SAVED FROM WRATH through CHRIST JESUS!
Much
has been done to try and portray God as simply a God of love without
wrath. Modern religion frowns upon any talk of God hating sin,
punishing the wicked or showing His wrath upon any. However, the God
of the Bible has been and continues unchangeably to be “willing
to shew His wrath” (ROMANS
9:22). As a matter of fact, His “love” would be
nothing special at all if it were not for His wrath. While every
effort to erase any idea of a God of wrath from the minds of men has
been made, the truth remains that the infinitely holy and just God
has written this truth indelibly in the consciences of men.
What
is fear of death but fear of meeting the wrath of God? What is all
the efforts of religious works but an attempt to appease Him? The
idols of men for centuries have had scowls and frowns carved and cast
on their faces revealing what men really know to be true in their
hearts. Paul assures the believer who is declared righteous through
the blood of Christ that he shall never have to face the wrath of
God! It is as if he says that God has nothing but a smile upon His
face toward all who are in His beloved Son! “Much more
then, being now justified by His blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through Him”
(ROMANS
5:9).
The
sure knowledge of this blessed fact by faith is the source of real
peace. “We shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
As the prophet said, men are simply crying “Peace, peace, when
there is no peace” when they deny that God is a God of wrath
against sin, against His enemies and against all that defy His rule.
Christ “made peace by the blood of His cross.”
Peace is the fruit of reconciliation. God was in Christ reconciling
us unto Himself through Christ bearing in His own body the wrath that
was due us on account of our sin! As Paul says in Romans 5:1 that
being justified by faith in Christ’s blood (the evidence of the
life which He laid down under the weight of God’s wrath in my
place), “we have peace with God”!
Peace
therefore is the portion of every believer, their sin having been
judged in their Substitute. God being wholly satisfied and
propitiated by Christ’s sacrifice, He will remain eternally that
way. We can sing with the hymn writer: “If Thou hast my
discharge procured, And freely in my place endured, The whole of
wrath Divine: Payment God will not twice demand, First at my bleeding
Surety’s hand, And then again at mine!” It is the sure
and blessed confidence of all God’s people, “WE SHALL
BE SAVED FROM WRATH THROUGH HIM”!
-Gospel
report by preacher Gary Shepard
Audio
Gospel Sermon, “O LORD Revive Thy Work” here,
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