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THE GOOD WRATH OF GOD

They dragged him for something like three miles, chained to the back of their pickup truck. And for most of this hellish midnight ride James Byrd, Jr. was probably conscious, experiencing extreme agony. The coroner conjectured later that he was probably writhing in excruciating pain, trying to twist around, using his elbows on the rough pavement, to keep the same parts of his body from being ripped to ribbons. Finally it was over when his head was literally torn from his body. TIME Magazine rightly described it as "(quote) as horrific a crime as can be imagined."

But now let me ask you this question: what if a person read about this incident from Jasper, Texas, and responded with these two words: "So what?"? What if a resident right in that town just gave a shrug and dismissed this crime as "no big deal"? What if, as certainly happened in days of old, the jury in the case had said: "Well, it's a shame, but there's really not enough evidence here to find anyone guilty"?

This case, probably as much as any in recent memory — since the Oklahoma City bombing — helped people everywhere to understand that there IS such a thing as good wrath. You would have to be a wicked person to NOT be angry about what happened to this victim.

Maybe you heard how, right during the trial, a radio DJ was kind of ad-libbing on his program, and spun a few sample pieces of music from Grammy Award-winning new star, Lauryn Hill. She's the young black singer who had just been up on TV to receive that high musical honor, and who read from the book of Psalms in her acceptance speech. Now this disc jockey, "The Greaseman," played the music, and then added a little joke: "No wonder people drag them behind trucks."

Well, INSTANTLY he was fired. INSTANTLY! The management of the station, as they rightly should, were indignant at such a vicious, evil, foolish remark. And this DJ felt the full blast of management's good wrath.

Well, friend, the cross of Calvary brings to mind that same concept. The Word of God talks about "the wrath of God," and how the penalty of death is somehow an expression of His holy wrath. The Lord's wrath is "great"; it's sometimes "kindled" against people. It's "stirred up." It waxes hot. And the metaphors go on and on. And especially in the Old Testament, a reader can certainly get the idea that God goes around His universe mad most of the time.

Then here in the New Testament we find a metaphor of the fullness of God's wrath, poured out at Calvary. That on the cross, Jesus accepted upon Himself all of the wrath of the Father. And that somehow THIS is why Jesus had to die for our sins.

There's more to this metaphor — and friend, we proceed here so carefully, with such humility and confession of our weak finiteness. Sometimes as we read the Bible we get the sense that the wrath of God, His righteous anger, is appeased or cooled down by the death of Jesus, His own Son. For instance, in Romans 5:9, 10:

"Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!"

So here is the Calvary question for today. What kind of anger does God feel toward sinners? What kind of fierce wrath is this? And can we conclude that somehow, when Jesus went up on that cross and shed His blood, that turned aside the Father's temper?

Friend, I'd like to tell you first of all what I don't know. In terms of the grandeur of Calvary, the mystery of the cross, the science of salvation, I don't know hardly anything. But I'd also like to invite you to think with me about the things that, if God's Word is true, we DO know for certain. What are the GIVENS, the already proven theorems, in this study of Calvary?

The Bible says over and over that God is holy and good. What does this mean? It means that if and when God experiences wrath, that His wrath is appropriate and right and proper and justified. He is angry at the things that ought to make any good being angry.

You and I, I hope, would condemn anyone — ourselves included — if that dragging death in Texas didn't make us righteously angry. It was good to note how this grief-stricken community was pretty much united when the verdict came in. There were very few protestors; almost nobody stood casually on the sidelines saying, "Aaah, big deal." This WAS a big deal; this WAS a time for good wrath, because of the agony that had been injected into the lives of these helpless people.

Now, imagine with me how our Father in heaven, who loves us more than James Byrd, Sr., even, loved his own son, feels as he sees how our sins are killing others and ourselves. How angry He must be, in the purest of ways, when He sees our murders, our lies, the heartbreak caused by our marital cheating, the tears on the faces of children when parents split up and leave them, or when fathers abuse their daughters. Would we want Him to NOT be angry at these times?

There's a wonderful insight found in this paragraph by G. C. Berkouwer:

"The wrath of God is not an irrational or an incomprehensible kind." Then he adds this: "Unlike the unpredictable anger of a sinful human being, divine wrath is, and always has been, totally consistent and predictable."

In his marvelous book, My Gripe With God, which we mentioned yesterday, Dr. George Knight amplifies this point:

"God's wrath is not only a reaction against disregard for His personal holiness and the sacredness of His law, but a holy reaction to the woe and misery resulting from rebellion against His government — a rebellion that brought alienation, slavery, and death in its train. Sin has brought untold suffering to the universe and to God's created beings."

Friend, think with me about these two points. First of all, nothing about God is EVER anything except good and holy. Including His wrath. Has He ever had a FLASH of improper anger? A sudden, abrupt SURGE of temper, of petty irritation? No. Does He get angry because He's insulted, because we hurt His feelings? No. Does His anger come and go like ours based on mood, digestion, how much frosting people put on our cakes? No. Whenever God feels anger, it's based on nobleness, incredible caring and love.

Point number two: Remember that God is very much the personal Friend, Father, and Lover to every single being on this planet. What does that mean? It means that on the Saturday night two years ago, last June when John William King and his two friends chained Mr. Byrd to their truck — while you and I were insulated, blissfully unaware, hundreds or thousands of miles away, in our own homes, God was right there in the midst of the horror. We didn't hear the screams, but He did. We didn't see the flesh rip away, the body limbs get torn loose, but He did. We didn't see the cold-blooded grins of the criminals, the stalking, the exulting, the gloating, but He did. So this good Father, for whom wrath is always right and holy, is also the One for whom it's the most personal.
And so Calvary is part of the picture of how God works to resolve this problem of sin. Here's yet another truth penned by Dr. George Knight:

"God, as the Bible pictures Him, cannot and will not stand idly by while His creation suffers. His reaction is judgment on sin, and this judgment should be seen as the real meaning of biblical wrath."

I suppose there were some last June who felt no wrath about this dragging death — either because they didn't know, or because they just didn't have interest. Was this a foul racial crime? "I don't care." Auschwitz? The Holocaust? "Doesn't affect me. Don't care."
Notice, then, this line from H. D. McDonald:

"To deny the wrath of God is to have a God who has lost interest in the man He created for fellowship with Himself and who has no concern to maintain His moral order in the world."

We're not very far along in our discussion here, but I want to share something with you. Friend, the cross of God is the ultimate proof that God has not lost interest in us. Evil people and lazy people didn't care about Jasper, Texas, but God cares. The pain of sin has always made Him angry, because the pain of sin is being borne on the backs of frail humans He cares about. And somehow, in a way we can't scientifically or theologically understand, the cross where He gave His own Son works to rescue us from the pure and holy and necessary results of God's good wrath against sin.
There's much more to think about, so stay with us tomorrow.