The Wrath of God Abides

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John... He left.... (John 3:36 – 4:1, 3)

As I contemplate this story with new appreciation for the real truth about what constitutes the wrath of God it takes on a completely new meaning. What begins to become more obvious is the link between this statement and the condition of the Pharisees mentioned in the very next verse, for these Pharisees were already beginning to experience the wrath of God.

Contrary to popular opinion, the wrath of God is not when God gets mad at people but actually describes the internal reaction produced by deception in the heart when people resist the presence of God and the kind of passion that motivates His love for them. Because the sinful human heart is out of sync with this kind of love it fights it, repulses it, argues with it, denies it and misconstrues it to be an enemy. In fact, sin causes our hearts that were designed for love to actually attack the very thing that it needs the most very much like the body sometimes attacks itself when someone has an autoimmune disease. Instead of properly identifying the true enemy agents in the bloodstream the immune system begins to attack the healthy cells in the body and to self-destruct.

That is the power of deception and sin. It confuses what is right and wrong, what is good for us and what is harmful, what we need for life and what will bring us pain and death. And nothing may be more dangerous and deceptive than religion that purports to honor and worship God while in reality is attacking and resisting the very things God is trying to do to save us and resisting the truth about Him.

God's chosen people in Jesus' day found themselves in that very condition. Their leaders by in large were acting like a misguided immune system that resisted the very life that God was trying to bring into His people. Instead of cooperating with God's desires to reform and heal His body, these leaders spent much of their time trying to find fault with everything Jesus did and said, misconstrued His intentions and maligned His reputation. They were so jealous of His power and influence with the people that instead of assisting the Messiah that God had sent to save and heal His people they turned on Him and attacked the very love that was there to save them.

This is the condition of all who experience the wrath of God. When anyone fights against the passionate, saving grace and love of our Savior instead of submitting to and embracing it, the internal pain caused by that resistance is what the Bible calls wrath. But far from being imposed on sinners by an angry God, this wrath is a natural consequence of our own resistance to the very opposite of anger – love itself. But because we have such distorted notions about what real love is along with what God's wrath is, we continue to believe that God is the source of our pain instead of seeing that it is our own stubborn resistance to His attractions for us that is creating all the pain.

There seems to be two ways to escape from this kind of wrath. Ideally the best way is for the person who is beginning to feel this discomfort to realize that the lies they believe about God are the real problem and not God Himself. When they come to a knowledge of this profound truth and allow God to reveal His real character of love and compassion to their heart and to bring healing and wholeness to them, they can experience salvation and come into harmony with His character through the transformation process called sanctification.

But not everyone is willing to take that path of repentance that leads to life. Many continue to cling to the lies about God because of pride, ignorance, stubbornness or some other reason and refuse to accept the healing grace offered them. They live in darkness and deception in their perceptions of how God feels toward them and the result is increasing discomfort whenever the real presence of God is near. Those in this last condition who keep resisting the love and grace of God tend to seek relief from that pain by denying the truth about God and trying to stop it from operating altogether. In this situation sometimes, God in His mercy and compassion will withdraw from them for a time to relieve them of the discomfort of this pressure of love in their life and give them time to think about it more in hopes that they will change their minds and hearts about Him.

That is what I see happening in this passage. John is pointing out here that anyone who does not respond positively to the revelation of God in the Son cannot see the truth about life and consequently what they experience will always be perceived as wrath inside their souls. Because these Pharisees were resisting Jesus and His loving ministry for people that was exposing their selfishness by contrast, they were becoming highly uncomfortable inside and were experiencing the wrath of God as described above. In order to allow them time and relief from this painful condition for a season, Jesus chose to move His ministry away from their vicinity in order to give them opportunity to see and consider the wrongness of their ways and to allow the real truth about Him to hopefully soften their hearts.

Unfortunately most of the leaders failed to accept the greatest revelations of grace and truth and love that this world has ever seen. Instead they continued to fight against Him, hardening their hearts over and over again to His appeals for them to repent until they were so filled with their own wrath against Him that they were driven to kill Him in the most torturous way that could be found.

Many Christians live in fear of a God that they believe is going to torture those who refuse His love and grace in the fires of a hell that has been described to them by religious leaders who desire to control and manipulate them through fear. There is even a very famous sermon entitled “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” that is nearly the epitome of the lies that sinners believe about God, fueled by the father of all lies. But the actual truth is nearly the exact opposite. Far from desiring to torture humans who fight against His love and compassion for them, it is actually God who came to earth, became a human being Himself and then humbled Himself among us to the point where He submitted to being tortured at the hands of angry sinners. Instead of preaching about an angry God torturing sinners, true Christians will be speaking of a God so loving and so passionate to save us that He is willing to suffer the wrath of perverted men who have taken on the character of Satan, God's worst enemy in order to reveal the extent to which God will go to change our beliefs about Him.

The wrath of God is the wrath that is produced in the heart whenever God's love is resisted and resented. It is not God who is angry with sinners but it is sinners who are angry with the false pictures of God that the father of lies has foisted upon them. Those lies have the power to create their own version of reality which is all false but feels very true to us because of the pervasiveness of these lies in the world in which we grew up. God is doing everything possible to bring light into this deep darkness about Him but He always allows us the freedom to choose for ourselves who we will believe.

If we refuse to let go of the lies about God and cling to them as if they are true, then the unavoidable consequences will be that we will experience wrath as a result of the presence of God coming into close proximity with the resistance inherent in sin. If we surrender our hearts and allow God to repair them, heal them and replace the many lies about Him with the real truth about Him, then instead of experiencing pain and wrath inside whenever He comes near we will experience passion, joy and fulfillment at levels we never dreamed imaginable. The choice is up to us.