God so loved the world… (John 3:16)
Yet, it sounds like the opposite:
…the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)
In Part 1, we saw that John 3 creates a real tension: God loves the world—and yet his wrath remains.
In Part 2, we saw that this isn’t a contradiction, because “love” and “wrath” are not two emotions in God. God’s love is personal, his heart toward the world. God’s wrath is judicial, the verdict against sin.
The reason so many people misunderstand these things today is because of our modern tendency to emotionalise or psychologise what the Bible says. But, to truly understand God’s love and wrath, we must look at the cross of Jesus.
At the cross we see simultaneously both the personal, intimate, nature of God’s love, and the legal, forensic, nature of his wrath.
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The cross reveals that God personally loves the whole world.
The apostle Paul makes this absolutely explicit:
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
Christ didn’t just die for people in a state of grace, or only for a certain group of people. Christ died for everyone.
The cross shows us that God loves everyone, just as John says in his Gospel.
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But the cross also reveals that God’s wrath is a legal condemnation of sin, not a personal hatred of people.
In all four Gospels Jesus is sentenced to death by two Law courts, because his death was a penal substitution for all people:
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13)
So on the cross, Jesus was the atoning sacrifice for the whole world:
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)
Jesus himself describes the cross by using the language of Jeremiah the prophet who spoke of the “cup of the wine of wrath” (Jeremiah 25:15):
So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?” (John 18:11)
On the cross, Jesus took the wrath of God in all its fullness—God’s full judicial condemnation against sin.
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Jesus himself experienced God’s love and bore God’s wrath simultaneously.
On the cross, Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath and bore the curse of the Law.
Yet: not for one moment did Jesus “fall out of a state of grace,” nor did he ever “fall under God’s fatherly displeasure” or lose “the light of his countenance.” Nor did Jesus become a reprobate person, chosen to be hated by God.
These personal, emotional, things did not happen to Jesus, because at every moment—including on the cross—the Father loves the Son and is always pleased with him:
For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. (John 5:20)
I always do the things that are pleasing to him. (John 8:29)
God’s wrath fell on the Son—and yet the Father was not angry with him.
In fact, the Father loves Jesus because of the cross:
For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. (John 10:17)
On the cross, the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus.
But, God was not angry with Jesus.
Many people in churches today find this confusing because they misunderstand penal substitution as psychological substitution.
God’s wrath is not an emotional fury that he needs to vent. God is not losing control. It is not that God vented his rage at Jesus to avoid venting his rage at you.
This picture completely ignores the way the Bible talks about the cross as a judicial condemnation of sin. The cross was not an expression of emotional frustration. Because this is a misunderstanding of God’s wrath.
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The cross shows us this: God loves the world.
God is in a good mood with the world. He’s in a good mood with you. Not because of anything in you. But because of Jesus. And so, you only see his attitude toward you when you look at Jesus. As you see God’s love for you in Jesus, you are receiving him—that is God giving you belief in the Son’s name, which is what it looks like to be born of God.
Sadly, many people don’t want to be justified by Jesus in this way. They want to be good people in and of themselves: self-reliant and self-justified. These people don’t “obey” the Son and so do not come to the light—they don’t look at Jesus. They want to stay in the darkness, lest their works be exposed. For these people the wrath of God—his judicial condemnation of sin—remains on them. Not because he hates them and doesn’t love them. But because they hate him and do not love him.
If you want to hear more, listen to this: Isn’t Faith Just Invisible Fantasy?
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