How does the wrath of God manifest itself
according to the Scriptures?
There is no short answer to that question,
because the answers are many, depending on an enormous array of circumstances.
God’s wrath wiped out almost the entire human race at the Flood. Sometimes
God’s punishment of his own covenant people is remedial. Sometimes it is
immediate, not the least because it then tends to be instructive (like the
defeat of the people at Ai after Achan stole some silver and fine Babylonian
clothes); at other times, God forbears, which at one level is gracious, but
granted the perversity of God’s image-bearers, is likely to let things get out
of hand. The final display of God’s wrath is hell itself (see, for instance,
Rev. 14:6ff.).
Romans 1:18ff. pictures the revelation of God’s
wrath in a slightly different way. What Paul presents here is not the only thing
to say about God’s wrath—even in Paul—but it contributes something very
important. Not only is God’s wrath being revealed against “all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the
truth by their wickedness” (1:18), but it manifests itself in such sins—that is, in God’s giving people over to do what they
want to do (1:24-28). In other words, instead of rebuking them in remedial
judgment or curtailing their wickedness, God “gave them over”: to “shameful
lusts” (1:26) and a “depraved mind” (1:28). The result is multiplying
“wickedness, evil, greed and depravity” (1:29). The picture painted in the rest
of the verses of Romans 1 is not a pretty one.
We must reflect a little further as to what this
means. In our shortsightedness we sometimes think God is a little abrupt when
in certain passages, not least in the Old Testament, he instantly chastens his
people for their sins. But what is the alternative? Quite simply, it is not instantly chastening them. If
chastening were merely a matter of remedial education to morally neutral
people, the timing and severity would not matter very much; we would learn. But
the Bible insists that this side of the Fall we are by nature and persistent
choice rebels against God. If we are chastened, we whine at God’s severity. If
we are not chastened, we descend into debauchery until the very foundations of
society are threatened. We may then cry to God for mercy. Well and good, but at
least we should see that it would have been a mercy if we had not been
permitted to descend so far down into the abyss.
Granted the shape and trends in Western culture,
does this not argue that we are already under the severe wrath of God? Have
mercy, Lord!”
-From For the Love of God; Volume One, D.
A. Carson (Crossway Books, Wheaton, Illinois; 1998)
