The Righteous Wrath of God

God is angry with sinners every day. He will condemn them to Hell when they stand before him in judgment. The Day is coming in which God will pour out his righteous indignation on sinners, his wrath.

God is a Just Judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he [the wicked] does not turn back, he [God] will sharpen his sword (Psalm 7:11-12; NKJV).

… if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to Hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the Ancient World when he brought the Flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah…

if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the Day of Judgment (2 Peter 2:4-5, 9).

Knowing that the wrath of God is stored up for the wicked, our behavior towards our enemies can be gentle. We can refrain from retribution and from taking revenge for the wrongs they have done us. What’s our reason? We let God do the punishing. We decide to leave room for his wrath upon them.

Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord (Romans 12:19).

Atonement

Speaking of gentleness, Jesus died for our sins while we were yet sinners. He loves those who hurt him. He is patient and merciful.

While we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

Father forgive them they know not what they do (Luke 23:24).

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out… (Matthew 12:20)

The word atonement is also rendered propitiation or expiation, depending on the translation. When we hear the term used in religious conversation, it is referring to the fulfillment of God’s righteous demand of capital punishment for sins. Someone had to die for sins, and the person God chose for the task was Jesus, who atoned for our sins at Calvary.

The term atonement is found more than 100 times in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament we only see it in three verses (see below). This may seem like very little, but the meaning of the atonement is all over the New Testament. For example, all the passages that refer to the Cross and all the passages that speak of his death and blood speak to Jesus’ work of atoning for our sins.

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood… (Romans 3:25)

… that he [Jesus] might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people (Hebrews 2:17).

Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover (Hebrews 9:5).

A Payment to God

You must understand that Jesus never paid a ransom to the Devil. His blood was a payment to God. It was the propitiation for our sins before God. It was not the Devil, but the Righteous Father who demanded a sacrifice. The wrath of God, not the wrath of the Devil, was appeased at Calvary.

For the blood of Christ to have been the atoning sacrifice (1 John 2:2) for sins, means that his blood satisfied the justice which God (even today) demands for sins committed against him. Where was that demand of justice established? God established the death penalty for sin in the Garden of Eden, when he said to Adam:

You must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die (Genesis 2:17).

The Devil contradicted God’s words soon afterwards, deceiving Eve by saying ‘You will not certainly die’ (Genesis 3:4). But Jesus carried his Cross all the way to Calvary because he knew that God demands death as the satisfaction for sin. Only death is accepted by God as the atoning payment for offenses against him—so Jesus paid God by surrendering his life—his life is in his blood.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the World! (John 1:29)

... walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:2).

Success and Failure in Intercession

Intercession sometimes works to appease God’s anger, but sometimes it doesn’t. For example, intercession works through Jesus 100%. But it didn’t work when Noah interceded for the people of his day. They were all washed away in the Deluge.

Intercession did work when Abraham interceded for Sodom—it saved Lot and his two daughters. Abraham’s prayers didn’t save the other inhabitants of Sodom, and it didn't work for Lot's wife, but it saved three, so Abraham's intercession was partially effective.

Moses was heard on High and his intercession for the Israelites was a big success. When Moses interceded for the Jews in the Desert, God listened to him and relented from pouring out his wrath on the people.

‘I have seen these people,’ the LORD said to Moses, ‘and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.’

But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. ‘LORD,’ he said, ‘why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?’

Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened… (Exodus 32:9-11, 14).

Jesus Offered His Body to God

In order to appease the righteous wrath of God against us, Jesus interceded—and he was very successful! Jesus willingly made his body the offering for the sins of the World. He did God’s will by offering himself. With the body God had prepared for him, Jesus purchased you and me for God.

… when Christ came into the World, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.’”

First he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them’—though they were offered in accordance with the Law. Then he said, ‘Here I am, I have come to do your will.’ He sets aside the first to establish the second (Hebrews 10:5-9).

‘A body you prepared for me.’ That says it all.

Jesus surrendered his body at Calvary—his body was a sacrifice on the Cross—and you already know that. But here’s something you probably don’t know: Jesus’ work didn’t end at Calvary. The Cross was not the conclusion—it was the start of his payment for the sins of the World.

After he was resurrected, Jesus ascended into Heaven and entered into the Heavenly Temple, which is also called the Greater Tabernacle, in which there is space called the Most Holy Place—and there Jesus presented himself before the Father.

But when Christ came as High Priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect Tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this Creation (Hebrews 9:11).