life2
THE BIBLICAL VIEW OF LIFE
by Ray Shelton
What is salvation? Salvation is deliverance, deliverance from something bad to something good. Salvation is first of all deliverance from death to life. And then it is deliverance from sin to righteousness, and then from wrath to peace with God. These are the THREE ASPECTS OF SALVATION.
1. In Eph. 2:4-5, salvation is presented as deliverance from death to life.
“4But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” (Eph. 2:4-5)
When we were dead in trespasses and sins, God has made us alive together with Christ. Christ died to save us from death. If there is any one word that can characterize or describe our world, it is the word “death.” Death casts a pall of gloom over all of our lives. It is the end of all plans, the frustration of all hopes. Death has a finality about it that no human power can overcome. Man by his science and medicine tries to prevent it. But against its inevitable arrival no human power can prevail. It is appointed unto man once to die (Heb. 9:27). Death has power, and through the fear of death man is subject to lifelong bondage (Heb. 2:14-15). Death is not just an event which comes upon us and puts an end to life. Death is a power, a ruler. Death is a tyrant who does not ask man whether he will serve him, but claims everyone with absolute authority. We may choose to be or not be the slaves of sin; but there is no choice as to the reign of death. From birth we are subjects of King Death. Ever since Adam’s horrible choice in the garden, death has reigned over man. The Apostle Paul says,
“because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man” (Rom. 5:17).
“…Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, …” (Rom. 5:12).
Death is a sovereign who rules over all men. Such is the common lot of all men since Adam. Death is more than just the end of life, the dissolution of the body, the cessation of physiological functions of this organism. Physical death is the separation of man’s spirit from his body. In this state of physical death he awaits the judgment (Heb. 9:27). But death is more than the physical separation of man’s spirit from his body. It is also the separation, the alienation of man from God; this is spiritual death. It is the opposite of spiritual life which is fellowship and communion with God. Spiritual life is knowing God personally as a living reality (John 17:3); spiritual death is the absence of this life. In this state man thinks that God doesn’t exist, that God is dead. But it is not God that is dead; it is man himself that is dead. Spiritual death not only affects the relationship of man to God, but also the relationship of man to his fellowman. Man is separated and alienated from his fellowman.
“14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethern. He who does not love remains in death. 15Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (I John 3:14-15).
Spiritual death is spiritual isolation from man as well as from God. Spiritual death is the present reign of death over man. King Death separates man from God. The reign of King Death is not only exercised in the inevitable physical death of man; King Death rules every moment of man’s existence before the event of physical death. Spiritual death is the present reign of death which separates, alienates and isolates man from God. Just as man does not choose physical death, that is, whether he is going to die inevitably or not, he does not choose spiritual death. Man is born into this world already spiritually dead. He is automatically under the reign of death. He has no choice about it. According to Romans 5:12, we receive death from our first parents, Adam and Eve. When they sinned, they died spiritually as well as physically. God said, when he gave them the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that in the day that they ate of it they would surely die (or literally, “dying, you will die”, Gen. 2:17). Since they did not die physically on that day, they must have died spiritually on that day. And this is clearly what happened because they hid themselves from the presence of God (Gen. 3:8). Their fellowship or communion with God was broken and this is spiritual death. Later, after they were driven out of the garden away from the tree of life, lest they eat of it and live forever (Gen. 3:22-24), they eventually died physically (Gen. 5:5). And this death, both spiritual and physical, was passed onto the whole race of Adam’s descendants, you and me. Unless a man has been delivered from spiritual death, after physical death and the judgment, he will be eternally separated from God. This is eternal death, the second death (Rev. 20:14; 21:6-8; Matt. 7:21-23).
But God has done something about this reign of death over the human race. In His love for us He sent His Son to enter into our death so that He might deliver us from the reign of death. On the cross Jesus died not only physically but spiritually. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46) He was forsaken for us; He died for us. He tasted death for every man (Heb. 2:9). But God raised Him from the dead. That is why He died; Jesus died so that He might be raised from the dead. He entered into our death in order that as He was raised from the dead, we might be made alive with Him (Eph. 2:5). Christ’s death was our death, and His resurrection is our resurrection. We who have received Him are made alive with Him and in Him; we have passed from death into life (John 5:24); we have been raised from the dead spiritually (John 5:25). God has done for us what we could not do for ourselves; He has made us who were dead spiritually alive. Jesus Christ acted as our representative, on our behalf and for our sakes.
“For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for [huper, “on the behalf of”] all, therefore all died” (II Cor. 5:14 NAS);
that is, in Christ, who represents all. Adam acting as a representative brought the old creation under the reign of death. But Christ acting as our representative brought a new creation in which those
“who have received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life” (Rom. 5:17).
“21For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (I Cor. 15:21-23 NAS).
“Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new”
(II Cor. 5:17).Jesus said, “Because I live ye shall live also” (John 14:19).
Acting through our representative, God has reconciled us to Himself in and through Christ; that is, God has brought us into fellowship with Himself.
“18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself through Christ … 19to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (II Cor. 5:18-19 KJV; see also Rom. 5:10-11; I Cor. 1:9; I John 1:2-3).
Reconciliation is salvation from death to life. Salvation may be viewed in three different ways.
(1) First, from the point of view of family, it is the new birth. We have been born into God’s family; we are now children of God (John 1:12-13).
(2) Second, from the point of view of creation, salvation is new creation. We are now new creatures in Christ (II Cor. 5:17).
(3) Finally, from the point of view of reconciliation, salvation is resurrection from the dead. We who were dead are now alive in Christ (Eph. 2:5). Because He lives, we are now alive (John 14:19).
Life is not a “thing,” but it is a person — Jesus. Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is the life (John 14:6). And to know Him personally is to have eternal life. Jesus said as He prayed,
“This is eternal life, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
To know Him personally is to have Him. And “he that has the Son has life and he that has not the Son has not life” (I John 5:12). If you have God’s Son, you are alive to God; you have eternal life; you have been raised from the dead spiritually; you have entered into fellowship with God; you are reconciled to God; you are saved. Salvation is first of all from death to life.
2. But salvation is not only deliverance from death to life but is also from sin to righteousness. And salvation is from sin to righteousness because it is from death to life. All men have sinned because they are spiritually dead. This is what the Apostle Paul says in the last clause of Romans 5:12, which clause is incorrectly translated in our English translations. In the Greek there is a relative pronoun which has not been translated. If it were translated, the whole clause in English would read, “because of which all sinned.” In the Greek it is clear that the antecedent of the relative pronoun “which” is the word “death” in the preceding clause. (The antecedent of a relative pronoun is the word to which the pronoun refers.) The last clause would then be equivalent to “because of death all sinned” and would mean that all men sinned because of death.
But how is this possible? How can men sin because of death? Let me explain how this is possible by referring to another passage in the writings of the Apostle Paul, Galatians 4:8. In this passage, Paul is reminding the Galatian Christians of their condition before they became Christians.
Not to “know God” personally as a living reality is to be spiritually dead. And a man is “in bondage to beings that are no gods” when he chooses them as his gods. He is in bondage to them because he does not personally know the only true God, that is, because he is spiritually dead.
Let me put it another way. Every man must have a god. Man, by the very structure of his freedom, must choose something to be the ultimate criterion of all his decisions. This is because every choice a man makes is made with reference to some criterion. That is, behind every decision as to what a man will do or think there is a reason, a criterion of decision. And the ultimate reason for any decision, practical or theoretical, must be given in terms of some particular criterion, an ultimate reference or orientation point in or beyond the self or person making the decision. This ultimate criterion is that person’s god. In this sense, every man must have a god. Every man, if he hasn’t already, must choose something as his god. Now if he doesn’t know the true God personally as a living reality, that is, if he is spiritually dead, and since he must have a god, he will choose a false god. He will choose some part or aspect of reality as his god, deifying it.
“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator”
(Rom. 1:25).
The choice of a false god and consequent personal allegiance and devotion to it is what the Bible calls idolatry. An idol does not have to be an image of wood, stone or metal. It may be money, wealth, power, pleasure, education, the family, the state, democracy, reason, experience, science, the moral law, etc. An idol is a false god, and a false god may be anything that takes the place of the true God, anything a man chooses as his ultimate criterion of decision, exalting it as God in the place of the true God. It is any substitute or replacement for the true God in a man’s life. Since a false god usurps the place of the true God in a man’s life, idolatry is the basic sin. This sin is directly against God; it is a direct insult to the true God and an affront to His divine majesty. No more serious sin could be imagined than this one. Since it is the most serious sin, it is therefore the most basic. This is the main reason that idolatry is the first sin prohibited by the Ten Commandments. “Thou shalt have no other gods besides me” (Exodus 20:3). Idolatry is also the basic sin because this sin leads to other sins. It leads to other sins since a person’s god, being his ultimate criterion of decision, ultimately controls the direction and character of a man’s decisions. The wrong choice of a false god will lead to other wrong choices. That is, the idol that a man sets up in his heart (Ezek. 14:35) will affect the character and quality of his whole life. In other words, if in his heart a man clings to a false god, his actions and speech will show it. In this way also idolatry is the basic sin. Now we can understand how death leads to sin. If a man is spiritually dead, separated from God, and since he must choose a god, he will usually choose a false god. If a man does not know the true God, the true God will not be a living reality to him. And lacking this personal knowledge of the true God as a living reality, man does not have the adequate reason for choosing the true God as his ultimate criterion of decision. God Himself is the only adequate reason for choosing Him. He cannot be chosen for any other reason than Himself. For then He would not be God but rather that reason for which He is chosen would be god. Only a living encounter with the true and living God can produce the situation in which God Himself may be chosen. If God Himself is the only adequate condition for the choice of Himself, then apart from a personal revelation of God Himself, man will usually choose as his god that which seems like god to him from among the creation around him or from the creations of his own hands or mind. Man does not necessarily have to sin, but he usually will. Spiritual death is not the necessary cause but the basis or condition for his choice of a false god. (The Greek word translated “because” in the last clause of Romans 5:12 means “on the basis of” or “on the condition of”.)
Man is not responsible for becoming spiritually dead because he did not choose this state. He inherited spiritual death from Adam just as he inherited physical death. But he is responsible for the god he chooses. The true God has not left man without a knowledge about himself (Rom. 1:19-20). This knowledge about God leaves man without excuse for his idolatry. But it does not save him because it is knowledge about the true God and not a personal knowledge of the true God. But even though a man is not responsible for becoming spiritually dead, he is responsible for remaining in the state of spiritual death when deliverance is offered to him in the person of Jesus Christ. If he refuses the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus, he must reap the harvest and receive the results of his decision, eternal death. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). If a man refuses the gift of spiritual and eternal life in Christ Jesus and continues to put his trust in a false god, remaining in spiritual death, then after he dies physically, at the last judgment he will receive the result of his decision, eternal death, separation from God for eternity.
Now we can understand why man needs to be saved. As we have seen, man is not responsible for the spiritual death nor for the physical death that he has received from Adam; they are not the result of a man’s own personal sins. On the contrary, a man’s personal sins are a result of spiritual death. That is why he needs to be saved. Man is dead spiritually and dying physically. He needs life; he needs to be made alive; he needs to be raised from the dead. And if he receives life, if he is made alive to God, death which leads to sin will be removed. And if he receives life which leads to righteousness, man can be saved from sin to righteousness. Thus salvation must be understood to be primarily from death to life and secondarily from sin to righteousness. Now this salvation (primarily from death to life and secondarily from sin to righteousness) is exactly what God accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Son. Jesus entered into our spiritual death in order that as He was raised from the dead, we might be made alive with and in Him (Eph. 2:5). And by saving us from spiritual death, Christ saves us from sin. It is by taking away the spiritual death which leads to our sin that God takes away our sin. Jesus died for our sins literally to take them away (John 1:29). What the Old Testament sacrifices could not do (Heb. 10:14), the death of Christ has done. The blood of Jesus (His death) cleanses us from our sins (I John 1:7). We are delivered from sin itself, not just from its consequences. We were saved from our trust in false gods when we put our trust in Jesus Christ and the true God who sent him. Did we not “turn from idols to serve the living and true God?” (I Thess. 1:9) When we were spiritually dead we trusted in and served those things that were not God: money, power, sex, education, popularity, pleasure, etc. But when we turned to the risen Christ, we entered into life, leaving behind those false gods. The risen Jesus Christ is now our Lord and our God (John 20:28).
The death and resurrection of Jesus was the means by which God removed death the barrier to knowing the true God personally and knowing His love. Now God can reveal Himself to us in the preaching of the gospel, making us spiritually alive to Himself when we receive Jesus Christ who is life (John 14:6; I John 5:12). To be spiritually alive is to know God personally, and to know God personally is to trust Him. For “God is love” (I John 4:8, 16) and love begets trust. The trust in God that God’s love invokes in us is righteousness (Rom. 4:5, 9); it relates us rightly to God. Just as trust in a false god is sin, so trust in the true God is righteousness (Rom. 4:3-5). Righteousness is not a quality that we possess, neither merit that we have earned or have imputed to our account, but it is a right relationship to God; faith in the true God relates us rightly to Him. And just as sin flows from death, so righteousness flows from life (Gal. 3:21). Thus by taking away death, God takes away sin. By making us alive to Himself, God sets us right with Himself through faith. Life produces righteousness just as death produced sin. God not only acted in Jesus Christ to reconcile us to Himself, that is, to deliver us from death to life, but also to redeem us from sin.
“In Whom [Christ] we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7; see also Col. 1:14).
The redemption that is in Christ (Rom. 3:24) is deliverance from sin by the payment of a price which is the blood of Christ, that is, His sacrifical death. The price is the means by which the redemption is accomplished.
“18Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things, like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited down from your forefathers; 19but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ”
(I Pet. 1:18, 19 NAS; see also Heb. 9:14-15).
According to English translation of Eph. 1:7 and Col. 1:14 redemption is equivalent to forgiveness of sins. But the basic meaning of the Greek word translated “to forgive” is “to send off or away.” Hence to forgive one’s sins is to send them away. Jesus was manifested in order to take away sins (I John 3:5). He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
Salvation is not just forgiveness; it is basically deliverance from death; it is the resurrection of the dead. Forgiveness of sins is not enough; man needs to be made alive to God because he is spiritually dead. And he is dead not because of his own sins but the sin of another, Adam. So the forgiveness of a man’s sins does not take away spiritual death because the spiritual death was not caused by that man’s sins. Removing his sins does not remove the spiritual death. But the removing of spiritual death removes his sins. Salvation as resurrection from the dead is also salvation from sin and thus is also the forgiveness of sins. Thus to be alive to God means that sins are forgiven.
This redemption from sin was accomplished by the death of Jesus Christ because His death is also the means by which we were delivered from death, the cause of sin. Since spiritual death leads to sin ( Rom. 5:12), sin reigns in the sphere of death’s reign (Rom. 5:21). And since Christ’s death is the end of the reign of death for those who died with Christ, it is also the end of the reign of sin over them. They are no longer slaves of sin, serving false gods. Sin is a slave master (Rom. 6:16-18) and this slave master is the false god in which the sinner trusts. We were all slaves of sin once, serving our false gods when we were spiritually dead, alienated and separated from the true God, not knowing Him personally. But we were set free from this slavery to sin through the death of Christ. For when Christ died for us, He died to sin (Rom. 6:10a) as a slave master. Sin no longer has dominion or lordship over Him. For he who has died is freed from sin (Rom. 6:7). That is, when a slaves dies, he is no longer in slavery, death frees him from slavery. Since Christ died for all, then all have died (II Cor. 5:14). His death is our death. Since we have died with Him and He has died to sin, then we have died to sin. We are freed from the slavery of sin and are no longer enslaved to it (Rom. 6:6-7). But now Christ is alive, having been raised from the dead, and we are alive to God in Him. His resurrection is our resurrection.
“But the life He lives He lives to God” (Rom. 6:10b).
This is the life of righteousness. And so we who are now alive to God in Him are to live to righteousness. For just as death leads to sin, so life leads to righteousness.
“And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (I Pet. 2:24).
Having been redeemed from the slavery of sin through the death of Christ, we who are now alive in Him have become slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:17-18). Redemption is salvation from sin to righteousness.
3. God’s attitude toward sin is expressed in the Scriptures by the concept of the wrath of God. In both the Old and New Testaments God’s opposition to sin is expressed in terms also used in the description of human emotions of anger, indignation, and wrath. But the wrath of God should not be thought of as an unstable, capricious emotion. It is true that men’s anger is so often such an impulsive passion, usually involving a large element of fickleness together with a lack of self-control. But the wrath of God is not to be so conceived. Neither is it to be thought of as like the anger of the heathen anthropomorphic deities. The writers of the Bible have nothing to do with the pagan concepts of a “capricious and vindictive diety, inflicting arbitrary punishments on offending worshippers, who must then bribe him back to a good mood by the appropriate offerings.” [1]
The Biblical concept of the wrath of God should be thought of as the stern and settled personal reaction of God’s love against sin in man. God’s wrath must be understood in terms of God’s love. Love is that decision of a person loving to act for the good of the person loved. It is not just an emotion, an easy-going, good-natured sentimentalism or good feeling of attraction or fondness for someone. But rather it is a decision of the will. But since the will involves the emotions as well as the intellect, that is, the total person, love is a strong and intensive concern for the well being of the person loved. And it is because of this concern that love may be pictured as a purifying fire, blazing out in fiery wrath against everything evil that hinders the loved one from being the best (Psa. 119:74; Prov. 3:11-12; Heb, 12:5-10; Rev. 3:19). Because of this intense love which is jealous for the good of the loved one, God hates everything that is evil in man (Psa. 5:5; 11:5; Prov. 6:16-19; Jer. 44:4; Heb. 1:13; Zech. 8:16-17). Hence the wrath of God is not opposed to His love. But rather it is the reverse side of His love. God’s wrath is the direct personal opposition of His love to the sin that would destroy man whom He loves.
The wrath of God expresses itself in various ways. With regard to time the wrath of God has two aspects: a present aspect and a future aspect. In the present the wrath of God take various forms depending upon whether it is directed toward idolatrous nations and cultures (Psa. 2:1-6; Hab. 3:12) or idolatrous individuals (Deut. 29:20). With regard to idolatrous nations and cultures, the wrath of God may express itself in the form of famines (Deut. 32:24; Amos 4:10), pestilence (Ex. 9:15; Deut. 29:23; Jer. 9:11; 39:8; Amos 4:11), exile (Deut. 28:36,64; II Kings 17:23; Jer. 16:13; 39:9) and extinction (Deut. 28:48; 32:26). God’s wrath is manifested in the physical world (Nahum 1:36) and will be turned against God’s enemies (Nahum 1:8-10) and their wicked cities like Nineveh (Nahum 3:6-7,15). With regard to idolatrous individuals, the wrath of God may take the form of moral decline (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28), misery (Deut. 28:20, 66-67; Psa. 90:7-10; Rom. 2:9), hardness of heart (Psa. 81:12; Rom. 9:18) and finally physical death (Rom. 1:32). Moral decline is the effect of both idolatry and the wrath of God which is directed against the basic sin (Rom. 1:22-26). According to Rom. 1:18-31 the wrath of God is revealed (Rom. 1:18) in the act of God giving up (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28) those who worship and serve false gods (Rom. 1:25) to the moral consequences and implications of their false gods; that is, the basic sin of idolatry leads to other sins (Rom. 1:28-31). This negative act of God in withholding His grace, which would keep man from moral decline, demonstrates to man the true character of his false gods. It is intended to lead man to repentance and faith in the true God. In the future, the wrath of God will be climactically displayed on the day of wrath and righteous judgment of God against those who refuse to repent and who harden their hearts (Rom. 2:5). This will take place when Jesus Christ shall return again (II Thess. 1:7-9; Rev. 19:15; cf. Rev. 14:19).The wrath of God is directed against sin in any form (Jer. 21:12; Ezek. 8:17-18; 22:29, 31; Rom. 1:18). But it is particularly directed against the sin of idolatry.
“14You shall not go after other gods, the gods of peoples who are round about you; 15for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you off the face of the earth.” (Deut. 6:14-15; See also Deut. 4:25-26; 29:25-28; Joshua 23:15-16; Isa. 66:15-17; Jer. 11:11-13; 19:3-4; 44:2-6; Ex. 32:10, 35; Num. 25:3; Lam. 3:42-43; Judges 2:11-15; II Kings 17:9-12; 15-18.)
The wrath of God is directed particularly against the sin of idolatry because it is the basic sin. But more fundamentally it is directed against this sin because of the effect that a false god has upon the one who chooses it as his god. A false god puts its worshippers into bondage by reducing and ultimately destroying their freedom of choice. It reduces his freedom of choice by limiting his options as well as his reasons for his choice. Some false gods totally eliminate some areas of life from its followers consideration. Thus a false god circumscribes and restricts the freedom of choice of the person who chooses it as his god; it acts as a frustrating limitation, a ball and chain upon the exercise of the freedom of its worshipper. But a false god also destroys the freedom of its worshipper by denying his freedom. Since a false god has limited or no freedom (no power of choice or self-determination), such a god implicitly and/or explicitly denies the reality of its follower’s freedom of choice. Thus having used his freedom to give this god his ultimate allegiance, the worshipper finds his freedom denied to the point of extinction and himself bound in a miserable slavery. As long as the false god remains his ultimate criterion of decision, he will not have the grounds for rejecting that god, since that god has not allowed him to have freedom of choice to do so. His power of choice having been effectively taken away from him; he is unable to reject the false god and free himself from its bondage. This is the bondage of sin (John 8:34; Prov. 5:22). Man becomes a slave of sin when he gives his ultimate allegiance and devotion to a false god. In fact, the false god is sin personified as a slavemaster (Rom. 6:16).
The true God, on the other hand, preserves and fulfills the freedom of the one who chooses and worships Him. Since the true God is a living God (Jer. 10:5-15; I Thess. 1:9), that is, a being that has the power of self-determination, with unlimited freedom, He can preserve His worshipper’s freedom. When this Being who has such freedom is made the ultimate criterion of one’s decisions, one’s freedom of choice may be exercised without restriction or frustrating limitation. His freedom is not denied or taken away from him. But more importantly, the true God not only preserves the freedom of the one who chooses and worships Him but also fulfills the freedom of the one who commits and devotes himself to Him. This He does by loving him; that is, by acting toward him for his highest good. Now man’s highest good is the true God; He alone can preserve the freedom of the one who chooses Him. For when a man chooses the true God as his God, he has found his highest good and obtained true happiness (Prov. 16:20; Psa. 40:4; 84:12; 144:15; Jer. 17:7, etc.). Because the true God is love (I John 4:8, 16), He acts toward man in such a way as to bring man to the choice of man’s highest good, that is, the true God, and hence the fulfillment of his freedom. One way He does this is by directly opposing (i.e., the wrath of God) man’s choice of a false god (the sin of idolatry). Since idolatry not only destroys man’s freedom but is an obstacle to God’s love which would fulfill man’s freedom, the wrath of God is directed against this particular sin.
But wrath is not the only way that God in His love deals with man’s sin. The wrath of God is not the only nor the last word about what God has said or done concerning man’s sin. God’s wrath is His strange work.
“The Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim, he will be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon; to do his deed strange is his deed! and to work his work alien is his work!” (Isa. 28:21)
Wrath is that act of His love that is alien to the way God wishes to act. He desires to act toward man in mercy and grace (Psa. 103:9-12; Micah 7:18-19). In mercy He desires to turn away His wrath and forgive man’s sin (Psa. 85:2-3). And in grace He desires to remove the sin which causes His wrath. This is the other way that God in His love deals with man’s sin. Thus, God deals with man’s sin in two ways: in His wrath He opposes the sin, and in His grace He removes it. The grace of God is the love of God in action to bring man salvation (Titus 2:11; Eph. 2:4-9). In this second way God fulfills man’s freedom; He removes the idolatry which would destroy man’s freedom. And this He does by removing the cause of sin death through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thus God sets him free from the bondage of sin, the slavery to a false god, and brings him into the freedom of righteousness, the righteousness of faith. Faith in the true God is righteousness because it relates us rightly to Him (Rom. 4:3-5). In this right relationship to the true God, man’s freedom is fulfilled and man is truly free. “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)
As we have seen, therefore, the wrath of God is not opposed to His love. But rather it is one of the two ways in which God in His love deals with man’s sin. God’s wrath as well as His grace is an expression of His love. There is no eternal principle of divine retribution (justice) in God which causes His wrath. Since God is love, the wrath of God must be understood in terms of His love as the direct personal opposition of His love to sin that would destroy the one whom He loves. Wrath is the reaction of His love to sin. The cause of God’s wrath is not in God; it is external to God and in the sin of man. And as long as man remains in sin, so long does the wrath of God remain upon him (John 3:36).
Man is under the wrath of God because of his sin of idolatry (Rom. 1:18-25); that is, the wrath of God is caused by sin; it is a direct consequence of each man’s own sin. But since man is a sinner as a consequence of Adam’s sin (Rom. 5:19a), then the wrath of God is also a result of Adam’s sin (Rom. 5:18a; note that condemnation is the same as wrath). But it is only indirectly, not directly, a result of Adam’s sin. For all men are sinners only indirectly as a consequence of Adam’s sin. They are sinners directly because of the spiritual death ( Rom. 5:12d; Gal. 4:8), which they have received from Adam ( Rom. 5:12c; I Cor. 15:22). Sin is the direct consequence of spiritual death and hence only an indirect consequence of Adam’s sin (only the spiritual and physical death came directly from Adam). And since man is a sinner as an indirect consequence of Adam’s sin, then the wrath of God (condemnation) is also an indirect consequence of Adam’s sin. Condemnation is not the direct result of Adam’s sin; that is, man is not condemned because of Adam’s sin but because of his own personal sin, his own choice of a false god. The cause of the wrath of God is the sin of each individual man (Ezek. 18:1-4, 14-20).
The activity of the wrath of God is not an impersonal law of retribution or the inevitable moral effect of sin, as advocated by C. H. Dodd. [2] The wrath of God is God’s personal reaction to man’s sin. This is seen in the Old Testament writers’ use of strong personal terms when speaking of the wrath of God.
“O God, Thou has rejected us. Thou hast broken us; Thou has been angry; … Thou hast made the land quake; Thou hast made Thy people experience hardship; Thou hast given us wine to drink that make us stagger.” (Psa. 60:13)
“27Behold, the name of the Lord comes from a remote place; Burning is His anger, and dense is His smoke; His lips are filled with indignation, and His tongue is like a consuming fire; 28And His breath is like an overflowing torrent, Which reaches to the neck, To shake the nations back and forth in a sieve, And to put in the jaws of the peoples the bridle which leads to ruin … 30And the Lord will cause His voice of authority to be heard. And the descending of His arm to be seen, And in the flame of a consuming fire, In a cloudburst, downpour, and hailstones, 31For at the voice of the Lord Assyria will be terrified, When He strikes with the rod.” (Isa. 30:27-28, 30-31)
“The anger of the Lord will not turn back Until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; …”
(Jer. 23:20)“8Now I will shortly pour out My wrath on you, and send My anger against you, judge you according to your ways, and bring on you all your abominations. 9And My eye will show no pity, nor will I spare. I will repay you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst; then you will know that I, the Lord, do the smiting.” (Ezek. 7:8-9).
The psalmist and prophets could hardly have expressed more strongly the personal aspect of God’s wrath. The wrath of God in these passages is definitely not an impersonal, inexorable law of moral retribution. God personally wills His deeds of wrath against man’s sin. And because God is so personally active in His deeds of wrath, He can exercise His mercy, allowing His wrath to be turned away.
“9He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. 10He does not deal with us according to our sin, nor requite us according to our iniquities. 11For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him; 12As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
(Psa. 103:9-12)“Thou didst forgive the iniquity of Thy people; Thou didst cover all their sin. Thou didst withdraw all Thy fury; Thou didst turn away from Thy burning anger.” (Psa. 85:23)
“18Who is a God like Thee, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in lovingkindness. 19He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, Thou wilt cast all our sins into the depth of the sea.” (Micah 7:18-19; See also Exodus 34:67; Numbers 14:18; Neh. 9:17; Psa. 30:5; 86:15; 145:8; Isa. 57:16; Lam. 3:22-23; Joel 2:12-13; Jonah 4:2; Nahum 1:23.)
That God will have mercy, turning away His wrath, is not contradicted by the statement that “the anger of the Lord will not turn back” (Jer. 23:10), for this does not mean that He is implacable, only that He is not diverted from His purposes by puny man. “The anger of the Lord will not be turned back until He has performed and carried out the purpose of His heart…” (Jer. 23:20). This statement is just a denial of the pagan idea that God will accept a bribe to appease His anger. [3]
The means by which God’s wrath may be turned aside involves the purging of the sin. This may be done, for example, by completely destroying the offending city (Deut. 13:15-17), slaying those who had sinned as at Baal-Peor (Num. 25:4), releasing captives (II Chron. 28:11-13), putting away heathen wives (Ezra 10:14). The putting away of sin involves a change of heart attitude, repentance (Jonah 3:7, 10), humbling oneself (II Chron. 12:7), circumcising the heart (Jer. 4:4) and doing judgment (Jer. 21:12). It is the absence of this inward change of heart and attitude and the corresponding outward change in actions that brought about the rejection and condemnation by the psalmists and prophets of the divinely appointed system of offerings and sacrifices. And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” (I Sam. 15:22)
“16For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; Thou art not pleased with burnt offerings. 17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” (Psa. 51:16-17)
“For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6; See also Psa. 4:5; 40:6-8; 50:7-23; 69:30-31; Prov. 15:8; 21:3; Isa. 1:11-17; Jer. 7:21-26; Amos 5:21-24; Micah 6:6-8.)
These divinely appointed offerings and sacrifices were intended to be a means of turning away God’s wrath, but the absence of a correct inward heart attitude and the corresponding correct outward actions made them into an empty ritual and an abomination to God. Without repentance and faith they ceased to be an atonement or means of propitiation. [4] The Old Testament sacrifices could never take away sin (Heb. 10:4, 11). On the contrary, there is in those sacrifices a continual remembrance of sin year by year (Heb. 10:3). That is, the worshippers, not having been cleansed of their sins, still have a consciousness of sin (Heb. 10:2). Therefore, those that draw near could never be made perfect by those sacrifices (Heb. 10:1).
But Christ has put away sin once for all by the sacrifice of Himself (Heb. 9:26; 10:12), and has made perfect them that are being sanctified or set apart to God (Heb. 10:14). Now there is no more remembrance of sins (Heb. 10:17), since those drawing near having been cleansed from their sins have no more consciousness of sins (Heb. 10:22). It was to accomplish our cleansing from sin that Christ “gave Himself for our sins” (Gal. 1:4) and “died for our sins” (I Cor. 15:3). God has acted in Jesus Christ to redeem us from sin. Now that God has redeemed us from sin, we also are delivered from the wrath of God. Salvation is not only deliverance from sin but also deliverance from the wrath of God (Rom. 5:9). God put forth Jesus Christ as a propitiation through faith in His blood (Rom. 3:25). The death of Jesus Christ is a propitiation because it is the means that God has appointed for turning away His wrath from man. While God in His love could have mercy on man and turn away His wrath from man (Psa. 78:38; Exodus 34:6; Numbers 14:19-20), He has appointed means whereby His wrath will be turned away. In the Old Testament God’s appointed means for turning away His wrath were the sacrifices and offerings. When these sacrifices were offered in true repentance and faith, they were an atonement or propitiation. But these sacrifices could never take away sin (Heb. 10:4, 11); that is, they could not bring about repentance and faith because they could not make alive (Gal. 3:21). The Old Testament sacrifices could not reconcile man to God. But through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ man is reconciled to God and his sins are taken away. And since then there are no sins to cause wrath, the wrath of God is turned away. Thus Christ’s death is the perfect sacrifice for turning away God’s wrath because by it man is redeemed from sin. Christ’s death is a propitiation because it is a redemption; it is both a propitiation and a redemption.
Propitiation is the sacrificial aspect of Christ’s work of salvation; and redemption is the liberation aspect. And it is a propitiation and a redemption because it is a reconciliation to God. Reconciliation is the representative aspect of Christ’s work of salvation from death to life. Reconciliation to God is being made alive to God, and being made alive, the cause of sin and wrath has been removed. Salvation must be from death to life in order to be from sin to righteousness, and from sin to righteousness in order to be from wrath to peace with God. Man needs to be saved from death to life in order to be saved from sin and from sin in order to be saved from wrath of God. Thus salvation is primarily from death to life, then secondarily from sin to righteousness, and then thirdly from wrath to peace.
Because God loves us, He has acted in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of man from death, sin and wrath. Since wrath is caused by sin (Rom. 1:18) and sin by death ( Rom. 5:12d ERS), salvation is basically from death to life and then from sin to righteousness and then from wrath to peace with God. Thus there are three aspects of salvation:
(1) Reconciliation is salvation from death to life;
(2) redemption is salvation from sin to righteousness; and
(3) propitiation is salvation from wrath to peace with God.
These three aspects of salvation are accomplished in and through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ’s death is a propitiation because it is a redemption; and it is a propitiation and a redemption because it is a reconciliation to God.
“24Being set right by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood ….” (Rom. 3:24-25; ERS);
“For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Rom. 5:10 (NAS);
“18Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
19namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on the behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (II Cor. 5:18-20 NAS); see also I Cor. 1:9; I John 1:2-3).
This salvation is by the grace of God, which is God’s love in action in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“4But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you have been saved)” (Eph. 2:4-5 ERS).
By His grace, God has made us spiritually alive from the dead together with Christ in His resurrection from the dead, thus saving us from sin to righteousness and from wrath to peace with God by His grace. Reconciliation is the representative aspect of His act of salvation from death to life, redemption is the liberation aspect of His act of salvation from sin to righteousness, and propitiation is the sacrificial aspect of His act of salvation from wrath to peach with God. The Gospel tells us about this act of God for our salvation in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (I Cor. 15:3-4). And in the preaching of the Gospel, God exerts His power for the salvation of men by bringing them to faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:16-17). By faith the hearers of the Gospel receive the gift of God’s grace. Thus this Gospel is the Gospel of the grace of God.
ENDNOTES
[1] Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1956), p. 181.
[2] C. H. Dodd, The Epistle of Paul to the Romans
(London: Fontana Books, 1960), pp. 49-50.
[3] Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, 135.
[4] Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, 160.