Bittersweet Refinements: Chapter 24

Chapter 24

The Wrath of God

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. [Romans 1:18-20 NIV]

Alas, is it not any wonder that our Heavenly Father would get so angry at those who do not want to even acknowledge His existence—let alone accept Him as truly being their own Heavenly Father?  For instead of just saying that He loves them enough to die for them, our Heavenly Father went ahead and actually did it by sending a full and equal part of Himself to suffer and die upon that cruel, cruel Roman cross at Calvary in order to pay the price in full that was required to redeem all of us from having to face the penalty of our own sins [Romans 5:6-11]!

No, that is not something that is taken into account, and this is something that needs to change.  For it would portray our Heavenly Father in a much better light if it was much more widely taught that the absolute truth of the matter truly is that the wrath that will be poured out upon the ungodly, come Judgment Day [Revelation 20:11-15], has so much more to do with the anguish of a broken heart (His heart, to be exact [Jeremiah 3:12-13]) than it does with righteous indignation [Genesis 6:5-7].

Yes, that sounds rather petty from our own very limited ground-based points of view [Isaiah 55:8-9].  For who from among us has the right to say of another, “If I cannot have them, then no one else will?”

On the other hand, are we not all the work of His hands [Psalms 139:13-16], and should He not have the right to do with what He has created for His own good pleasure [Philippians 2:13] as He sees fit?  After all, is it not a principle of common law that one has the right to do with their own property as they will as long as it does no harm to another’s property until it is deemed no longer lawful by a higher authority, and who has more authority than our Heavenly Father?  For it is written: “If he snatches away, who can stop him?  Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’’’ [Job 9:12 NIV]

In other words, we were all created by Him for Him [Colossians 1:16].  Therefore, our Heavenly Father has the right to do with us as He wills [Isaiah 29:15-16].

Nonetheless, let us not dwell upon the threat of destruction [1 John 4:16-19].  For we were all created to spend all of eternity with our Heavenly Father in His Kingdom of Heaven as heirs to all that is His in glory, and all who will but want to truly be who we were all created to be has His promise to look forward to [Romans 8:15-39]!