God’s Wrath
 
By A. W. Tozer
 
 
     To understand God's wrath we must view it in the light of His holiness. God is holy and has made holiness to be the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe.  Sin's temporary presence in the world only accents this.  Whatever is holy is healthy; evil is a moral sickness that must  end ultimately in death.
 
     The formation of the language itself suggests this, the English word holy deriving from the Anglo-Saxon halig, hal meaning well, whole.  While it is not wise to press word origins unduly, there is yet a significance here that should not be overlooked.
 
     Since God's first concern for His universe is its moral health, that is, its holiness; whatever is contrary to this is necessarily under His eternal displeasure.  Wherever the holiness of God confronts unholiness there is conflict.  This conflict arises from the irreconcilable natures of holiness and sin. God's attitude and action in the conflict are His anger.  To preserve His creation God must destroy whatever would destroy it.
 
     When He arises to put down destruction and save the world from irreparable moral collapse He is said to be angry.  Every wrathful judgment of God in the history of the world has been a holy act of preservation.
 
     The holiness of God, the wrath of God and the health of the creation are inseparably united.  Not only is it right for God to display anger against sin, but I find it impossible to understand how He could do otherwise.
 
     God's wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades and destroys. He hates iniquity as a mother hates the diphtheria or polio that would destroy the life of her child.
 
     God's wrath is the antisepsis by which moral putrefaction is checked and the health of the creation maintained.  When God warns of His impending wrath and exhorts men to repent and avoid it He puts it in a language they can understand: He tells them to "flee from the wrath to come."  He says in effect, "Your life is evil, and because it is evil you are an enemy to the moral health of My creation.
 
    I must extirpate whatever would destroy the world I love.  Turn from evil before I rise up in wrath against you.  I love you, but I hate the sin you love. Separate yourself from your evil ways before I send judgment upon you."

                                               "0 Lord, . . . in wrath remember mercy" Hab. 3:2
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Yours in Christ,
Paul N. F.