God of Wrath

"Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground." Genesis 19:24-25

There's a lie that exists in the church today. Without ever admitting it, many of us, including myself, believe that the God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah has somehow changed into a different God who now loves and saves everyone. In the Bible, we are met with two seemingly irreconcilable characters of God. He is on the one hand the God of wrath who destroys entire cities--men, women, and children--because of their unrepentant disobedience. On the other hand, God is the God of love and forgiveness, who through His sacrifice has brought undeserving sinners into His kingdom. Many Christians when met with this problem will just ignore it. Others have even gone to such lengths as to say the God of the Old Testament is a different God than the one of the New Testament, or some variation of the two. However, the Bible makes it clear that God is wholly both. It is merely laziness on the part of the Church that perpetuates the lie that these two characters of God are irreconcilable. We live in a world of consequences and God's wrath is the only just response He has to sin. Because of this, the violence of the cross was the only possible propitiation to free God's love on all the world. The reconciliation between God's wrath and His love is the gospel. Sodom was an evil city. Just as it was then, those who live and die in unrepentant wickedness will meet the same fierce wrath of God met by Sodom. It is repentance, through the grace of God leading to faith, that satisfies God's wrath through Christ, and brings us into His kingdom.

Lord Jesus, let us not live in wickedness and kindle your wrath. We admit our sins and accept the offering of your Son as the payment for your wrath!