The Wrath of the Lamb

I've received a couple of questions coming out of yesterday's sermon on What Christians Believe about Jesus concering the nature of God's judgment. I made the point in the sermon yesterday that I think evangelical theology at times pushes the idea of Jesus as a substitute for our sins so strongly that we often risk creating two Gods in our theology. On the one side stands God the Father whose justice and wrath must be appeased and on the other side stands God the Son who full of grace and mercy becomes the appeasement for the Father's justice and wrath. (BTW - I've written fairly extensively about some of these issues in a book edited by John Sanders entitled Violence and Atonement: A Theological Conversation, published by Abingdon).

The kind of questions I've received are wonderful questions that go something like this: I understand that it is important not to have two Gods - the OT God of justice and the NT God of mercy - but what do we then do about the idea of judgment?

I do plan on preaching on what Christians believe about judgment in this series but let me just say a few things here. The Apostle's Creed does affirm about Jesus that "We believe... He will come again to judge the living and the dead." The two NT texts that inform this conviction are:

Romans 2:16 - "...on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all."

2 Tim. 2:16 - "In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message..."

It seems apparent that Paul understands the judgment of God to be a judgment that is either done by Jesus Christ or through Jesus Christ. So, whatever we say about judgment it has to be consistent with what we believe about Jesus. Perhaps we have to ask questions like: "What would Jesus judge? And How would Jesus judge?" Certainly in the life of Jesus we see moments of judgment - tax collectors experience conviction, prostitutes leave their trade, Pharisees are exposed as hypocrites, etc. Even the Revelator gives us the phrase "the wrath of the Lamb" in 6:16, but I would still want to wrestle with what the wrath of the Lamb looks like as opposed to say the wrath of Zeus.

I believe deeply in the holiness (as otherness) of God and that the fear (or respect) of God is truly the beginning of wisdom, but I do struggle with and want to guard against a theology that divides the Trinity into rival characters with the Father becoming the angry judge whose wrath is averted and appeased by the merciful Son. I wish I had a nickel for everytime God the Father is described in the OT as "full of steadfast love and mercy."

In about 20 years of ministry now I have seen far too many people who love to talk about Jesus but then cannot talk about the Father. I've even seen people who get physically sick or become psychologically unstable when "the Father" is even mentioned because they have been so shaped by the fear of his judgment. Here is one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith: Jesus is God - but in a profound way God is also Jesus. So whatever we say about God, including his holiness, judgment, and wrath needs to be consistent with the fullness of the divine image that we see in Jesus.

Comments

[Richard Sears]

I wonder if it helps to avoid dividing the Trinity if we look more at salvation being centered in Christ's humanity? So it is not the merciful Son appeasing the judging Father, but rather Jesus the man obedient to the Father's will becoming the channel of God's grace and mercy toward humanity through his sacrifice.