[Part 2 of a 3-part series]
The main problem Progressivism has with the historic Christian faith is that it doesn’t like the reality of God’s wrath. I don’t like it either. But preference has nothing to do with the reality of a thing.
I don’t like green vegetables. I taste sulfur when I eat them. Cilantro tastes soapy. I recently discovered why. It’s genetic. Something about my unique genetic makeup finds many green vegetables and cilantro to be disgusting. They don’t taste that way to others, but to me, they do. Wish I’d known that growing up. It would have been handy in explaining to my parents why vegetables made me gag. But here’s the thing — While I didn’t like the way they tasted, those vegetables were good for me. My failure to eat them likely affected my physical development. Who knows? If I’d eaten them, I might be six-foot-two and handsome today.
Progressives gag on the reality of God’s wrath. It’s distasteful to them. Instead of dealing with it, they choose instead to excise it from God, or at least the version of God they layer on to Jesus. The Jesus of the saying “Jesus is Perfect Theology” has no wrath. He’s all-loving all the time. The Progressive Jesus is non-judgmental.
Their idea of love is unconditional acceptance and approval. He’s the divine rubber-stamper. Do you want something? The Progressive Jesus wants it, too. Never mind that what you want may be harmful to yourself or others.
We need to look no further than young children to see how this plays out. They often want something harmful, dangerous, or life-quenching. It’s the task of parents who are older and wiser to say “NO!” to this tendency in a child to seek that which would harm them.
That tendency to want what is NOT in our best interest never goes away! We may add many years to our age but remain childish in this regard. Sin has stunted our spiritual maturity. Many are the fifty, sixty, and seventy-year-olds who still lust for things that, if granted, would harm them.
Never forget, Sin Kills. [Romans 6:23] And thus, God’s wrath. People reject that God has wrath because they don’t understand why and how that wrath is entirely right, proper, and fitting.
God’s wrath, properly understood, ought to be expected rather than denied.
A man stands at the bedside of his wife of twenty years. She’s comatose, hooked up to multiple IV lines. One is a feeding tube. Another is pain medication. A third delivers a chemical cocktail that fights an aggressive cancer trying to kill her. That man loves his wife deeply. Profound. Beyond words. Because he loves her, he hates that cancer. He aches to be able to take her pain away. If he could reach into her body and crush what caused that abnormal growth of cells, he would. His hatred of cancer, his desire to end it, is wrath. And he’s totally right to feel it. A lack of that hatred and desire to eradicate it would signal a deficiency of love, a flaw in his affection for his wife.
Let’s alter that scenario. A husband loves his wife who isn’t wracked by cancer but is committing adultery. The husband is a good man, a loving husband, and a good provider. But she’s seduced by a smooth-talking, slick self-promoter who manipulates her into an affair. She has some issues that date back to her upbringing he takes advantage of.
The husband hates what she’s done, and rightly so. He doesn’t hate her. On the contrary, it’s his love of her that fuels the hate of what she’s done. That, and the twisted thinking inside of her that’s formed the beachhead, keeping her clinging to the lie an affair is her path to happiness. Her husband knows it’s not. It’s going to destroy her. If she continues on this path, she’ll lose everything: her marriage to a GOOD man, her family, her friends, and the fantasy she pursues because the guy she’s with won’t hang around once he’s taken what he wants. The husband can see clearly where his wife’s choices are leading – her ruin. So he hates the path she’s chosen – because he loves and wants the best for her. That’s wrath. And it’s right. Love demands it.
We change the scenario a little more. That woman continues on her self-destructive path. Her marriage ends, her lover leaves, and she’s left alone. She becomes bitter and decides to live however she wants. She hooks up with one guy after another. One-night stands are her regular routine. She contracts an STD, diagnosed at a clinic. She knows she ought to stop having sex but is so bitter and angry at men she intentionally infects them. The pathogen mutates and produces a lethal disease. But she doesn’t care. She becomes a modern Typhoid Mary, gleefully spreading misery. Her attitude is, “If I’m going to be miserable, might as well spread it. Why should others be happy when it’s abandoned me?” It’s discovered dozens have died, while hundreds are chronically ill, because of her campaign to spread misery. Her choices have impacted the lives of others. Is it not right for the civil government to take action to halt that woman’s behavior? Can’t it rightly declare what she did to be criminal? Let’s call it was it is – evil. The action of law enforcement and the judicial system to restrict that woman’s choices is a form of wrath. And it’s entirely right.
God watches the entire human race, which by right of creation and intention is supposed to be His people, His companion — turn from Him to its own designs. But turning from the perfection that is God, they can only turn toward the imperfection of corruption and loss. The human race has been infected by life-quenching sin and a pursuit of happiness that’s ultimately self-defeating.
God’s wrath is a necessary corollary to His love. God isn’t only love; He’s also just. His wrath is
a right response to sin and evil, stemming from his perfect justice. At the same time, God’s love is expressed through his mercy, grace, and desire for reconciliation with humanity. That being provided for through the Gospel.
Far from God’s wrath being incompatible with His love, it’s actually an expression of it. He’s angered by things that harm his creation and his children, similar to how a loving parent might be angered by the harm done to their child. God’s wrath is directed at sin and evil.
A God not angry at that which harms those He professes to love is deficient in that love. A perfect love, therefore, has perfect anger. Perfect anger, coupled with perfect justice, means a perfect expression of wrath.
Voila! The God of the Bible.
[End of Part 2 of a 3-part series]
Lance is the founding and lead pastor of Calvary Chapel Oxnard where he has served since 1982. Lance & David Guzik co-pastored the church for six years before David planted a church in a nearby community.
Lance & his wife Lynn were married in 1980 and have three adult children and five grandchildren. Lance loves teaching the Bible, History, and Leadership. He holds Masters-of-Arts in Biblical Studies and Ministry.
Lance serves as a chaplain for both the Oxnard and Port Hueneme Police Departments and enjoys backpacking, wood-working, working out, gardening, home improvement projects, reading, and graphic design.
The popular Communio Sanctorum: History of the Christian Church podcast can be found in both audio and video at the Into His Image website along with a growing inventory of Lances teaching.
Great analogies, Lance.