“I never reconcile friends,” C.H. Spurgeon once replied when asked if he could reconcile the doctrines of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. He did not need to reconcile them because they were never truly at odds. The same can be said of the doctrines of divine wrath and divine love. We often feel the tension between them, but the tension exists in our understanding, not in God. Scripture repeatedly affirms both. When we understand them rightly, we see that divine love does not compete with wrath; in a fallen world, it requires it. Love that never burns against evil is not love at all.
Love and Wrath Coexist in Scripture
The Scriptures hold no tension between wrath and love and often speak about them in the same context. Consider a few examples. John 3:16 contains one of the most famous descriptions of God’s love:
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
God’s love is displayed clearly in the sending of the Son as a sacrifice for sinners. But within that same chapter we also get a clear statement about the wrath of God. Namely, John says, that if we reject the Son we remain under the wrath of God.
The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)
God’s wrath is real and it rests on all people. Those who believe in the Son escape that wrath, but those who reject Him remain under God’s judgment. Love and wrath coexist without issue in God.
Exodus 34 gives another example of love and wrath coexisting in the life of God. Here again we have one of the most profound descriptions of the love of God combined with a warning about divine wrath. God reveals Himself to Moses and when He does He describes Himself as both loving and just.
The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:
The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation. (Exodus 34:6-7)
The passage tells us that God is slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. God reveals Himself as loving to Moses. He says that he “maintains faithful love.” God keeps His love for humanity alive. He forgives “iniquity, rebellion, and sin.” His love even extends to these sinners. But the text doesn’t stop there. It goes on to describe His justice saying that He will not “leave the guilty unpunished.” God’s love does not erase His justice and so judgment will come for those who remain in sin. It’s interesting to note that in this chapter, after Moses hears about both God’s love and justice, he pleads for God’s forgiveness of the people (v. 8-9). The text says that after God passed before Him and declared who He was that:
Moses immediately knelt low on the ground and worshiped. Then he said, “My Lord, if I have indeed found favor with you, my Lord, please go with us (even though this is a stiff-necked people), forgive our iniquity and our sin, and accept us as your own possession.
It is the combination of divine love and wrath which leads Moses to cry out to God. There is warning and there is acceptance for the repentant sinner.
Nahum chapter 1 is another passage that combines both realities. This is one of the sharpest combinations of love and wrath in the Old Testament. The Prophet describes God as both “fierce in wrath” and “good”.
The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
the Lord takes vengeance
and is fierce in wrath.
The Lord takes vengeance against his foes;
he is furious with his enemies.
The Lord is slow to anger but great in power;
the Lord will never leave the guilty unpunished.
His path is in the whirlwind and storm,
and clouds are the dust beneath his feet. (Nahum 1:2-3)
This description gives us a picture of God as ready to destroy His enemies. He will deal out justice with great power, like a whirlwind and storm. But in just a few verses later, after having described in detail the anger of God, the Prophet tells us that the Lord is good to His children and a refuge for those who flee to Him.
The Lord is good,
a stronghold in a day of distress;
he cares for those who take refuge in him. (v. 7)
The imagery suggests clearly that love and wrath are both realities within the life of God. It also teaches us that while God’s wrath is real those who flee to Him can escape it. That is, God will rescue His own from His wrath.
This is the point of Psalm 7, where God is said to be wrathful every day. But there is a conditional clause to God’s wrath in this text, and many similar passages.
My shield is with God,
who saves the upright in heart.
God is a righteous judge
and a God who shows his wrath every day.
If anyone does not repent,
he will sharpen his sword;
he has strung his bow and made it ready.
He has prepared his deadly weapons;
he tips his arrows with fire. (Psalm 7:10-13)
God is a shield to those who come to Him, and if they repent they will be protected. But woe to those who do not repent, says the text. For God is ready to go to war against them!
These descriptions of love and wrath lead us to one of the most profound places in all of Scripture: the cross of Christ. Here love and wrath meet. At the cross God makes a way for sinners to be with Him forever, by punishing His Son in their place. All who come to God through the death and resurrection of Jesus, all who put their faith in Him, find that wrath is removed from them. They are loved and accepted in Christ (ex: Rom. 3:23-26; 5:8-10; 1 These. 5:9-10).
The Scriptures affirm both the love and wrath of God without hesitation. Scripture also reveals a conditional element in the expression of God’s wrath: if we repent and if we ultimately put our faith in Jesus then we are spared wrath. But God’s wrath remains on those who do not repent and trust in Christ. This matters deeply for those who experience injustice. If God were only loving but never wrathful, evil would ultimately go unanswered. But because God is both loving and just, the suffering of the oppressed is not ignored and the wicked will not escape judgment.
Love Requires Wrath
Love requires some measure of judgment. Wrath is a fitting response for a God of love. Consider, for example, that love protects and defends what it loves. I love my children, and because I love them, I am angry when someone intentionally harms or seeks to harm them. I will fight for them and do all I can to oppose those who would seek to harm them. Surely I am not a better father than God! He too protects and defends His own. Sin opposes what God loves and therefore God sets Himself against all that would harm His children. Psalm 5 tells us plainly that God opposes evil. In bold language the psalm tells us that evil cannot stand in God’s sight, and that he “hates the evildoer” and “abhors violent and treacherous people” (v. 4-6). Zechariah 2:8 says that whoever would touch the people of God touches the apple of His eye; a warning to those who oppose God’s children. Finally, we can note that Romans 12:19 encourages the victimized not to take revenge because God can be trusted to avenge them.
A God who did not punish evil would not be very loving. There are some who suggest that the coexistence of wrath and love doesn’t make sense; some perhaps would say they are completely contradictory. If we do not defend what we love, however, we are not demonstrating genuine love. We do know this innately. We experience it in culture. When parents don’t defend their children, bosses don’t defend their employees, spouses don’t defend one another, we rightly contend that they don’t care. Outrage at injustice is a sign of great affection. God’s wrath pours out on the unrepentant because He loves His children and because His holiness opposes the evil that destroys them.
Those who have been victimized often struggle with the love of God. They wonder why God would allow such devastation to be brought upon their lives. We may not be able to answer those questions perfectly, but we can contend that no injustice will go unanswered. God will never “clear the guilty” or leave them unpunished. God’s justice can be a consolation to the oppressed and harmed. He will deal rightly with those who persecute you. He pours out His wrath precisely because He loves and because love refuses to ignore the evil that destroys what God cherishes.
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