The OT teaching on anger stresses the covenant people's rejection of God and views wrath as something their actions provoked. The NT does not continue this theme. Instead, it is the unsaved, those who refuse to respond to the gospel who are e pictured as the objects of God’s wrath (Jn 3:36; Ro 1:18; 3:5; Eph 2:3)
Believers are assured that since we have now been justified by his blood, ho much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!" (Ro 5:9). According to Paul, "God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Th 5:9)
There are two reasons for this shift emphasis. First, Christ's self sacrifice dealt so completely with sin that, as forgiven men and women, we are outside the sphere in which God's wrath operates. God does discipline believing men and women. But that discipline totally an expression of love, not of anger (Heb 12:6). See Discipline.
Second, in the NT, wrath is linked exclusively with final judgment. The wrath of God is viewed as something that will come at the end of the age, not as something that operates in the present (except through such human agencies government (Ro 13:4-5). While Heb 3:11 and 4:3 quote an OT passage that mentions God's anger against Israel, the reason is to underline the seriousness d unbelief. It is not to import the OT concept of wrath against Israel into NT relationships between the believer and God. Instead, we are shown again and again in the NT that God's wrath is coming, not present. The time when God will again unleash his wrath is at history's end (Mt 3:7; Lk 3:7; 21:23; Ro 2:5,8; 9:22; 1 Th 1:10; 2:16).
The second chapter of Romans is particularly revealing. Paul demonstrates there that a lost and sinful humanity lies under God's wrath. Continued rejection of God is "contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience" (2:4) God's purpose, however, is to withhold judgment in order to extend the opportunity for repentance. Those who remain stubbornly unrepentant actually store "wrath... for the day of God's wrath when his righteous judgment will be revealed" (2:5). Before that day is the of grace. In regard to believers, forgiveness that is theirs in Christ has removed them forever from the sphere of God's wrath. In regard to unbelievers, God graciously is holding back expression of deserved wrath, to give everyone opportunity for repentance. Those who will not respond to grace store up wrath, a wrath to be experienced in the day of final judgment.
It is clear, then, why the Book of Revelation speaks so often of God's anger and wrath. It is at history's end that the anger God now withholds will be fully displayed (cf. 2 Th 1:6-10).
Summary.
The Bible deals with both human and divine anger. Anger, as a feeling that may be provoked by others' actions, is something all human beings experience. Anger may be justified or unjustified. But the feeling of anger is never justification for sinful actions. The OT gives us guidance for dealing with our anger, and the NT underlines the importance of choosing to respond as Jesus' own renewed persons, treating others with compassion and forgiveness rather than angrily seeking revenge.
God too knows the feeling of anger. The OT clearly specifies what human actions provoke God to anger. The NT treats wrath as a basic relational state, showing that the unsaved are under God's wrath. But God never acts capriciously in his anger. He always acts in full harmony with his character as a loving, forgiving, compassionate, and just person.
Each of these divine traits is clearly seen in the NT's age of grace. Believers are no longer under God's wrath, having been fully forgiven on the basis of Jesus' death. The unsaved are currently given the opportunity to repent as God holds back expression of his anger. Only at the end of history, when final judgment comes, will God's wrath be poured out and then only on those who simply will not believe.
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