Grace and Wrath

     Much like gravity, wrath is a natural consequence of our actions.  If God says not to covet and I give in to covetousness, then I will pay for my actions by the natural consequences.  It may be the consequence of  stress which could lead to high blood pressure, depression, heart disease, etc.  (the wrath of God)

     If I disobey the law of gravity, (what goes up must come down), I will definitely pay the consequence of death if I jump off of a 20 floor building without some means of slowing me down for instance.  It won’t matter how far up I went in the company I work for, it won’t matter how many times I have gone to church.  It won’t matter what color my skin is. It won’t matter what people say about me.  It also won’t matter what I believe. Gravity is a natural law that cannot be broken without some penalty (wrath).

     The written laws of God are much the same.  If you reject the Lord then you reject the benefit of the law of God.  For instance, in my previous examples I listed the wrath of God against things like gravity and covetousness.  Even if I don’t claim to believe in God but do not violate God’s law against covetousness, I will receive the blessing that comes with obeying the law, such as no stress in my life because I don’t want what someone else has which will NOT lead to high blood pressure, depression, heart disease, etc.  (the blessing of the law).

     Let’s take another example; disrespect of my body.  If I disrespect my body and treat it carelessly, I will pay a penalty in my flesh according to my actions.  For instance; if I smoke, there are obvious consequences to that action, cancer, lung and heart disease, diabetes, etc.  These diseases are natural consequences to the action of smoking.  This is not a law that is written in the bible that if you smoke God will smite you with disease, however, the law of taking care of the body that God has given you is.  Our diet is much the same.  If we continually bombard our body with junk food, eventually it will fail.  This can be considered a natural consequence to our actions, the wrath of the law of God on our flesh because we ignored His dietary laws.

     Similarly, if we commit sexual indiscretions or abuse drugs or alcohol we will definitely reap the consequences of our actions.  We all see it every day around us. People are receiving the wrath of God on them all around you.  The only way to avoid those consequences is to obey God who set the laws into motion. 

     When Adam and Eve disregarded the word of God as insignificant, they began receiving their due reward.  God told them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because if they did the consequence would be death.  Because they began the entire human race, we also are born with a natural propensity to violate the natural laws of God and therefore receive our due reward.

     When a child is young, his parents do not have to teach him how to misbehave or to do things that will hurt him.  He doesn’t know about consequences yet and has to be taught how to avoid the natural consequences of bad choices because it is his instinct to do the wrong thing just as his ancestors did in the garden.
     So, if I come to God and accept His Word as truth, does that mean that I will not pay any consequences?  No.  As I said previously, it does not matter what I believe when it comes to the natural laws of God.  If I believe in God when I jump off that building, I will still more than likely die.  But If I believe in God, it will surely encourage me not to jump off which will bring me the blessing of obeying, life.

·  John 3:36 KJV

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

·  Romans 4:15 KJV

Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.

·  Romans 9:22 KJV

What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

·  Romans 2:8 KJV

But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,

·  1 Thessalonians 2:16 KJV

Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

·  2 Chronicles 24:18 KJV

And they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.

·  Ezra 8:22 KJV

     For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him.