The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10,
"They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath."
Paul observed how believers throughout Macedonia, Achaia and everywhere recognized the faith of the Thessalonian believers. As he does so, he makes a comment about God's Son in heaven, "who rescues us from the coming wrath."
Whose wrath is this? What is the provocation for the wrath?
We read in another letter about God's wrath, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness..." Romans 1:18. John the Baptist spoke of God's wrath, "The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them." John 3:35.
God is wrathful. He harbors wrath against "godlessness and wickedness of people." Sin feeds the wrath of God, "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming." Colossians 3:5-6. Beyond that, God maintains his wrath against all who reject Jesus Christ. Additionally, Paul tells us that when people are stubborn and unrepentant, they store up wrath against themselves, "for the day of God's wrath." Romans 2:5. All people are deserving of God's wrath, "All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath." Ephesians 2:3.
The Scriptures foresee the coming of God's wrath, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?" Revelation 6:16-17. At the end of the age, Jesus Christ is seen returning to earth in the "fury of the wrath of God almighty." Revelation 19:15.
The culmination of God's wrath is seen in the casting of all who have rejected Jesus Christ into a fiery lake of burning sulfur to suffer eternally, "The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.This is the second death."
Salvation is salvation from this wrath of God. It is God himself as our judge we need to be saved from. Our only escape, since we have all sinned, is through Jesus Christ, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!" Romans 5:8-9.
All God asks is that we trust in him, "To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God..." Romans 1:12. Are you storing up wrath against yourself, for the day of God's wrath? Or, will you allow yourself to be rescued from God's certain coming wrath?
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
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