Wrath, unlike love, is not one of the intrinsic perfections of God. Rather, it is a function of God's holiness against sin. Where there is no sin, there is no wrath-but there will always be love in God. Where God in His holiness confronts His image-bearers in their rebellion, there must be wrath, or God is not the jealous God He claims to be, and His holiness is impugned. The price of diluting God's wrath is diminishing God's holiness.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that God's wrath is a response to sin, distinct from His everlasting love. It asserts that true holiness involves a reaction against rebellion, supporting the concept of divine justice.
D. A. Carson articulates a theological perspective where God's wrath is not an inherent quality but a reaction to sin that arises from His holiness. He argues that where sin exists, God's holiness necessitates a response of wrath, which affirms His moral standard. The quote contrasts God's love, which is constant and unchanging, with His wrath, which is contingent upon human rebellion. By stating that diminishing God's wrath compromises His holiness, Carson underscores the importance of recognizing both aspects of God's nature in understanding the divine character and justice.
In practice
During a sermon discussing God's nature and attributes, one might quote this to illustrate the balance between love and justice.
Both God's love and God's wrath are ratcheted up in the move from the old covenant to the new, from the Old Testament to the New. These themes barrel along through redemptive history, unresolved, until they come to a resounding climax - in the cross.
It is a cheap zeal that reserves its passions to combat only the sins and temptations of others.
Many of us in our praying are like nasty little boys who ring front door bells and run away before anyone answers.
There is a certain kind of maturity that can be attained only through the discipline of suffering.
The kingdom of heaven is worth infinitely more than the cost of discipleship, and those who know where the treasure lies joyfully abandon everything else to secure it.
Failure to believe stems from moral failure to recognize the truth, not from want of evidence, but from willful neglect or distortion of the evidence.
We are not to look upon our sins as insignificant trifles. On the other hand, we are not to regard them as so terrible that we must despair. Learn to believe that Christ was given, not for picayune and imaginary transgressions, but for mountainous sins; not for one or two, but for all; not for sins that can be discarded, but for sins that are stubbornly ingrained.
Seal the openings, shut the doors, dull the sharpness, untie the knots, dim the light, become one with the dust. This is called the profound union.
If there were nothing but thought in you, you wouldn't even know you are thinking. You would be like a dreamer who doesn't know he is dreaming. When you know you are dreaming, you are awake within the dream.
If a man be endowed with a generous mind, this is the best kind of nobility.
War is the father and king of all: some he has made gods, and some men; some slaves and some free.
At times I feel myself overtaken by an immense tenderness for these people around me who live in the same century.
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