Is God Angry With You?

Church Family:
Does God get angry? Yes. Is His anger filled with out-of-control evil or darkness? No. Scripture repeatedly declares that God is slow to anger. He is not a hothead. When God is angry He remains perfectly good with no darkness in His anger (1 John 1:5). God is both perfectly holy and righteous and yet He gets angry. Would a God who did not respond in anger to evil in His world be morally perfect? No. God’s angry reaction to evil is a necessary part of His moral perfection (Ex. 32:10; 34:6-7; Deut. 29:16-29; 2 Kings 22:13; Ps. 30:5; Rom. 1:18; 11:22).

In Ezra 5, God’s people had once again “left the Lord” in disobedience leaving God’s call upon them to rebuild the temple to pursue self-centered living in their own homes and becoming like other nations around them (Hag.1; Zech. 1). God reminds Zechariah to prophesy to God’s people that His anger towards them for the last seventy years is because He has been jealous for them. God's people in the Old Testament did experience God's anger and wrath because the Messiah, Jesus, the last and perfect sacrifice had not come yet. The people of God needed to be continually, faithfully obedient in making appropriate sacrifices at the Temple to atone for their sin and appease the wrath of God. Yet, God’s anger with His people in the Old Testament was always redemptive. His anger was filled with a zealous love to do them good and make them overflow with prosperity once again (Zech. 1:12-17). Their faith needed to produce an obedience in sacrifice to atone for sin.

What about believers today who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ? Does God get angry with believers? Well let’s figure this out. The New Testament says that we grieve God with our sin (Eph 4:30). The Holy Spirit convicts (rebukes) us of our sin (John 16:8). Some of our behaviors displease God (1 Thes. 4:1). We quench His Spirit with our sin (1 Thes. 5:19). We are disciplined by the Lord even physically for our sin (Heb 12:4-6). Eating the Lord's Supper without examining ourself for sin and repenting has lead to sickness and even death (1 Cor. 11:29-30). So, does God do this to us out of anger? No. We will never experience God’s condemning wrath or anger because every drop of His condemnation and wrath has been poured out on Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice, in our place, even as we continue to struggle in sin. Even when we grieve Him, quench the Spirit, and receive His discipline, displeasure and conviction because of our sin, He does this out of a zealous love for us. Our heavenly Father who is completely holy is reacting in disgust to our sin not to us. His reaction to our sin is in response to His love for us and His desire for us to fully enjoy Him though holy living. God is always for us and not against us (Rom. 8:31-32) and nothing can ever separate us from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:35-39). Christian, God is not angry with you but He clearly hates your sin and separates Himself from you when you sin resulting in great consequences of discipline to get you to stop sinning. That is His zealous love for you.

The other side of this story is that if you have never made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life you are still under God's wrath and anger every minute of your life. You cannot escape that condemnation until you respond to Jesus as your Lord and Savior. When that happens you are free from every drop of condemnation because of Jesus' perfect sin atoning sacrifice on the cross. So, repent, forsake your sin and hate it as God hates it knowing that Jesus Christ has taken the wrath of God that was yours (2 Cor. 5:21).

See you Sunday, zealously loved by God: Steve