I have focused over the last three months on the who, where, when, what, why and how of Heaven, and how the glory of God’s grace and mercy and love is displayed in His bringing us to this most desirable and beautiful of all realms and the most glorious of all existences. It is the place, the realm, the existence that Jesus Christ came into the world to save us for (John 3:17), wherein we will finally love, worship and glorify God as He deserves, and experience and enjoy ever diverse expressions of His love for us forever (Psalm 16:11).
However, in Jesus saving us for Heaven, for eternal life with God (1 John 5:11), He had to first save us from the justice, judgement and wrath of God we deserve for our sin (1 Thessalonians 1:10, which will have its full and forever expression in Hell (Matthew 10:28), or what the Bible refers to in Revelation 20:11-15, as the “lake of fire”.
God’s justice, judgment and wrath are certainly not hot topics (no pun intended) for discussion on today’s news and talk shows, nor in any other worldly media venue. Unfortunately, it is rarely addressed in church sermons, as most preachers want to focus on the goodness, mercy and love of God. Fact is, however, it is impossible for us to receive God’s forgiveness of our sin and be restored to right relationship with God unless and until we come to acknowledge that we are sinners who rightly deserve His justice, judgement and wrath, and come to Jesus, in faith, to save us from it (Romans 5:9).
Thus, I would propose (as does the Bible), that the goodness, mercy and love of God that is manifested in the forgiveness of our sins and our subsequent inclusion in Heaven, cannot be fully understood and appreciated, nor God loved, obeyed and worshiped as He deserves, apart from a Biblical understanding of the justness – the righteousness of God’s judgement and wrath in response to our sin against Him (Psalm 51:3-4), and the corrupting impact our sin has had on all of His good creation (Romans 8:20-22).
It is by faith in God’s infinite grace and love, displayed in Jesus’ torturous death on the cross, that we are saved from God’s judgement and wrath for our sin (Ephesians 2:1-9). On the cross, the sinless Son of God, Jesus Christ, took upon Himself the justice, judgement and wrath of God we deserve for our sins (1 Peter 2:24) (1 Peter 3:18), so that our sins could be justly forgiven, and we could be reconciled to right relationship with God, no longer having to fear His just judgement and wrath in Hell (1 John 4:10) (1 John 4:17-18).
However, our inclusion in Heaven, our being granted the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23), is not just an expression of God’s great love for us (John 3:16), but the fruit of our sincere and all-consuming love for Him (Luke 10:25-28).
Our love for God is first and foremost a response to our beholding, by faith, the glory, the beauty, the loveliness of God (Psalm 27:4) as it is revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6), whom when we reach Heaven we will see face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12).
However, as noted by Jonathan Edwards in his sermon titled “The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners”, the greater our understanding of the heinousness or our sin, and the great mercy and love God displays in forgiving us our sin by taking our judgement for it upon Himself, the more we will come to love Him, trust Him, obey Him and live for His glory. (Luke 7:47) (1 John 4:19).
To that end, I would like to use the next few posts to look at what the Bible has to say regarding the glory of God’s justice, judgment and wrath; how it has been displayed throughout human history, and how it magnifies the glory of God’s infinite mercy and love in our redemption – our restoration to the glorious life with God for which we were created, the return of all things to the way they should be if God is to be glorified and we are to enjoy Him forever.
Grace and Peace ×