The Gospel of Jesus Christ - The wrath of God

Zephaniah 1:2-3

[2] “I will completely remove all things From the face of the earth,” declares the Lord. [3] “I will remove man and beast; I will remove the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, And the ruins along with the wicked; And I will cut off man from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord."

So, I was hanging out at my mom's house and of course the topic of God came up. It surprised me to hear about how many of her friends believe in God, but do not know the actual meaning of the gospel of Christ. The world's definition of believers in Christ is religious. I am not religious at all.

I have a personal relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Going to church every Sunday will not get you into the kingdom of God. Giving to charity, and doing good deeds will not get you into the kingdom of God. All of my Bible studies will not get you into the kingdom of God. Buying and reading my books will not get you into the kingdom of God.

The only way into the kingdom of God is through the Lord Jesus Christ. There are no other ways into the kingdom of God. The penalty for sin is death. Those without the blood of Christ are facing impending damnation. The entire point of the sacrifice of Christ is to save us from the wrath of God, which is still very much active and alive, waiting to be satisfied.

The following is a famous sermon that goes over the gospel of Christ, it was written by Jonathan Edwards in 1741. It's called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." It is my favorite sermon on the wrath of God in regards to the Gospel of Christ and what awaits those who reject Him. Rather than try to re-write such a masterpiece, I have decided to include it in its original entirety.

"We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by; thus easy is it for God when he pleases to cast his enemies down to hell. . . .

They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell. And the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as angry as he is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who there feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth; yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell.

So that it is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and does not resent it, that he does not let loose his hand and cut them off. God is not altogether such an one as themselves, though they may imagine him to be so. The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them. . . .

Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noonday; the sharpest sight cannot discern them. God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear, that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked man, at any moment. . . .

So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell; and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of. . . .

The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God. However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction. . . .

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship.

Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell. O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment. . . .

It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains.

So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For who knows the power of God’s anger?

How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in the danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. . . .

And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in the door calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from the east, west, north, and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit! How can you rest one moment in such a condition? . . .

Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. . ."

So, how does one escape this fierce wrath of God which is to come? We escape the wrath of God by repenting of sin and believing on Jesus Christ as the only Begotten Son of God. We believe in Him who took our place and the just penalty of death that is upon us all, upon Himself instead, when He was crucified to the cross and died in our place.

John 3:16-18 [16] “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. [18] The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me."

John 6:47 "Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who believes has eternal life. "

John 6:40 " For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

The penalty for sin or breaking God's law is death. The world is cursed by God for breaking His laws.

Christ takes away the wrath of God for sin, as He paid the penalty for all of us who believe. For those who do not acknowledge the free offer of mercy from God, and that which He Himself has performed by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, they can expect the full measure of His wrath.

Isaiah 66:15-17 [15] "For behold, the Lord will come in fire and His chariots like the whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. [16] For the Lord will execute judgment by fire and by His sword on all flesh, and those slain by the Lord will be many. [17] Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go to the gardens, following one in the center, who eat swine's flesh, detestable things and mice, will come to an end altogether."

Hell or the lake of fire is real. Hell is the full measure of God's wrath. Eternal burning and suffering are the consequences of sin. The penalty of sin or disobedience to God is death.

Isaiah 63:6 [6] "I trod down the peoples in My anger and made them drunk in My wrath; and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth."

Isaiah 66:24 [24] "Then they will go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched; and they will be an abhorrence to all mankind."

There is no statute of limitations on the penalty of breaking God's law. Something you did when you were ten years old that was sinful is still counted against you. Good deeds and charity do not cancel out bad deeds or sin. No amount of good deeds can wash away sin.

Isaiah 64:6 "For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our wrongdoings, like the wind, take us away."

The penalty for breaking God's law is death. The only thing that cancels out the penalty for sin is Christ's sacrifice for us. Instead of having us die for our sins, Christ died in our place, taking the sins of the entire world upon Him so that we might live.

Isaiah 24: 1-6

[1] "Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants. [2] And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor. [3] The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the Lord has spoken this word. [4] The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away. [5] The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. [6] Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left."

The entire earth is under a curse for breaking the commandments of God. Not one people, not one nation, not one group, but in fact, everyone, the entire planet, is under the curse of God. Listen again to the first part of verse 6 above. "Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty."

During the days of Moses, when he and Israel were in the wilderness, the people angered God by complaining against Him.

Numbers 21:4-9 [4] "Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey. [5] The people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food. [6] "The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. [7] So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; intercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. [8] "Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.” [9] And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived."

So everyone knows John 3:16 but what about the two verses that precede it. Let's put it in context.

John 3:14-15 [14] "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; [15] so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life."

Just like the answer to God's wrath for the Jews was a standard, so now He has made Christ the standard for the entire world to save them from His wrath and the curse that devours the earth as we read above.

John 3:16-18

[16] “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. [18] He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

John 12:32 [32] "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”

Christ is God's offer of a lifeline, the free offer of mercy out of the depths of the riches of His lovingkindness to save us from the wrath that is soon to come, and is partially already here.

Partially here, as being according to what we read above in Isaiah. Only the blood of Christ can lift the abiding ever-present curse of God, the sentence of death for sin, and the eternal punishment of hell.

Matthew 10:28

[28] "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

People always ask, "Why would God allow bad things to happen to good people?" My guess of an answer is that they probably were not as good as you think. Can you be a good person and not have the blood of Christ? No. It is only the blood of Christ that makes us "good" in the sight of God. "Good" people are still sinners. The penalty of sin is death, and the curse remains upon all until it is lifted by the blood of Christ.

If you are willing to humble yourselves before God and pray to Him. Confess your sins, and repent (which means to turn away from and no longer participate in or indulge). Thank Him for Christ paying the penalty for us, ask Him to be your only God and Lord.

If you believe, then pray the following:

"O Jesus, please forgive me my sins. I do repent, please help me to repent. I believe that You are the only Son of God, that you were born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, that You were crucified, died on the cross, was buried and on the third day rose from the dead. Thank You for saving me. Please come into my life and be my Lord. Amen."

Now, get yourself a copy of the Bible. I would recommend either the New American Standard version or the New King James Version because they are quite literal in their translation. I personally use the New American Standard version because it is what I was raised on and is very comfortable for me. Find a Bible based church. Pray and ask God to put you where you belong or where He wants you to be. Get baptised! It is important!

There is a free copy of my first book, "Thus says the Lord God" in .pdf format to help you get started. Just sign up for my newsletter at the top of the homepage to get your free copy!