The Wrath of God

The wrath of God is not a minor theme in classic Reformed and Puritan teaching. It is the holy, settled opposition of the Creator to all sin, and it stands behind every warning of judgment, every call to repentance, and every presentation of the cross. Charles Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, and Matthew Henry all treat divine wrath as a reality that must be preached and understood before the gospel can be received as good news. Without the wrath of God, the death of Christ loses its meaning, and the sinner never learns why salvation is necessary. The doctrine matters because it exposes the true danger of the human condition and magnifies the grace that rescues sinners from it.

The Law Reveals Wrath and Condemns the Sinner

The law is the first instrument by which God's wrath becomes known to the conscience. Spurgeon explains that the law brings the sinner to hear the condemning sentences of Scripture: condemned already, dead in trespasses and sins, and under the wrath to come (John 3:18; Ephesians 2:1). The law does not offer a way of escape. It demands full payment and imprisons in condemnation all who cannot pay (Romans 3:27). Edwards develops this further by insisting that the law works wrath by forbidding sin and aggravating the guilt of transgression, especially through the moral law (Romans 4:15; Romans 7:13). The curse pronounced on those under the law applies to the whole law of God, not merely the ceremonial law, and the moral precepts carry the most severe threatened curse for violation (Galatians 3:10). Henry agrees, noting that the law produces wrath both by provoking human enmity against God and by revealing transgression that brings God's wrath upon sinners (Romans 4:15).

Before showing the way of salvation, Henry says, the apostle first convinces people of their guilt and of God's wrath against sin (Romans 1:18). Edwards stresses that until a sinner is actually justified, God cannot suitably testify any pleasedness with or acceptance of anything inherent in him because of the infinite guilt of sin. The sinner remains infinitely guilty before God, so God cannot accept anything in him as lovely or excellent. Until we are in Christ, we stand condemned by God's holy law and are utterly rejected and abhorred by him. Spurgeon pictures the convicted sinner as imprisoned by guilt, fear of death and hell, and an accusing conscience, with no hope in himself (Romans 5:21).

Wrath Is Revealed in Providence and Conscience

God's wrath is not only a future reality. Henry observes that it is revealed not only in Scripture but also in his judgments in providence, which are not chance events (Romans 1:18). God's wrath comes from heaven, so it is more terrible and unavoidable than human anger. Spurgeon points to historical examples: God has repeatedly brought down proud rulers and nations, such as those at Babel, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod, and Sennacherib (Romans 3:27). These judgments are warnings. The cross itself is a warning signal that if God did not spare his own Son, he will not spare those who continue in sin (Romans 5:6).

Henry also describes a more inward revelation of wrath. When people willfully reject the truth, God justly gives them over to a reprobate mind that cannot discern spiritual things (Romans 1:28). A course of sin leads to a hardened conscience, and willful hardness is justly punished with judicial hardness from God. God's giving people up is a righteous judgment for idolatry, in which he withdraws restraining grace and leaves them to themselves, yet he is not the author of the sin that follows (Romans 1:24). Though the greatest wickedness follows upon God's giving people up, the fault lies entirely with the sinner's wicked heart, not with God. Those who refused the purer knowledge of God that preserves his honor justly forfeited the natural sentiments that preserve the honor of human nature, being given up to uncleanness through their own hearts' lusts (Romans 1:24, 26–27). Being given up to one's own lusts is the greatest slavery, and those who dishonored God were given up to dishonor themselves.

The Nature and Objects of Divine Wrath

Henry is careful to define what divine wrath is. It is not a passionate outburst but a righteous judgment, God's settled will to punish sin because he hates it (Romans 2:5). Sinners who continue in sin are storing up abundant wrath for themselves, which will be revealed on the day of judgment. God's wrath falls on those who do evil, described as being contentious against God and disobeying the truth while obeying unrighteousness (Romans 2:8). Indignation, wrath, tribulation, and anguish are the wages of sin, and the soul is the immediate subject of this wrath and anguish (Romans 2:8–9). Hell is eternal tribulation and anguish produced by God's wrath, and those who will not bow to God's golden scepter will be broken by his iron rod.

Spurgeon emphasizes the personal and abiding nature of this wrath for those who reject Christ. Those who do not believe in Christ remain under the abiding wrath of God (Romans 5:8). At the final judgment, those who refused Christ will face terrifying condemnation with no advocate. God will reject those who rejected his call, and their judgment will be eternal. The ungodly are in great danger and under God's wrath, and apart from Christ they will perish forever (Romans 5:6). Those who trample upon God's love by rejecting eternal life will face the fiercest wrath. Rejecting Christ's death for sinners is the most heinous sin possible, even greater than what devils in hell are capable of.

Edwards adds a distinctive emphasis on the double condemnation of those who reject Christ while devoted to other objects. They lack perfect righteousness and disobey divine authority. He also argues that rejection by God is based on a person's unworthiness, especially unworthy treatment of Christ, even though acceptance is not based on worthiness (Matthew 10:37). A professing Christian who treats Christ unworthily will be cast out in wrath as a punishment, just as Judas was. Salvation is promised to faith as a free gift, but damnation is threatened to unbelief as a debt or punishment due to unbelief (John 3:18–19).

The Necessity of Christ's Wrath-Bearing Death

All three authors agree that God does not save sinners by overlooking or passing over the penalty of sin. Spurgeon states this plainly (Romans 3:24). God's justice required that sin be punished by death, so if sinners were to be pardoned, someone else had to bear their punishment as a substitute (Romans 5:8). Christ's death was penal, inflicted by divine justice because our iniquities were laid on him (Romans 5:6). The Father laid the sins of believers on Christ and punished Him as if He were the guilty one, so that Christ cried out as one forsaken by God (Romans 4:25). Christ's death included the deepest spiritual suffering, namely being forsaken by God. Without an atonement consisting of the giving up of a life of infinite value, there is no remission of human transgression (Romans 4:25).

Henry makes the same point from the propitiation. God's righteousness is declared in the propitiation itself, because the death of Christ demonstrates God's hatred of sin and His justice in not sparing His own Son when sin was imputed to Him (Romans 3:25–26). Christ was delivered up to death for our offences, not for his own sin, but to make atonement for our sins and satisfy divine justice (Romans 4:25). God did not spare Christ from the full payment of sin's debt, but charged the whole debt to him so that he might spare believers (Romans 8:32). Spurgeon adds that the fact that God did not spare his own Son proves there was an absolute necessity for Christ's death (Romans 5:6). The greatness of Christ's sufferings shows the awfulness of hell from which he saves sinners.

Spurgeon presents Christ as the mercy seat where God and sinners meet, and as the covering that hides sin from God's wrath and from the sinner's fear (Romans 3:25). Standing on the finished work of Christ—his enduring the penalty, draining the cup of wrath, and obeying the law—gives the believer unshakable peace with God (Romans 5:1). Henry adds that Christ stands between believers and the wrath their indwelling sin deserves (Romans 7:25).

Faith as the Only Escape from Wrath

The gospel's authoritative declaration is that whoever believes shall be saved, and whoever does not believe shall be condemned (Mark 16:16; John 3:18). Spurgeon insists that faith in Christ is the only way of salvation; those who refuse to believe will be damned no matter what else they trust (Romans 5:1). Trusting in outward religious decorations, a respectable name, or good works cannot protect a person from divine judgment. The threat of damnation for unbelief is used by God to drive sinners to let go of their false trusts and believe on Christ (Romans 3:24). Believers trust God's gospel promises even over the great difficulty of conscious guilt and deserved punishment (Romans 4:16).

Edwards explains why faith alone is the appointed way. Until a sinner is actually justified, God cannot suitably testify any pleasedness with or acceptance of anything inherent in him because of the infinite guilt of sin. The defect in our holy acts is properly sin, an expression of a vile sinfulness of heart that provokes God's just anger. A negative expression of corruption, such as failing to show due gratitude, can be as truly sinful and provoking as a positive act of sin. The curse pronounced on those under the law applies to the whole law of God, especially the moral law, not merely the ceremonial law (Galatians 3:10). Because all people are under the law's curse, no one can be justified by works of the law. There is one great law of God that threatens death and curse for any failure to continue in all things written in it (Deuteronomy 27:26; Galatians 3:10).

Henry notes that only those who are effectually called are justified; those who resist the gospel call remain under guilt and wrath (Romans 8:30). The Israelites who did not believe were excluded from Canaan not because faith would have made them worthy, but because their unbelief made them unworthy (Hebrews 3:18–19). Those who are saved must thank God only, while those who perish must thank themselves only (Romans 9:18).

The Patience and Severity of God

Henry gives extended attention to the patience of God toward vessels of wrath. God endured vessels of wrath with much patience, allowing them to fill up the measure of their sin until they became fitted for destruction by their own sin and self-hardening (Romans 9:22). In vessels of wrath God displays his punishing justice and his hatred of sin. The eternal damnation of sinners will demonstrate God's power, since he will act directly in destroying their well-being while preserving their being. God's patience toward provoking sinners is admirable but limited, like a day that has a night at its end (Romans 10:21). God's patience made Israel's disobedience more sinful, while their disobedience made God's patience more gracious.

Yet Henry also warns that God is most severe toward those who have been nearest to him in profession if they rebel against him, and abused privileges turn to the greatest wrath (Romans 11:22). Even the natural branches, descended from Abraham and born upon the premises, were not spared when they sank into unbelief (Romans 11:21). The blinding and hardening of Israel was both their own sin and God's righteous punishment (Romans 11:7). Spiritual judgments are the sorest and most to be dreaded, though they make the least noise (Romans 11:8). The curse of God turns the Jews' blessings and comforts into occasions of sin and misery (Romans 11:9). The present state of the Jewish people, marked by worldly-mindedness and spiritual blindness, is a lasting evidence of this divine curse (Romans 11:10).

Spurgeon sounds the same note of warning. Being at war with God is a terrifying condition because God is the all-powerful Creator on whom every creature depends (Romans 5:1). Those who oppose God should immediately surrender to him, because contending with God is as futile and destructive as a gnat contending with fire (Romans 3:4). God will be shown to be just when he judges and condemns the ungodly at the last day (Romans 3:4).

Wrath, Vengeance, and Final Victory

Henry addresses the believer's relation to wrath in two ways. First, Christians must not avenge themselves because vengeance belongs to God as the sovereign King and righteous Judge who weighs actions in unerring balances (Romans 12:19). Since vengeance is God's, Christians may not take it because that would step into God's throne, and they need not take it because God will avenge them as far as justice requires. Another remedy against revenge is to give place to the wrath of God by leaving the matter with him to judge and deal with the adversary.

Second, Henry points to the final outcome. Christ's enemies will be forced to bow to him at his second coming, when his victories over them will be fully accomplished (Romans 14:11). God, as the God of peace, will ultimately crush Satan under the feet of believers (Romans 16:20). God's promise of final victory over Satan is meant to encourage watchful effort, not to replace it.

Spurgeon closes the theme with a pastoral observation. The free love of Christ to unworthy sinners touches the heart more quickly than threatenings of wrath (Romans 5:6). The law brings the sinner to hear the condemning sentences of Scripture, but the gospel sets before him the mercy seat where God and sinners meet. The wrath of God is real, but it is not the last word for those who believe. Thou sayest, “I shall stand before God accepted at last”; but, sinner, without Christ thou wilt not; for whosoever believeth not on Christ “hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Love's Commendation”: I set forth Christ to you as being the Mercy Seat, where I can meet with you, and you can meet with Me." Or take the word as signifying a covering—as the Mercy Seat covered the tablets of the Law, and so covered that which was the cause of Divine ire, because we had broken His commandments Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Christ Set Forth As A Propitiation”: Stand to this, that Christ has finished your salvation for you, that He has done everything that Omnipotent Justice can ask. He has endured all the penalty, drained the cup of wrath, obeyed the Law completely, given to Divine equity all it can demand—and therefore, believing in His name, standing in His righteousness, accented in His suretyship—you must have peace with God Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Peace By Believing”: Our Lord’s death was penal, inflicted upon him by divine justice; and rightly so, for on him lay our iniquities, and therefore on him must lay the suffering Charles Spurgeon, sermon “For Whom Did Christ Die?”: If, then, ‘God spared not his Son, but freely delivered him up for us all,’ there must have been a dread necessity for it. It must have stood thus: die he, or the sinner must, or justice must; and since justice could not, and the Father desired that the sinner should not, then Christ must; and so he did Charles Spurgeon, sermon “For Whom Did Christ Die?”: The apostle, like a skilful surgeon, before he applies the plaster, searches the wound—endeavours first to convince of guilt and wrath, and then to show the way of salvation. This makes the gospel the more welcome Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”: Those that go on in a course of sin are treasuring up unto themselves wrath. A treasure denotes abundance. It is a treasure that will be spending to eternity, and yet never exhausted; and yet sinners are still adding to it as to a treasure Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”: Never was there such a demonstration of the justice and holiness of God as there was in the death of Christ. It appears that he hates sin, when nothing less than the blood of Christ would satisfy for it. Finding sin, though but imputed, upon his own Son, he did not spare him, because he had made himself sin for us Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”: Though he was his own Son, yet, being made sin for us, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Ouk epheisato—he did not abate him a farthing of that great debt, but charged it home. Awake, O sword. He did not spare his own Son that served him, that he might spare us, though we have done him so much disservice Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”: The eternal damnation of sinners will be an abundant demonstration of the power of God; for he will act in it himself immediately, his wrath preying as it were upon guilty consciences, and his arm stretched out totally to destroy their well-being, and yet at the same instant wonderfully to preserve the being of the creature Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”