In a March 2011 article from magazine publication MANNA titled “Wrath”, Jill Carattini managing editor of A Slice of Infinity an online daily reading from Ravi Zacharias Ministries wrote in her column Pharisees and Vipers:
“The Pharisees were highly regarded guardians of the strict interpretation and application of Jewish Law. They were known for their zeal and for their uncompromising ways of following the God of their fathers…to be a Pharisee was not an easy life riddled with loopholes and duplicities, like we might assume. The Pharisees were so certain there was a right way to follow God that they sought to follow Him to that very letter with all of their lives…
In this light, Jesus’s words seem a little harsher, his tone a little crueler, and perhaps his warnings a little closer to home. In the Pharisees, Jesus scolded the very best of the religious crowd, those who dedicated everything, and cared the deepest about following God. If Jesus came today into churches and singled out the ministers who work the hardest, the youth who are most involved, and the families who serve most consistently and called them a brood of vipers, we would be hurt and confused and even defensive. This is exactly what happened amongst the Pharisees.”
When we understand the type of exalted and superior religious positions the Pharisees held, we can truly see how stern and somewhat harsh Jesus’ words were. We can also get a better grasp on how we are to handle the religious leaders and hypocrites of our time as well. For when Jesus rebuked them saying: “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?” (Matt. 23:33) He did not say this with a tear in His eye, weeping in remorse, but boldly and firmly stood His ground against their hypocrisy. It didn’t matter how many years they dedicated themselves to the temple, how often they sincerely offered their services to religious rituals, or how holy and righteous they displayed themselves to be, all this did not matter to Christ when He rebuked them eight times! (Matt. 23)
Of course, if Jesus were to come into our church and criticize the missionaries and the dedicated ministry members we probably would be so deeply offended and confused that we’d pack up and leave. But like Carattini mentioned in her column, and from what we gather from Scripture, this is exactly what happened amongst the Pharisees.
But this angry wrathful side of Jesus is a matter of your perception, on what side of Christianity you are viewing it from. For example, some Christians (as well as unbelievers) believe to speak of God’s Wrath is an excuse to “hate.” Although this may be true for the superficial extremist and ironically for the Pharisee themselves who clean the outside of the cup but inside is filled with wickedness (Matt. 23:25) and who force law upon law on everyone but ignore the law for their own traditions (Matt. 15:1-14), that statement definitely stands true.
However, for the Christian who look upon those being deceived and lost in their sins and feel a deep sense of sorrow regarding the consequences that awaits them, to speak of God’s “Wrath and Judgment” is not an excuse to hate, but an essential topic that needs to be expanded on. For with the many false leaders today who avoid this subject, thinking it will offend their listeners, we need more true Christian leaders who will not cower away from the Wrath of God but preach it! As Charles H. Spurgeon once stated:
“How few there are who will solemnly tell us of the judgment to come. They preach of God’s love and mercy as they ought to do, and as God has commanded them; but of what avail is it to preach mercy unless they preach also the doom of the wicked? And how shall we hope to effect the purpose of preaching unless we warn men that if they “turn not, he will whet his sword?” (Dec. 7, 1856 Sermon #106)
No one can deny that after reading the entirety of God’s word, the ungodly, degenerate, unrepentant sinner will be utterly destroyed and sentenced eternally to Hell. It doesn’t matter if you are from a Calvinistic or Armenian stand point, there is no doubt that hell and eternal torment awaits those who live in rebellion against Christ and His teachings. To the true Christian, warning these people of the Wrath of God does not mean their hearts are hard filled with hate, but the complete polar opposite of this. Like Jesus and the disciples that followed Him, they warned the people of God’s wrath because their hearts were filled with an uncompromising love that focused on the eternal and not the temporal. This love did not hold back to keep from being offensive, this Godly love, simply put, would rather see you hurt now than to burn eternally later.
Paul the Apostle showed this same type of uncompromising love, we see it in his letter to the Church of Corinth: “For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it—for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while—I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation…” (2 Cor. 7:8-10)
To warn people of their sins and the consequences of God’s wrath can do either two things: Lead one to repentance, or like the religious Pharisees—be offended. As you see, it is a matter of perception.
Another significant point to mention is how Paul loved the people so much that he admonish them as beloved children, becoming a father in Christ to them (1 Cor. 4:14, 15) It is because of this Fatherly Godly love that he states: “What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?” (1 Cor. 4:21) he then begins to rebuke their arrogance (1 Cor. 5:2), saying their boasting were not good (v.6), and continued even more to exhort and scold them for not Judging those within the church, and associating themselves with professing Christians who sin (1 Cor. 5:9-13) His question was rhetorical, for it was clear he came to them with a “rod.” The writer of Hebrews also elaborates on this “Fatherly Love” using this as an example of how God the Father loves us (Hebrews 12:1-17)
In the end, only a religious self-righteous hypocrite would use Wrath for a means to hate. On the other hand, from the true Christian’s stand point, preaching and teaching Wrath does not harden one’s heart but opens it to a fatherly love that ONLY JESUS living in you can produce, for to preach Wrath without Jesus is being no different than the self-righteous religious hypocrites who preaches “hate”. Overall we need to have the right attitude when we expound on subjects such as Sin, Hell, Wrath, and Judgment for as John MacArthur once stated: “Truth without love is brutality, but love without truth is hypocrisy.”
“Let no person deceive us with vain words upon this dreadful subject. People have arisen in these latter days, who profess to deny the eternity of future punishment, and repeat the devil’s old argument, that we “shall not surely die” (Gen. 3:4). Let none of their reasonings move us, however plausible they may sound. Let us stand fast in the old paths. The God of love and mercy, is also a God of justice. He will surely requite. The flood in Noah’s day, and the burning of Sodom, were meant to show us what He will one day do. No lips have ever spoken so clearly about hell as those of Christ Himself. Hardened sinners will find out, to their cost, that there is such a thing as the “wrath of the Lamb” (Rev. 6:16-17).”– J.C. Ryle
Now that’s something to Think About.
In Christ,
Marc
1 Thess. 5:21 