God's Wrath Revealed

God has revealed his righteousness and his wrath to us so that we will know that we are in need of his salvation.  God in his mercy (withholding the judgment that we all deserve) and in his grace (giving us what we don’t deserve) has provided for humanity salvation that is full and free.  He has revealed his righteousness in his gospel.  The gospel being “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3b-4)  Just as God has revealed his righteousness in Jesus Christ, he has also revealed his wrath from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.  The Holman’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary defines: WRATH, WRATH OF GOD Used to express several emotions, including anger, indignation, vexation, grief, bitterness, and fury. It is the emotional response to perceived wrong and injustice. Both humans and God express wrath. When used of God, wrath refers to His absolute opposition to sin and evil. When used of humans, however, wrath is one of those evils that is to be avoided.  I think this a pretty good working definition myself for our post today.  Let’s think about the first time God revealed his wrath from heaven.  The first time was when the world was flooded with water and the only ones who survived were Noah and his family.  God made a covenant that we still see today when it rains. His rainbow!  He promised he would never destroy the world this way again.  The second time God revealed his wrath from heaven was when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by brimstone and fire.  We often this of Sodom’s sin as the sin of homosexuality which is an abomination before God but God teaches us different in the book of Ezekiel.  “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.  They were haughty and did an abomination before me.  So I removed them, when I saw it.” (Ezekiel 16:49-52)  There was another time when God poured out his wrath from heaven and when He did so the person became so disfigured that he was unrecognizable.  God the Father poured out his wrath on Jesus Christ while he was on the cross.  Jesus Christ was sinless until God placed all of our sin on him.  Then he became sin for us.  He died in our place so that we would not have to face God’s wrath.  Because Jesus paid for humanity’s sin in full, whoever rejects his offer of salvation will face his wrath on the Day of Judgment.  God’s wrath is such that he calls people every day to repent of their sin and come to him.  God has placed eternity into the hearts of men; we all know that there is a God.  I beg you in Jesus’ name to turn away from your sin and turn to Jesus so that you will not have to face his wrath in the days to come.