Believe it or not, without deliberate attempts on my part, my next subject at Trinity Bible College and Graduate School is The Biblical Theology of Justice. My one required reading? Generous Justice by Timothy Keller. Over dinner, I begin reading the book. However, God has other plans. He blows my mind away in the introduction titled Why Write This Book, and I realise that tonight I am writing this blog about God’s wrath and how it relates to godly justice.
So here goes.
God’s Wrath. An Inconvenient Reality
I read these words in the Enduring Word study guide, and I wonder why it is so easy to pretend, ignore, or dismiss that God has wrath.
“The wrath of God abides. It abides in this world because sin’s evil abides until the wrong of it is perfectly satisfied. It abides into the next world because those who reject Jesus cannot offer a perfect sacrifice acceptable to God. The wrath of God abides until the perfect payment Jesus made on the cross satisfies the debt of evil and guilt.”¹
Wrath is a word we like to avoid. We want a God who is all-forgiving, all-merciful, all-understanding, but never angry, never judging, never opposing. God is love, we cry, as if that cancels out everything else He has revealed about Himself. But here is the uncomfortable truth. A God who loves must also have wrath.
This is a theological necessity. If God is holy, He must oppose what is unholy. If God is love, He must hate what destroys love. In Scripture, God’s wrath is not a capricious temper, but a righteous indignation against injustice, cruelty, and corruption, an essential element of goodness in a world where moral evil is present.²
As New Testament scholar N. T. Wright explains, “If God is not wrathful at child abuse, he is neither good nor loving. If God is not utterly determined to root out evil in an act of proper wrath and judgment, he is neither loving, nor good, nor wise.”³
Croatian theologian Miroslav Volf, reflecting on the horrors of war, put it even more starkly:
“God isn’t wrathful in spite of being love. God is wrathful because God is love.”⁴
If God did not feel wrath at heinous evil, if He simply indulged sin or injustice, He would cease to be righteous and loving. A God who never expressed anger at evil would be a God who neither cares about justice nor truly loves His children.⁵
The Five Musts of John 3
As David Guzik ends his exegesis of John 3, I am amazed at how the Holy Spirit works. Rushing off to a staff meeting at work this morning after writing my blog The Measure of Revelation, I knew two things. First, that John 3 is an absolutely compulsory chapter for every Christian to absorb. Sitting down with my lamb mince and asparagus frittata for dinner, I am stunned to see that Guzik concludes John 3 exactly as the Holy Spirit prompted me.
“Looking back over John 3, one might say that it is a must-read chapter of the Bible. There are four prominent musts in John 3.
The sinner’s must. You must be born again (John 3:7).
The saviour’s must. So must the Son of Man be lifted up (John 3:14).
The sovereign’s must. He must increase (John 3:30).
The servant’s must. I must decrease (John 3:30).”⁶
But there is a fifth must that Guzik does not mention, and it must be grasped if we are to fully understand John 3. This is the must of understanding God’s wrath, why it exists, why it is necessary, and why it is utterly justified.
Wrath That Saves. My Encounter With Divine Justice
I have experienced horrors, and I have been a horror to others and to myself. My experience of God’s justice was that I encountered therapy, substance abuse rehabilitation, and God helping me choose to walk away from an LGBTQ lifestyle. God did not let my dysfunction slide. God’s wrath against my evil behaviours offered me the opportunity to meet His Son Jesus. I did.
I was thirty years old. In rehab. House of Mercy, Boksburg, South Africa. That was twenty-one years ago. After praying the salvation prayer, I had what Christians deem a radical encounter. I do not know if that is true. I only know what I experienced. I had no other comparison, bar the fact that I experienced God’s voice and, I believe, an angel prior to receiving Jesus as my Lord and Saviour.
After praying the salvation prayer with guys from the outreach group, a Christian motorcycle club, I woke up sitting in my bed having a conversation with God. At least, that is how I experienced it. I could not see anything, but I was acutely aware that I was in the presence of immeasurable holiness.
God revealed to me through Romans 1:32 that I was guilty of the sin of coercion. I knew that I was guilty. I had lived a life of coercing others into sex, substance abuse, and rebellion.
Over the last twenty-one years, God has steadily helped me walk out my salvation by correcting my dysfunction, healing my trauma, and showing me that on my own, I deserve His wrath. I fail in my humanness to be holy. My experience of God’s wrath is based on His love trying to save me. Has God needed to break my rebellion? Absolutely. Has God allowed me to get away with sin? Definitely not.
But greater still is His profound love that never rejects me, even as I weep before Him, overwhelmed by my own inability to be good enough. I try, obviously. But the talons of this world, locked in sinful entropy, are inescapable. So the battle rages on. Flesh against Spirit.
God’s Wrath. The Invitation to Holiness
Understanding God’s wrath does not lead to despair. It leads to salvation, worship, and justice.
Salvation. Have you ignored God’s wrath? Have you assumed His patience means indifference? John 3 makes it clear. There is no neutral ground. Either we embrace the Son, or we remain under wrath. What will you do with that truth?
Worship. When we realise that Jesus absorbed the wrath meant for us, we do not just serve God out of duty. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Justice. God’s wrath proves He is serious about justice. So if we have received grace, we must live justly. As Timothy Keller writes in Generous Justice, “A true experience of the grace of Jesus Christ inevitably motivates a man or woman to seek justice in the world.”⁷
What do you do with a God who is both loving and just? That question will shape everything about your life, your faith, and your eternity.
Choose wisely.
Practical Application
Understanding God’s wrath is not about fear, it is about truth, love, and justice. A God who does not judge evil would not be righteous. A God who does not oppose sin would not be holy. But in His wrath, God also provides a way of escape, Jesus Christ, who absorbed divine judgment so that we might receive divine mercy.⁸
How should this impact us?
Examine Your Faith – Have you accepted Christ, or are you still under God’s wrath? There is no neutral ground (John 3:36).
Live in Grateful Obedience – If you have been rescued from wrath, does your life reflect deep gratitude for God’s mercy? True salvation produces transformation.
Pursue Justice and Truth – As Keller wrote in Generous Justice, a real experience of grace leads to action. Are you standing for righteousness in a world that rejects it?
Share the Gospel Boldly – If God’s wrath is real, then the need for salvation is urgent. Who in your life needs to hear the truth about Jesus?
God’s wrath is not arbitrary rage, it is the settled opposition of His holiness against all that corrupts, destroys, and oppresses. But His love made a way.
Will you accept it?
Prayer
Heavenly Father,
I come before You in awe of Your perfect justice, holiness, and love. Too often, I want to embrace Your mercy while ignoring Your wrath, forgetting that they are both expressions of Your righteousness. Thank You for being a God who does not turn a blind eye to evil, but who fiercely opposes all that destroys Your creation.
Lord, I acknowledge that without Jesus, I would be under Your wrath, deserving of judgment. But in Your infinite love, You made a way for justice to be satisfied through the cross. Thank You, Jesus, for bearing the full weight of divine wrath so that I could be reconciled to the Father. Help me never to take that sacrifice lightly.
Give me a heart that loves what You love and hates what You hate. Let me not be indifferent to injustice or comfortable with sin, whether in my own life or in the world around me. Fill me with holy reverence and deep gratitude for Your salvation. Let my worship be fuelled by the reality of Your justice and my life be transformed by the truth of Your mercy.
Teach me to live with the urgency of John 3 to proclaim both the depth of Your love and the reality of judgment. May I not shrink back from the full truth of the gospel. Make me bold, compassionate, and unwavering in my devotion to You.
In Jesus’ Mighty name, I pray,
Amen.
References
1. David Guzik, Enduring Word Commentary on John 3:36, accessed February 27, 2025, https://enduringword.com.
2. Merrill C. Tenney, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: John, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010).
3. N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope (London: SPCK, 2007).
4. Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996).
5. John Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove: IVP, 1986).
6. David Guzik, Enduring Word Commentary on John 3:7, 14, 30, accessed February 27, 2025, https://enduringword.com.
7. Timothy Keller, Generous Justice (New York: Dutton, 2010), Introduction.
8. Christianity.com, “What Is the Biblical Understanding of the Wrath of God?” accessed February 27, 2025, https://www.christianity.com/wiki/god/what-is-the-biblical-understanding-of-the-wrath-of-god.html?amp=1.
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