The Wrath of God- Was it Satisfied?

The unforgiving mirror of our sin when compared to a holy and righteous God.

God is good. He Is a righteous and holy God. Righteousness in the biblical context is more than just moral uprightness. It means being in right standing with God. It's a reflection of God's character, and it's the standard by which humanity is judged. 

Psalm 100:5, NIV): "For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." 

God's righteousness is the unforgiving mirror in which humanity's flaws are magnified and our failures exposed.

To truly understand ourselves, we must first grasp the holiness and righteousness of God. His righteousness is the perfect standard against which all else is measured. Let's explore these biblical truths.

Jeremiah 23:5-6 (NIV): "'The days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.'" 

Romans 3:21-22 (NIV): "But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile." 

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV): "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 

True righteousness is unattainable by human effort alone. It is a gift from God, made possible through faith in Jesus Christ. 

Scripture clearly reveals that perfect righteousness is an impossible standard for humanity to attain on our own. Our sinful nature stands in stark contrast to God's holiness. This fundamental disconnect is the core of our problem.

Why is that a problem?  

The problem is this, because God is Holy and Righteous, 

He cannot pardon man. 

As imperfect beings in a world tainted by sin, we fall short of God's standard of absolute holiness. This difference makes it impossible for us to meet His righteous demands on our own. It is a dilemma we cannot resolve through our own efforts. 

This is our state of spiritual bankruptcy from which there is no escape without divine intervention. 

So now what does a good and righteous God do with people like us?  To answer this best, we should know some attributes of God as described in the Bible: 

• Omniscience (All-Knowing):  Psalm 147:5 (NIV): "Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit."  Hebrews 4:13 (NIV): "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." 

• Omnipotence (All-Powerful):  Jeremiah 32:17 (NIV): "Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you."

• Omnipresence (Present Everywhere):  Psalm 139:7-10 (NIV): "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." 

• Holiness:  Isaiah 6:3 (NIV): "And they were calling to one another: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.'"  1 Peter 1:16 (NIV): "For it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.'" 

• Love:  1 John 4:8 (NIV): "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." 

• Justice: Deuteronomy 32:4 (NIV): "He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he."

• Mercy:  Ephesians 2:4-5 (NIV): "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved."

• Immutability (Unchanging Nature):  Hebrews 13:8 (NIV): "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." 

Again, the problem is this, because God is Holy and Righteous, he cannot pardon mankind. 

A pardon is the act of forgiving someone for a crime, effectively releasing them from punishment and restoring their rights and privileges.

For example, when a president issues a pardon, it frees a prisoner from further imprisonment. In personal relationships, a pardon means forgiving someone for a wrongdoing and choosing to move past the incident. In a religious context, a pardon refers to divine forgiveness of sins or wrongdoings by God.

Across all these contexts, the central theme of being pardoned is forgiveness and the removal of penalties or consequences related to an offense.

God’s righteousness must be upheld without compromise, as He cannot prioritize one attribute over another. To pardon wicked people like us, He must first fulfill the demands of His own justice. Therefore, He must be appeased—ensuring His anger is eased and His righteousness is fully satisfied.

In Pagan religions, deities (false gods and idols) often require people to appease their wrath through specific rituals and offerings. For example, in modern Pagan traditions like Wicca, Druidry, and Satanism, practitioners perform rituals and make blood offerings and sacrifices to seek favor and power and faux harmony with their anti-Christ god, the spirit of Satan . These are all false gods and idols, unable to see or hear:

Jeremiah 10:3-5 (NIV): "Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good."

Psalm 135:15-18 (NIV): "The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them."

In Christianity, our righteous God becomes a man, walks on this earth, lives a perfect life, the sins of his people are put upon him, and he's crushed under the justice that we, the people deserve.  

Our God appeases himself. 

The holy and righteous God became human, lived a perfect life, and bore the weight of humanity's sin. In the ultimate act of self-sacrifice, He endured the divine justice we deserved, satisfying God's righteous demands.

God, in His perfect justice, bore the full weight of our sin on the cross, becoming the ultimate sacrifice to satisfy His own righteous demands.

God, holy and just, descended into humanity, living a flawless life as our representative. Upon Him, the weight of our collective sin was laid, crushing Him under the justice we deserved. In this ultimate act of self-sacrifice, God appeased His own righteous demands, providing a path of redemption for a lost world. 

1 Peter 2:24 (KJV): "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." 

Colossians 2:14 (KJV): "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;" 

1 Peter 2:24 and Colossians 2:14 illustrate that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross not only bore our sins but also removed the record of our transgressions and fulfilled the demands of the law. Together, these verses show that Jesus' death achieved complete atonement and redemption. We have been pardoned after all.

That's why the gospel is a mind-blowing revelation. 

Can you grasp the profound truth that Jesus endured immense suffering to take on the punishment for our sins? Do you comprehend the depth of God's wrath that was laid upon Him on the cross, as described in Isaiah 53? Here is the New Century Version:

He grew up like a small plant before the Lord, like a root growing in a dry land. He had no special beauty or form to make us notice him; there was nothing in his appearance to make us desire him. He was hated and rejected by people.  He had much pain and suffering. People would not even look at him. He was hated, and we didn’t even notice him. 

But he took our suffering on him and felt our pain for us. We saw his suffering and thought God was punishing him. But he was wounded for the wrong we did; he was crushed for the evil we did. The punishment, which made us well, was given to him, and we are healed because of his wounds.  We all have wandered away like sheep; each of us has gone his own way. But the Lord has put on him the punishment for all the evil we have done. 

He was beaten down and punished, but he didn’t say a word. He was like a lamb being led to be killed. He was quiet, as a sheep is quiet while its wool is being cut; he never opened his mouth. Men took him away roughly and unfairly. He died without children to continue his family. He was put to death; he was punished for the sins of people.  He was buried with wicked men, and he died with the rich. He had done nothing wrong, and he had never lied. 

But it was the Lord who decided to crush him and make him suffer. The Lord made his life a penalty offering, but he will still see his descendants and live a long life. He will complete the things the Lord wants him to do. After his soul suffers many things, he will see life and be satisfied. 

My good servant will make many people right with God; he will carry away their sins. For this reason I will make him a great man among people, and he will share in all things with those who are strong. He willingly gave his life and was treated like a criminal. But he carried away the sins of many people and asked forgiveness for those who sinned.

In an act of unparalleled love and justice, God the Father subjected His only begotten Son to the full fury of His wrath, a sacrifice no other deity has ever, or will ever, demand or endure.

The gap between our sins and God's perfect holiness is vast and unbridgeable. Yet, out of incredible love and fairness, God made a way to close this gap by sending His Son, Jesus, to take on the burden of our sins and meet the requirements of His justice. This remarkable act gives us the only chance to be forgiven and to reconnect with God.

Amanda Allen, Kingdom Revelations © 2024. All rights reserved.