Estimated reading time: 6 minute(s)
I was thinking about the words of Jesus to the woman he was introduced to in John chapter eight. They are an amazing picture of the unpredictability (at least in my mind) of the heart and mind of God.
Here came a mob of self-righteous religious folk, dragging with them a woman “caught in the act” of adultery. Now, we all know what that means, so this woman was obviously quite embarrassed by her actions, and perhaps even more so by her current state of dress. These men wanted to trap Jesus. They wanted to see how he handled a clear cut situation like this. The woman was a sinner! If Jesus did not condemn her, then he was obviously not to be trusted. If he DID condemn her, they figured he would lose some ground in the popular opinion polls.
So he stooped down, and began to write in the dirt. After continued pestering from the accusers, he stood up and said, “All right, stone her. But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!” And he went right back to writing in the dirt.
You know the rest of the story. Obviously, everyone knew they were not without sin, so they all left one by one, from the oldest to the youngest. We don’t have a complete picture of what happened there that day, but what I really want to focus on is what happened after they were gone.
Jesus stands up again, alone with the broken woman. He says to her, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” She is probably tensing up for the final blow. She may have heard of Jesus… who hadn’t? He was a great teacher and did astounding things in God’s power. She knew she was wrong, and deserved condemnation from one so righteous as he. But she boldly, and likely quite meekly, states, “No, Lord.”
This is where the Holy One is supposed to rip into her! This is where he comes down with the weight of his wrath on this putrid little sinner! Fire and brimstone for all those who would DARE to cross the Holy One of Israel! The Lord hates sin and punishes sinners for every evil deed! Praise the Lord!
Right? Wrong.
John 8:11 – And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
Neither do I. The NIV adds the rest of the phrase, “Neither do I condemn you.” Oh how often we miss that. Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save it. (John 3:17) God’s wrath is not against US… it’s against our sin.
I have mentioned here before an author we have recently come across in our travels, named Wayne Jacobsen. He tells a story in his book, He Loves Me, that is a pretty cool picture of God’s wrath. He has made his book available in PDF format for free from his website (lifestream.org) Please do go and check it out. Lots of great stuff there. This story is well written by him, so allow me to recount that story right from his text.
(From He Loves Me, pp. 125-127)
“It was the most poignant picture of wrath I’ve witnessed. I had taken my family camping in the Sierra Nevada mountains to escape the heat of our home on the valley floor and to soak in some rest and relaxation. I was hunkered down in a lounge chair deeply engrossed in a novel. My wife, Sara, was coming to join me when suddenly we heard screams of pain from our two-year-old son, Andy.
He’d been playing in the dirt not far from our campsite. As I looked up he was stomping his feet and waving his hands wildly. Swirling around him were flying insects, backlit by the sun, Sara immediately recognized them as bees. Somehow he had stumbled into their nest in the ground and they were attacking him relentlessly.
Before I could extricate myself from the reclining chair, Sara had already rushed to the sounds of his screams. Even though she is allergic to bee stings and got stung for her efforts, she angrily swatted at the bees as she scooped up her son to run with him to safety. When I got to them she was stroking his head with comfort while still panting from the overload of adrenaline still coursing through her veins. Soon she reacted to the venom and we took her to the hospital for treatment.
If you want a picture of God’s wrath,I can think of none better. She was as angry as I’ve ever seen her, but the anger wasn’t directed at Andy nor did it seek retribution. She simply risked herself to rescue someone she loved so deeply.
THE WRATH OF GOD
That’s what God’s wrath is like. He sees the evil that mars his creation and destroys people he loves and he must be rid of it. His wrath consumes evil and wickedness and as such does not exist as the opposite of his love, but as an expression of that love. It must protect and set free the object of his affection.
I’m sure when my son first saw mom running at him eyes blazing with anger, he thought he was in trouble. Even though he didn’t know what he’d done wrong, he was already recoiling from her as she approached. Only after she had swept him to safety did he realize he was not in trouble.
I think our shame-consciousness toward God does the same thing. Whenever we see God acting to consume sin, we internalize the anger against ourselves. But that isn’t where the wrath is primarily directed. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men …” (Rom 1:18).
It’s not people that God seeks to destroy but the sin that destroys his people. In that sense God’s wrath is far more curative than it is punitive. Its primary purpose is not to hurt us, but heal and redeem us.”
There’s more. But please go buy or download the book. The audio version is available as well.
Point is, we see God as a hugely righteous and imposing figure who squashes all evil with great pleasure the moment he find it. (As though he somehow didn’t know it was there before?) God is not waiting to condemn us. Jesus said, “Neither do I.” He is angry at the sin that destroys us, but not at his creation who is trapped by it. That is why he formulated a plan before he created the world to come and defeat sin and death FOR us. (Eph 1:3) And that gave him great pleasure. Not our destruction or condemnation, but our salvation.
Remember those words today, “Neither do I condemn you.”