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Judge Mike Lynch, former Texas state district court judge described the harrowing personal experience of issuing the death penalty:

In my first death penalty trial, in 1998, the defendant had sexually assaulted and brutally slashed and stabbed a woman who had befriended him. The jury found him guilty of capital murder, but it was my duty to formally pronounce his sentence in open court… I felt an urgent need to drink and gulped two huge glasses of water. I wondered: Is my throat dry, or am I trying to wash the words out of my mouth?

As Judge Lynch issued the most violent penalty available to the US state of Texas, he—the person Mike—did so with evident personal distress.

In the same year Mike Lynch issued that death penalty, the movie Saving Private Ryan released in theatres. In it, a reluctant soldier, Timothy Upham, spares the life of an enemy combatant, Steamboat Willie, who agrees to never fire a gun again. Later, Upham finds himself behind enemy lines, and stumbles across Steamboat Willie—firing the very shots that kill Upham’s comrades. Realising his prior mistake, Upham finally becomes a soldier and kills him. Reluctantly and without triumph.

Evil is real. So—as shocking as it sounds—it is often right, necessary and just for warriors to kill other people. But while it is right for a soldier to perform their duty, it does not necessarily reflect what they feel or desire.

For both a judge and a soldier, the action is real and necessary—but it does not reveal what the person takes pleasure in or their emotional state.

This is the key mistake many people make when they read the Bible.

The Bible tells us that the living God is both judge of the whole world and a warrior against evil. And he tells us that as judge and warrior, he must exercise justice, but explicitly tells us that these actions do not reveal his emotional state:

As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; (Ezekiel 33:11)

he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men. (Lamentations 3:33)

The central message of our church is this: “God is in a good mood with you! And you see that when you look at Jesus.”

This statement is the doctrine of justification by faith alone translated into modern and arresting language.

Questions

As we reach more and more people with this Gospel, it understandably leads people to reflect on it and ask questions.

Some of these questions come from other Christians, often mixed with confusion about what the Bible and our church actually says.

Other questions comes from those who are sceptical of the Bible, and see God’s actions, particularly in the Old Testament, as revealing God to be a bloodthirsty tyrant.

This post is therefore written to clarify many points connected to these matters. Therefore, be aware that it is longer and denser than most of our posts: it is an article. But we hope, given the seriousness of the subject matter, that a more meaty and comprehensive article like this is a helpful point of reference.

Because people ask about these topics a lot, we have already published a lot of things, and we will keep doing so. We just finished a three part blog series on Does God Feel Love or Wrath? And you may wish to check out these recent videos on Hell, God’s Feelings, God’s Power and Psalm 7:11. Someone also recently asked me to publish a series of posts on God’s Feelings and the book of Nahum, which we’ll be releasing in the next few days. So, check out the comments section of this article tomorrow for a link to the beginning of that.

“God is in a good mood with you! And you see that when you look at Jesus” is the message of the whole Bible. We can summarise it in technical theological language like this:

1. God’s Word reveals God’s righteousness in Jesus Christ through Law and Gospel.
2. God’s Law commands all people to love God and neighbour, revealing their sin and need to be justified through Christ alone.
3. God’s Gospel promises all people that God has justified them in Christ alone by grace alone, creating the faith to receive it.
4. God’s Church receives justification through faith alone.
5. God’s Children walk in the new life of faith by the Spirit, bearing the fruit of love for the glory of God alone.

This is explained in depth in the confession of our church The World is Reconciled in Jesus—which is a summary of the Book of Concord following the structure of Luther’s Small Catechism.

The problem is many of us struggle to really understand and feel technical language. So let’s go through a few points and clear up a few misunderstandings.

1) God Is A Judge—That Doesn’t Mean His “Anger” Is Emotional

Photo by KATRIN  BOLOVTSOVA

God is the judge of the whole world. He is reserving final judgment until the last day:

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just? (Genesis 18:25)

he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed (Acts 17:31)

God gave us his Law, which explains clearly the basis on which this judgment will be carried out. All those who do not obey it are cursed:

Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them. (Deuteronomy 27:26)

This curse of the Law is described in scripture as “God’s anger”, “God’s wrath”, “God’s jealous smoking” or “burning” against someone:

The LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven. (Deuteronomy 29:20)

But there is a difference between the “wrath of a judge,” which is the right exercise of their office against lawbreakers, and the “personal feelings of a judge.” These legal covenant curses of Deuteronomy tell us about God’s wrath, but Deuteronomy itself tells us this is not what God wants—through his very own words:

Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever! (Deuteronomy 5:29)

And so the Bible says explicitly that God’s wrath is a consequence of the law:

For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. (Romans 4:15)

God is a judge. But that doesn’t mean he feels angry. His wrath is a work—an execution of his office as judge.

2) God Is A Warrior—That Doesn’t Mean He Feels A Thirst for Blood

Photo via New Line Cinema

God is explicitly and literally a warrior:

The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name. (Exodus 15:3)

Tolkien’s epic story The Lord of the Rings is known to many people throughout the world. In it, Aragorn, is a royal man who fights ferociously in many battles. Yet, he takes no pleasure from this.

Similarly, while God must act in warfare against evil—and uses the strong language of the Law’s curses to describe this—whenever the Bible speaks of God’s heart, it is always a heart of love and compassion. God the warrior does not have a thirst for blood that must be satiated.

My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. (Hosea 11:8-9)

In the Bible, God literally points to a human being as an example of this: King David, who is described as “a man after his own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). Aragorn is just a modern picture of David: a fierce warrior king who slays enemies in their tens of thousands, but not because this satisfies any internal emotional need to do so. Read the stories of David.

3) God Explicitly Tells Us What He Feels—You Cannot Read His Mind

Everything we believe, teach, and confess at Manchester Lutheran Church is Confessional Lutheran theology. All this means is we trust the Bible, so receive what it says, and don’t add to it with our own speculation.

Many people today treat God as if they can read his mind and “work out” what he is like beyond what he explicitly says in his Word. But this is not using his name rightly. The Old Testament explicitly says:

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29)

The New Testament explicitly agrees that we cannot read God’s mind:

How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33)

In short: If he hasn’t said it—don’t believe it.

We only know God through his Word—in particular though what God expressly says in his Word—this is what the Apostle Paul taught (1 Corinthians 2:11-12). That’s why this is what Martin Luther taught (Smalcald Articles 2.2.15) and what we teach.

God works through his Word, and he performs two works through his Word. One work is the Law. The other work is the Gospel. We cannot claim to know what God is like behind these works—his nature and will—beyond what he explicitly says.

Therefore, we believe God when he says that his “burning anger,” and the “smoke of his nostrils” are the curse of the Law (Deuteronomy 29:20) and that it is the Law that brings his “wrath” (Romans 4:15). We believe these things because God explicitly says them.

We also believe God when he says that these curses do not come from his “heart” (Lamentations 3:33) and that the Law does not manifest God’s righteousness (Romans 3:21). We also believe these things because God explicitly says them.

God explicitly tells us that his wrath is a judicial declaration of the Law and does not reveal his heart and will toward sinners. Therefore, as Lutherans, we simply trust what he says and do not speculate beyond it.

Therefore, we do not speculate, for example, like this:

“In this work of the Law, God describes his wrath so forcefully that it sounds like he is genuinely emotionally angry—therefore he must be emotionally frustrated.”

This is to speculate beyond what is written. We don’t do this as Lutherans, because the Bible tells us not to do this.

God tells us that his Word is clear—which means it gives understanding not confusion (Psalm 119:130). He also tells us that parts of the Bible are harder to understand than others (2 Peter 3:16). Therefore, the doctrines we believe come first and foremost from clear places in scripture that explicitly teach those doctrines clearly.

God explicitly tells us in several places that his Law does not reveal what his “heart” is, or what his “will” for sinners is:

Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; (Ezekiel 33:11)

We therefore do not twist a verse like Nahum 1:2—which is not explicitly talking clearly about God’s heart—to conclude the opposite of what God does explicitly say about his heart in Ezekiel 33:11:

The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. (Nahum 1:2)

While lots of other churches do speculate and claim to understand all sorts of things about God beyond what he explicitly says, we do not do this because it is not biblical. And because it is unbiblical, it is therefore un-lutheran. Don’t speculate about what God is like. Don’t try and read his mind. Instead, God told us exactly what to do when Jesus was transfigured on the mountain:

And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” (Mark 9:7)

This is both biblical and Lutheran.

4) God Knows How to Act “Professionally”

Image: Connie Hiers surgery

When God says his wrath does not reveal his heart, he is not denying the reality of wrath.

To say a surgeon is calm and loving as they slice you open, is not to deny that they really are cutting you with a knife.

God’s wrath is being revealed now (Romans 1:18), still remains on those who do not obey the Son (John 3:36—for more on this read here), and is being “stored up” by those who refuse to trust in Jesus until the day of judgment (Romans 2:5).

The question is not whether wrath exists, but: (a) How God’s wrath relates to his heart and will; and (b) How God’s wrath should be used pastorally in a way that distinguishes Law and Gospel.

Even Romans 2:5 describes the “day of wrath” as being “when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” What is being “stored up” is not emotional frustration that will be fully vented, but a legal case that will be fully prosecuted.

So, we believe, teach and confess three truths:

1. God’s wrath is real and must be taken seriously.
2. But Scripture consistently distinguishes between what God does because of sin and what He desires and delights in.
3. God’s wrath is the curse of the Law. Therefore, it cannot create or sustain faith, and it should not be used as though it could.

When Scripture explicitly states what God wills, desires, or takes pleasure in, it always points to mercy and salvation (Ezekiel 33:11, 1 Timothy 2:3–4, 2 Peter 3:9). And so the prophet Isaiah literally describes God’s work of judgment as being “strange” and “alien” to himself:

For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim; as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused; to do his deed—strange is his deed! and to work his work—alien is his work! (Isaiah 28:21)

This is why Martin Luther used this language to distinguish between God’s “proper work” (opus proprium) of mercy and “alien work” (opus alienum) of wrath. Technical theological terms like this are simply ways to express what the Bible says precisely.

But Luther also talks about this distinction in a simple way.

In the Large Catechism (2.66) he says God’s attitude toward all those who refuse to trust in Christ is—positive. And yet, at the same time God’s wrath remains on them. (Which is exactly the distinction being made in John 3.)

This only makes sense because God’s wrath is not an attitude, emotion, or feeling. It is a work of God—a legal judgment that sin is condemned. It is a necessary work of God, because sinners are sinners. But it does not reveal God’s heart.

God’s wrath is often presented today as an emotional state. But this is wrong. Scripture (and so the Lutheran confessions, and our church) speak of it as God’s righteous judgment against sin.

Consider the extreme human example: If a judge’s son committed heinous crimes, and was brought before him in court, the judge might be forced to condemn him—even to death. Yet, even as the gavel falls, he stills loves him as his own son. In such a situation, it would be monstrous to point at the father and say “Look! This shows he was harbouring frustration at his own son!” Yet, this is exactly what many people—even Christians—falsely attribute to God as he reluctantly and patiently is forced to carry out the role of judge upon an evil humanity toward whom he only ever felt warmth, forgiveness and love.

In fact—this extreme example itself was played out upon the cross. Read on to find out how.

None of this is a denial of God’s wrath. It is simply a biblical description of it.

5) God Is Not Angry With You

God is not angry with you. Not only is this statement true—it is essential that we say it out loud to people today. Some have twisted this statement to interpret it in a way that is clearly inconsistent with what we believe, teach and confess. This must be addressed.

To say God is not angry with you is not a denial of judgment, because God’s judgment in the Law is not the emotional state of being angry. It is only “anger” in the sense of the exercise of God’s judicial office (something Martin Luther explained in many places when explaining the role of a civil magistrate). God’s wrath does not reveal God’s heart.

To say “God is not angry with you” is a proclamation of the Gospel.

The New Testament repeatedly grounds assurance not in human response, but in Christ’s completed work:

“God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)

Our full expression is,

“God is in a good mood with you. And you see that when you look at Jesus!”

We use this full expression everywhere. Our critics have quoted, and even at times misquoted, us without this context.

We are speaking from the cross, not from human experience or apart from Christ.

If someone rejects God’s gift of forgiveness, then yes—judgment (God’s wrath) remains. But the point of the proclamation is this:

The problem is not God’s attitude to you. It is your attitude to him—your refusal to trust him.

Furthermore, warning people that judgment remains does not change people’s attitude toward God. Actually, it makes it worse. The Bible is explicit about this:

sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. (Romans 7:8)

Warning people about God’s wrath, hell, present or final judgment is a preaching of the Law. The Law is preached in every sermon at Manchester Lutheran Church. And our lectionary ensures that at least 10% of our sermons in any given year talk about hell. We affirm in many places that it is a place of eternal conscious torment. The Law, God’s wrath, the eternal hell, are clearly explained in our church’s confession. It is used and applied pastorally in our church all the time. At times people are excluded from the Supper. At times people are seriously warned of temporal and eternal consequences of something they are doing. The Law is in all of our evangelistic pamphlets.

This Law preaching has a function. But that function is not to create faith.

And that is why—even though we do use God’s wrath in our preaching—we do not use it to “scare” people into having faith. (For more on the pastoral function of hell in the Bible, watch this video.) Telling people about hell stops nobody from going there.

Preaching God’s wrath is necessary. So we do it. But only the proclamation of the Gospel creates belief.

So while the Law is present with the Gospel in everything we say, we distinguish Law and Gospel by not using the Law for a purpose it was not given for. In order for people to have faith, we proclaim good news, not bad.

6) God Being the Judge Is Good News, Not Bad

On the cross:

in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them (2 Corinthians 5:19)

Not counting people’s sins against them, and instead declaring them reconciled (i.e. forgiven) is called “justification”. On the cross God justified all people in Jesus:

all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23-24)

For this reason, we can call justification “objective.” But not everyone receives the benefits of this justification, because they refuse for Christ’s work to apply to them. In this sense, we can say receiving the benefits of this justification is subjective.

In a recent podcast, I was asked about Baptism and subjective justification. This is technical language that is sometimes used in more than one way.

Strictly speaking, the mere act of Baptism itself is not yet subjective justification. It is one of the means by which God delivers justification to us. Through these means, the Spirit creates faith in the objective promise. Through this faith in the objective promise we receive what is given subjectively.

So, baptism itself is an objective promise. It is still baptism whether received by faith or not. But baptism is not effective unless received through faith. Justification becomes subjective when baptism is received through faith.

If baptism is resisted through unbelief, its benefits are not received and the wrath of God remains. But this warning itself does not create the faith that receives it.

I responded to the question about Baptism in the podcast by using Luther’s explanation in Smalcald Articles III.4. There Luther explains how the objective Gospel is distributed to us through all the different means of grace: baptism, the Lord’s Supper, preaching, the Word spoken in fellowship, etc.

These things themselves are not subjective justification. They are the means by which justification comes to us. The Spirit uses them to create faith in us—at that point the objective justification has become subjective.

Objective and subjective justification are not two separate things. There is one justification. This has been objectively accomplished by Christ for all people. But, it is received subjectively, and so we only experience the benefits of it personally, through faith.

But we must be very careful how we speak about two things, which are often spoken of incorrectly in churches today:

First, God’s attitude toward all people is revealed in Christ’s objective justification of the whole world on the cross. His attitude is not revealed by my subjective reception of it. God is not in a good mood with people who have faith and in a bad mood with people who don’t have faith. He is in a good mood with everyone. The difference between “subjectively justified” and “subjectively not justified” is not God’s attitude. It is a difference in legal standing. Both have been objectively justified. But those who do not trust in Christ are trusting in themselves—they are standing under a legal declaration of the Law that condemns them (God’s wrath).

The second thing we must be very careful how we speak about is “faith”. This word is so misunderstood in churches today that we are very cautious about how and when we use it. More on that in the next section.

7) Christians Are Not Better People Than Others

The word “faith” itself is often heard in our modern context as a quality or substance within myself that makes me different from other people. This is not what the Bible or the Lutheran Confessions mean by the word “faith.”

This is why we are extremely careful about using the word “faith” in our church. Our concern—and the reason we speak the way we do—is pastoral: If the emphasis shifts so that faith becomes the decisive factor that makes God favourable, then consciences are inevitably driven back into themselves.

Biblical faith is simply trust in what God has already objectively accomplished in Christ, simply receiving what is already true, simply being assured of what God has promised:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

The Gospel directs the sinner outward: Not: “Have I believed?” But: “Christ has done it.” Faith does not create justification. It receives it.

In that recent podcast mentioned earlier, I explained the mechanism of what faith is without using the word “faith.” I have done this in several sermons over the last year. Here is what the Bible is talking about when it speaks of saving “faith” or “belief”:

1. Christ justified all people on the cross.
2. I look at him on the cross (i.e. I look at the means of grace).
3. As I see him on the cross, the Spirit gives me assurance that Christ justified me (because he has justified all people).
4. Therefore, through that assurance, I experience the benefits of that justification personally.

In technical language, this is a description of fides directa—trust in Christ. Many of our critics appear to confuse this with fides reflexa—conscious reflection on the act of trusting in Christ. The Bible, especially the Gospel of John, talks about false belief, or false faith. False faith is fides reflexa without fides directa.

Let’s talk about this in normal English for a moment: True faith is simply trust in God’s promises to you in Christ. It rests on something outside of yourself. False faith is trust in something within yourself.

For this reason, we often use the word “trust” instead of faith, to help teach people about this distinction.

As I look at Christ on the cross, the Spirit gives me assurance—trust—that what Christ has done applies to me. But how do I look at Christ on the cross? God has given me the means of grace. The means of grace are where I see Christ. The means of grace is simply the Gospel declaration that Christ has justified all people. God is abundantly kind in giving me this Gospel through all sorts of different means: Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the Word of Absolution, Preaching, and words of promise spoken in the fellowship of other Christians.

So: Christians are not better than other people. They do not have a “quality” about them that is different to others. They do not have a “substance” inside them that makes them distinct. Faith is not a quality or substance.

Christians are different from others only in the sense that their trust is directed away from themselves, and rests on Christ alone.

That trust is not a decision, but is created inside us by the Holy Spirit, as I receive the means of grace (the Gospel Word declaring my sins are forgiven). Faith is nothing other than trust in what this Word says.

That is the Scriptural definition of faith. But when many people in churches today hear the word “faith,” what they think of is not biblical faith. What they think of is not what men like Luther, Melanchthon and Chemnitz called faith. What they think of as “faith” is something about them, or inside them—as some kind of quality or attribute.

It is important for their sake to correct this misunderstanding.

Faith is the opposite of sin, which is incurvatus in se—trust in ourselves. This is Luther’s definition of sin, because it is scripture’s definition of sin (cf. Romans 14:23).

We deliberately speak of faith as trust in the objective promise of mercy for Christ’s sake, because this is how Scripture speaks of faith. Sin is trust in ourselves. Faith is trust in Christ—in particular trust in what Christ did for us on the cross.

8) The Cross Is Everything

Image: Regan Dsouza

On the cross, Christ bore our sin, and the judgment it deserves, which is God’s wrath. The cross is what truly reveals God to us, and Jesus told the disciples on the Emmaus road that it is the key that unlocks the whole of the Bible (Luke 24:25-26, 45-49).

So what does the cross reveal about God?

The cross reveals:

1. That God loves the world (Romans 5:8).
2. That God has justified the world (John 1:29).
3. That God must condemn sin (Romans 8:3).
4. That God’s wrath (his condemnation of sin) can fall on the Son (Matthew 26:39), even while he loves and is pleased with the Son (John 10:17).

The cross reveals that wrath is not a personal emotion, but a judicial condemnation of sin (as was explained in this post). God’s wrath fell on the Son, but the Father’s emotional attitude toward the Son never changed. The wrath that the Son bore on the cross was not a psychological and emotional venting of the Father’s anger, but a just and infinite legal punishment of sin.

The Son of God hung on the cross as our penal substitute. The wrath of God fell on him. And yet, the Father was always pleased with the Son and never angry with him.

This reflects the way Scripture speaks and how the Lutheran confessions describe God’s wrath and judgment. The Son always does what pleases the Father (John 8:29). The cross is why the Father loves the Son (John 10:17), not a reason for the Father to be angry with the Son. This does not make the wrath Jesus bore on the cross any less real—because God’s wrath is judicial, a work of the Law.

9) Where To Go From Here?

I understand the concerns that people express—both from Christians and those who are not Christians. These are not trivial matters.

But the central question is this: Who is God—and what does he say to a terrified conscience?

If the message ultimately heard is: “God may still be against you unless…” then we have not spoken the words of Scripture clearly. Words like this are spoken when we do not take God at his Word, but try to read his mind and speculate beyond what he has said.

But if the message is: “Look at Christ—this is God’s heart for you” then we are speaking the Gospel. These are the words of eternal life. This is what God says in the Scriptures.

To hear more of this Gospel Word, listen to this: Is God Angry With Me?

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