Season 5 Podcast 150 Book of Revelation “Opening of the Seven Seals, O, Chapter 15:1 A “The Wrath of God.”

Revelation 15 has an interesting contrast between the image of Celestial Glory and the seven angels having the seven last plagues. Revelation begins and ends with the seven plagues, yet the verses in between describe those who live in the Celestial Kingdom.

Revelation 15:1

“And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.”

First of all, what is the ‘wrath of God’? Many think of it in terms of Jonathon Edwards’, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” It is somewhat misleading because it sounds like God is taking revenge. We should ask, “If God likes to punish his children, why did he send Christ to die for our sins?” In the Intercessory Prayer we learn:

John 17:1-3

“These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

We too easily forget John 3:16-17

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

That is the true God, and Jesus Christ, whom God has sent. Therefore, rather than ask, ‘Why do we have the wrath of God,’ perhaps we should ask, ‘Why do we have the atonement of Christ?’

There are two laws that give God his identity: The law of justice and the law of mercy. Without the law of justice God could not exist. God cannot be arbitrary. He must be absolute. That is why law must be absolute. The law of justice came first. The law of mercy came second. The only reason we need the law of mercy is because The Father must remain just, or he would cease to be God. How does the Law of Mercy help the Father to be merciful and also just? The law of mercy satisfied the demands of the law of justice. With the fall of Adam, a law was broken. That put Adam and Eve and all mankind outside the law of justice. They suffered a spiritual death because they were forever cut off from the presence of God. They suffered a physical death because the spirit and the body separate and the body went back to what David called the ‘dust of death,’ never to be reunited.

The Father, because of the law of justice, could not arbitrarily save Adam and Eve nor any of their posterity. The law of justice would not allow it, or God would cease to be God. Jesus Christ, the only one worthy to open the book, sacrificed his perfect life to atone for our sins to satisfy the demands of the law of justice. Mercy cannot rob justice, but it can satisfy justice. The law of justice is The Wrath of God. The law of mercy is the love of God. Because of the atonement of Christ, God can be both just, which means he can remain to be God, and merciful which means he can bring all of his children home if they are willing to abide by the conditions the Father placed on the law of mercy. Those conditions are faith, repentance, baptism, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.

Paul tells us:

Romans 4:15

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

Paul also adds

Romans 5:9

“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”