But God is also a God of wrath. God can also be angry. Paul teaches us this in his letter to the Romans:
But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. Romans 2:8
God also is a jealous God, as the Prophet Nahum tells us:
The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies. - Nahum 1: 2
If you really sit and ponder this, you would realize that we should desire our God to be a God of wrath. Granted, it may not sell too well to a world that is looking at the wrong side of judgment, but we as believers can take solace in the wrath of God. Let's face it beloved. This world is an unfair place. Things do not always go the way they should and the good guys do not always win. When things or people come against you unfairly in this world, you can take comfort in the wrath of God because it assures us that when we pass from this mortal coil, all of the unfairness, strife, sin, injustice, cruelty, and abject evil will not be coming with us. Hallelujah! There is a reward for the faithful and punishment for the unjust. God is not only all of these things but He is righteous and just.
I have heard the argument that the
sugar coated Gospel is not doing any harm but I would disagree. Salvation is
reconciling man back to God, not God back to man. The end result of preaching a
one sided Gospel is that the roles end up reversed. Believers start thinking
that God's role is to provide blessings. Prayers become lists of demands
instead of an intimate relationship that God wants it to be. The lines between
acceptable behavior and sin become blurry. The end result can be that the
believer walks with no power and no relationship with God. There is nothing the
enemy wants more after he has lost the battle for your soul than to make you
ineffectual for the
There must be a balance. Yes, God is a God of love but also wrath. Yes there is forgiveness but also consequence. God will hold us to account for our behavior:
My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. Proverbs 3: 11-12
There must be balance and as such, the opposite Gospel is equally distorted. I have heard and seen a barbed-wire Gospel being preached where everything is about condemnation and judgment. Hellfire and brimstone. The problem with this Gospel is there is no love in the Christ being presented. A loveless Christ is inaccurate and insulting. The world we live in is loveless enough. People need to see the love in their Savior. Every message cannot be about eternal damnation. The result is a believer who is not even sure about their own salvation, crawling through the eternal life they are supposed to be living in abundance. Remember:
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. Roman 8: 1-2
Yet some preaching seems centered around a Gospel of condemnation, binding the believers in the sins Jesus Christ already set them free from. The truth is that this can also teach the believer to have a condemning spirit as well. Suddenly they can become experts on the eternal destination of others, claiming who is really saved and who is not a job specifically reserved for God.
The problems with both Gospels discussed here is that they are extremes. They are polar opposites of the same problem. This is a problem God warns about:
In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these: a righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness. Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise-- why destroy yourself? Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool-- why die before your time? It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. The man who fears God will avoid all extremes. Ecclesiastes 7: 15-18
The man who fears God will avoid all extremes. You must understand that there is absolutely nothing wrong with preaching God is a God of love, who blesses us, cares for us, and wants to prosper us. There is also nothing wrong with preaching God is a God of wrath, who chastens us, expects something from us, and who seeks vengeance on the unrighteous. The problem is when you present only one of them as the whole Gospel. The trick, as outlined in these verses from Ecclesiastes is to grasp the one and not let go of the other. How serious does God take this?
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Galatians 1: 6-9
Strong words. A sugar coated Gospel is half the truth. A barbed wire Gospel is half the truth. Half the truth will not set you totally free. If you have one extreme, you will never mature, always thinking God is a spiritual ATM you can go to be blessed. If you have the other extreme, you will never mature possibly even doubt your own salvation as you stumble in the chains Christ has already loosed you from. If you have both though; you will understand that while God loves us, our Christianity requires something from us. If you have both you will understand that while you work out your salvation with fear and trembling, there is no doubt of your eternal life because you are already living it!
