When I was a boy I went to Sunday School where I learned the chorus, "He's got the whole world in His hands." Somewhere along the way, as a young man, I learned about a sermon preached by Johnathan Edwards called "Sinners In the Hands of an Angry God." I took both ideas an adopted a mindset that God is waiting in heaven to unleash His wrath upon me for every sin and failure I commit. I lived in fear of failing God. I lived in fear of punishment. I lived with a perception of He was just waiting to show me what a worthless excuse for a Christian I actually was.
This is the wrong way to embrace the Christian life. Make no mistake about it, God hates sin, however let me talk a moment about propitiation. Gotquestions.org defines this as "The word propitiation carries the basic idea of appeasement or satisfaction, specifically toward God. Propitiation is a two-part act that involves appeasing the wrath of an offended person and being reconciled to him. 1 John 4:10 speaks of it, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." To explain it as my former pastor taught me, "All the wrath that I deserve falls upon Christ." The thing about that is that it is not a one time act. As we are in Christ, the wrath that sin calls for continually falls upon the sacrifice Jesus made. It paid for and continues to pay for the separation of sin.
Propitiation has led me to a powerful conclusion:
In Christ, God never is angry at me.
But what of the God of the Old Testament? I simply propose to you that the sacrifice of Christ had not been made yet and thus God interacted with mankind differently. Once Jesus became the sacrifice "once for all time" (Heb 10:12), sin was paid for in the believers life. We will still sin, but the consequence of wrath and Hell are far removed from us.
All of God's wrath is placed upon the person of Jesus.
This changed how He can work on us as well. In grace, God accepts us just as we are, but is not content to leave us there. Because of Christ, He gets us where we need to be, not by an exercise of wrath and anger, but by love. He does not stand before us reminding us of our sins and compelling us to change "or else", but He woos us, as a person might a frightened animal, or as a father to a skeptical child. He calls us to Him in love.
A great example of that in the final chapter of Mark is found in this verse that gave me pause: Mark 16:7 "And go and tell this disciples...and Peter."
If there was anyone who deserved wrath it was the betrayer. Judas Iscariot is often bad mouthed as the worst of the lot, but could we put Peter close behind. Some speculate that Judas had an agenda where he believed Jesus would manifest power and glory instead of being taken. Peter betrayed simply to save his own skin.
Peter spend 3 days living with that burden, the weight of his choices perhaps driving him into hopelessness and despair. Perhaps He was reminded of Jesus' words, but surely he would have responded to those thoughts by concluding that even it it did happen, even if resurrection were possible, that things would never be the same.
An "Angry God" thought differently. In the angels salutation to the women, we see Peter specifically mentioned. Why? Was God calling him out to warn him of coming wrath, or was God calling Him to the knowledge that even though He had committed an 'unpardonable sin' that He has still accepted, secure and significant to Christ, and that God would fight for him, not against him.
In Christ all sin is reconciled to the cross. In Christ all anger and wrath is placed upon that final sacrifice. In Christ God is never angry at me.
Grace and peace...
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