It is absurd we are told – nay wicked – blasphemous with awful blasphemy – to speak of propitiating such a God as this, of reconciling Him, of making satisfaction to Him. Love needs no satisfying..
Well certainly, God is Love. And we praise Him that we have better authority for telling our souls this glorious truth than the passionate assertion of these somewhat crass theorizers. God is Love! But it does not in the least follow that He is nothing but love. God is Love: but Love is not God and the formula 'Love' must therefore ever be inadequate to express God. (p. 384)
God is Love does not, as Warfield explains, negate the need for an atonement which references both human sin and the divine wrath against it... In fact, I would go so far to say, that the love and the wrath are not contrary or alternate impulses within the divine personality, but are coherently connected within it. As Warfield puts it, (and couldn't he write some prose!):
The love of God cannot be apprehended in its length and breadth and height and depth – all of which pass knowledge – save as it is apprehended as the love of a God who turns from the sight of sin with inexpressible abhorrence, and burns against it with unquenchable indignation. (p. 386)
However hard a circle this may be to square, the gospel of the cross of Christ demands it...
2 comments:
Markus Barth, in his commentary on Ephesians, remarks:
"In the Bible the ‘wrath’ of God, in turn, does not represent the intemperate outburst of an uncontrolled character. It is rather the temperature of God’s love, the manifestation of his will and power to resist, to overcome, to burn away all that contradicts his counsels of love."
You're correct that love and anger are not mutually exclusive attributes. I find it interesting in Romans 9 that God's wrath is not spoken of in contrast to His mercy, but rather, in concert to make the riches known to the objects of mercy. Odd as it may sound in our earthly "wisdom" [foolishness, 1 Cor. 1] God loves us by being Holy and Just--which entails anger.
Post a Comment