Avoid the Wrath

(1 Thessalonians 1:10 KJV)  And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

We are delivered from much in life, but it goes farther than that.  We are also delivered from the “wrath” (3709) that is coming.  Jesus used the phrase “wrath to come” twice, Matthew 3:7 and Luke 3:7.  The word is common in the NT.  It seems to be referring to the wrath of God.

We need to deal with this.  We are so used to people talking about the love of God.  It is true.  In the OT we have “chesed” or loving-kindness.  In the NT we have “agape.”  We have two absolute statements by John:

(1 John 4:8 KJV)  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

(1 John 4:16 KJV)  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

But God is not a one sided, two dimensional cartoon.  He is not summed up in one phrase.  We were created in the image of God.  The emotions that we feel come from the character of God.  He expresses anger, jealousy, patience.  Of course His emotions are pure and burn with Holy fire but they are there.

One of the often repeated realities of scripture is the wrath of God.  He is holy.  He is just.  He must punish sin.  The only hope we have is in the blood of Christ.  The other side of that is that there is no hope outside of Christ.  He did not die on a cross so we could learn to show patience in the line at the grocery store.  He became the atoning sacrifice to deliver us from the wrath that is to come.

So?  Rejoice if you are redeemed.  If you are one of those who think of God as a great big Teddy bear giving group hugs, take another look.  He waits to deliver you from wrath not your addiction to chocolate or fear of spiders.