto them; and
who are disobedient to the gospel of Christ, obey not the truth, but obey
unrighteousness, and are slaves to their sinful lusts and pleasures; on these
come indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish; even on every soul of man
that does evil, #2Th 1:8 #Ro 2:8,9 they are also represented as unbelievers:
"He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him": he that does not believe
that Christ is the Son of God, that he is the Messiah and Saviour of men, the
sentence of wrath, which the law has passed on him, as a transgressor of that,
remains; and since he denies divine revelation, rejects the gospel scheme, and
disbelieves Christ as a Saviour, and salvation by him, there is no help for
him; wrath is on him, and that without remedy, it must
abide: now it is not any sort of unbelief for which this wrath is, and abides;
not for that which is through the want of the means of faith, such as in
heathens; for "how shall they believe on him of whom they have not
heard?" #Ro 10:14,17 nor which is through the want of the special grace of
faith, which is the gift of God, and peculiar to his elect, and which he only
can give, and yet denies it; and which, without his grace
vouchsafed, they can never have: but it is the disbelief of the report of the
gospel, by such who have the opportunity of reading and hearing it, and yet
either attend not to the evidence of it; or, notwithstanding that, reject it;
they receive not the record God has given of his Son, and so make him a liar,
than which nothing is more provoking to wrath, #1Jo 5:10. This was the case of
the Jews of old, #Joh 3:19 and is of the deists of the
present age. In short, the wrath of God comes upon men either for their sins
against the light of nature, or against the law of God, or against the gospel
of Christ.
There are some on whom no
wrath comes here, nor hereafter; who are the vessels of mercy,
afore prepared for glory: concerning whom Jehovah says, "fury is not in
me"; and to whom he is all love, "love" itself, #Isa 27:4 1Jo
4:16 being sinners indeed, and transgressors of the law of God, they are
children of wrath as others, #Eph 2:3 which phrase not only means that they are
serving of wrath, but that, as they are sinners, they are found guilty of it;
and not only found guilty, but are condemned unto it; they
are really under the sentence of wrath, condemnation, and death; they are
obnoxious to the curse of the law, which is no other than the wrath of God;
they are liable to it, and in danger of it; and being so near it, how is it
that they escape it, and are secured from it? They are secured from it by the
decree of God, who has appointed them not to wrath, but to obtain salvation,
#1Th 5:9 which decree is unfrustrable by the oath of God,
who has swore that he will not be wrath with them, #Isa 54:9 which is
immutable: by the suretyship engagements of Christ for them, to bear it in
their room; and till that was done, God forbore to execute the sentence; called
the forbearance of God, #Ro 3:25 by Christ's actually bearing the chastisement
of their peace; by being made a curse for them, and enduring the wrath of God in their room; whereby he delivered them from
wrath to come, #Ps 89:38 1Th 5:10 and by his righteousness imputed to them,
through which, being justified, they are saved from wrath, #Ro 5:9 though even
these persons may have, at times, some apprehensions of the wrath of God; as,
particularly, under first awakenings, and convictions of sin; when the law
works a sense of wrath in them, and leaves in them a
fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation; when they flee to
Christ, from wrath to come, and say, "Lord, save us, or we perish";
and afterwards, when under the hiding of God's face, or his afflicting hand is
upon them, they imagine that the wrath of God lies hard upon them, and his
fierce wrath goes over them, #Ps 88:7,16 La 3:1 but in reality, there is no
wrath comes upon them now; their afflictions and
chastisements are all in love; and there will be no curse hereafter; but they
shall always see the face of God, and be "in his presence, where are
fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore", #Re 3:19 22:3,4.
{1} Vide Senecam de Ira, l. 1.
c. 1. Sallustium de Diis, c. 14. & Demophili Sentent. p. 8.
Ed. Gale.
{2} Vide Lactantium de ira
Dei. c. 4. & 5.
{3} Donatus apud Zanchium de Natura
Dei, l. 4. c. 6. p. 407.