BP 78 - The Wrath and Grace of God (for Monday 2026-01-26 Post)

 

“The Wrath and Grace of God”

 

In the past, I’ve struggled with the whole concept of God’s Wrath.  What does the phrase God’s Wrath even mean?  Over the years, I’ve begun to think about it a little differently.  In a way, I’ve come to feel that the expressions of God’s Wrath have a whole lot more to do with me than they do with Him (or Them [see Note below]).

 

Note:  The Trinity is One and is comprised of Three Distinct Persons.  God, The Trinity, is, technically and mysteriously, A THEY.  Throughout this compilation, I refer to God as He, Him, His, They, Them, Their, etc.  This may be a difficult concept to grasp semantically.  To aid in this, whenever I refer to God as They, Them, or Their, etc., I underline it (just like I’ve done in this note).  This is to emphasize that The Trinity is Three Persons in and as One (that is, The Trinity is monotheistic) and not some newfangled kind of pantheism.  I hope this helps.

 

While God always has a deep Love for me, when my heart-mind (through sin and compromise) has gone dark, I FEEL The Energies of God’s Holy Presence as a hot and brooding anger over (and abhorrence for) my current hurtful ways of living.  Despite God’s Love for me, my turning from Him (and my running after some other “lesser” god) is infinitely repulsive to Him; and, when I pick up on that, His Knowing and Observing Presence makes me FEEL really, really uncomfortable… uncomfortable with how I’ve been living my life and, even more, uncomfortable with the person I FEEL myself to be in The Blistering Gaze of The Trinity’s Absolute Goodness.  The Aroma of God Is Always Good; but… when my heart-mind has gone dark, I experience That Aroma as An Aroma of Death (which is, mind you, something God wholly [for my own good, and for the good of those around me] intends for me to FEEL).

 

On the other hand, when I’m in touch with my deep longing for God and for the transformation His Presence brings, my heart-mind quickens with illumination, and, immediately, I experience His Holy Presence as An Expansive, Light-filled Graciousness.

What changed?

 

God?  No.

 

Me?  Yes.  (God didn’t change; I did.)

 

When I’m lost in rebellion and transgression [see Note below] The Holy Presence of God is experienced as wrath, darkness, and dread; and all I want to do at that point is hide from Him (like Adam and Eve did when they fell [see Ge 3:8-10]).  Conversely, when I’m Living in Peace with God and just want to be with Him and to be transformed by Him, His Holy Presence Is experienced as A Loving- and Enlivening-graciousness; A Warm and Glistening Glow; and A Tender-hearted Joy, Enthusiasm, and Exuberance [see Ps 42 and Ps 63:1-8].

 

Note:  By “lost” I don’t mean “lost” in terms of my having lost my salvation.  What I’m writing about hear is the darkness and disorientation I inherently FEEL when I turn from God.  Stated again, God intends for me to FEEL such a condition.  It’s a necessary aspect of what it means to fear God.

 

My Friends…

 

This is how I experientially-understand God’s Wrath and Grace.  While they’re expressions of The Same Person, they’re really how I FEEL in experiencing That Person.  My present experience of God has everything to do with my own present disposition before Him.  So, yes, this is how I see and, thus, reconcile (to my own satisfaction) God’s Wrath with His Grace.  It’s not that God’s Divinely Bipolar.  No.  The ways in which I FEEL AND experience intimately The Energies of God’s Holiness is tied directly to my current (and either exposed or revealed/opened) disposition before Him.

 

I’ll conclude this brief meditation with the following passage from The Gospels, which I believe illustrates (quite cogently) “my conclusions” concerning God’s Wrath, Grace, Light, and Darkness.  Immediately following that, I provide a quote from C.S. Lewis.

 

Jesus speaking:  “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so The Son of Man must be lifted up, that Everyone Who Believes may have Eternal Life in H-him.  For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only S-son, that Whosoever Believes in H-him shall not perish but have Eternal Life.  For God didn’t send His S-son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through H-him.  Whoever Believes in H-him is not condemned, but whoever doesn’t believe stands condemned already because they haven’t believed in The Name of God’s One and Only S-son.  This is the verdict:  Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of Light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates The Light, and won’t come into The Light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.  But… whoever lives by The Truth comes into The Light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they’ve done has been done in The Gazing Eye of God’s Absolute Goodness.”

—Jn 3:14-21

 

If the universe is not governed by An Absolute Goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless.  But… if it is, then we’re making ourselves enemies to That Goodness every day, and we’re not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow; and so, once again, our case is hopeless.  We can’t do without it, and we can’t do with it.  God’s The Only Comfort; He’s also The Supreme Terror:  The One We Most Need, and The One from Whom We Most Want to Hide.  He’s Our Only Possible Ally, and we’ve made ourselves His enemies.  Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of Absolute Goodness would be fun.  They need to think again.  They’re still only playing with religion.  Goodness is either The Great Safety or The Great Danger—according to the way you react to it.  And we’ve reacted the wrong way.

—C.S. Lewis