Have you ever wanted to kill someone? Ever punched anyone? Ever cursed at someone? Ever told anyone to “drop dead”? Admit it, you’ve been angry enough to kill.
God gets angry. So do we, for we are made in His image. Anger is the emotional response to a perception of injustice. God and men are angered when moral law is violated. The law breaker deserves punishment, and the punishment for violating God’s law is death (Rom 6:23). In God, anger operates with perfect moral justice.
When His law is violated, His wrath is incited, and He acts to bring the sinner to judgment and punishment. God has instituted government to enforce the punishment of wrong doers (Rom 13:1-4). But as individuals, we are not given this mandate. We are not to take our own revenge (Rom 12:19), but rather turn the other cheek (Mt 5:39). If we vengefully retaliate against men, even verbally, we commit murder (Mt 5:22)!
Anger has its place only if we are angry about the things that anger God. But as sinners, our anger is often sinful. We mistake our selfish desires for our “rights,” and when we don’t get our way, we feel morally violated, and we get mad. “You lust and do not have; so you commit murder” (Jms 4:1,2). Our sinful anger fails to promote justice, “for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God” (Jms 1:20). If we, with our depraved sense of justice, have ever vindicated ourselves for cursing or punching someone, we have no right to argue against the infinitely holy God who, in perfect justice, sends sinners to hell for having violated His laws. Friend, your sin has angered God. Justice demands punishment for your sin. But hear and believe the gospel! On the cross, Jesus bore the punishment for sin. God’s anger is satisfied either in hell or on the cross. Either you will die in sin to be condemned to hell to “pay the penalty of eternal destruction” (2 Thes 1:9), or you will humbly repent and trust Christ who died bearing divine punishment. Will you pay the penalty of your sin? Or will you receive mercy by believing in the blood of Jesus Christ? Why would you refuse God’s mercy and prefer hell? How will God’s anger against you be satisfied—in the cross of Christ or in an eternity in hell?
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