Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Wrath of God Revealed and the Cross of Christ | John Owen

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The Wrath of God Revealed and the Cross of Christ | John Owen · Reformed Thinking

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Usually human justice is kind of like a negotiation, right?
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Yeah, I mean it is always shifting around.
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Right, like you catch a judge after a good breakfast and,
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well, maybe you get a lighter sentence.
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Or you hire a really charismatic lawyer and the jury just feels
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bad for you. Yeah, the whole system is
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totally fluid. You break a law and the reaction
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of the legal system can, you know, fluctuate based on like
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1000 different human variables. Because human justice is
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conditioned by our culture, by the time period, and heavily by
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human emotions. Oh for sure, we like things to
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be negotiable because we ourselves are constantly
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changing. Right.
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We always want the judge to have a little bit of wiggle room.
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But then you step into the theology of the 17th century,
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specifically the works of the Puritan theologian John Owen,
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and that fluidity just vanishes. Yeah, it completely disappears.
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You are looking at a landscape of divine justice that is
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stripped of all negotiation. It is not a mood.
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It is this absolute terrifying mathematical certainty.
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Which is a heavy thing to wrap your mind around.
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It really is so welcome to reformed thinking.
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Pull up a chair today. We are bringing you into the
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room for a very specific deep dive.
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And we have a lot of ground to cover.
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We really do. We are going to look into John
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Owens arguments regarding divine vindicatory justice.
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Our mission today is to understand his case that God's
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justice is an essential, unchangeable attribute of His
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very nature. Right, it's not just a reaction.
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Yeah. And we we will look at two of
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his main proofs for this 1st the visible works of Providence in
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the natural world, and 2nd, the historical reality of the
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crucifixion. To set the theological stage for
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you, we should probably establish our own footing here.
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Yeah, good call. Let's frame this.
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As Protestant Christians who adhere to the Westminster
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Confession of Faith, grasping the absolute necessity of God's
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justice is it is crucial. Right, it is the only way to
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understand the actual mechanics of the atonement.
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Yes. If God's justice is not an
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essential part of who He is, then the way we view the cross,
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the way we view sin, and the way we view grace, they all kind of
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fall apart. So Owen wants to show us that
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you cannot have a biblical view of salvation without a
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rigorously biblical view of God's strict justice.
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That is the whole point of his argument, yeah.
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Let's unpack this by starting where Owen anchors his argument
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right in the 1st chapter of Romans.
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Romans chapter one, yeah. The Apostle Paul writes in verse
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18 that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
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ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
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Which is quite a verse to drop on a reader.
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It is heavy and it forces us to ask a difficult question right
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out of the gate. You know, like, what does the
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Bible actually mean when it talks about the wrath or the
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anger of God? Well, Owen recognized that to
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answer that, he had to look at how human beings have
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historically defined anger. So it goes back to the classical
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philosopher. Yeah, he starts with Aristotle.
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Aristotle defined anger as as a desire to punish based on a
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perceived neglect. Okay, a perceived neglect.
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Right then he brings in Seneca, the Roman Stoic who kind of
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refined Aristotle thought. How so?
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Seneca argued that anger is just a desire for inflicting
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punishment. Got it?
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And then we have Feverinus, who called it a desire to punish
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someone who appears to have injured you contrary to what is
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fit and proper. See, those definitions all sound
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intensely human to me. Oh, they definitely are they.
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All involve a reaction to being slighted or injured.
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They are like defensive mechanism.
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That is precisely why Owen brings in lectanges.
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OK, remind us who lectanges is. He was an early Christian author
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who argued against the Stoics. Now, the Stoics believed that
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all emotions, all passions, were inherently bad.
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Right, They thought you should just eliminate them from a
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virtuous life. Yeah, so naturally the Stoics
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argued that God could not possibly have anger because
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anger is a defect. Which makes sense from their
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philosophical standpoint. But Lectantrus countered them by
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arguing that God does experience emotional commotions, but only
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good and just ones. So he is saying God literally
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feels the emotion of anger. Yes, just in a righteous,
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justified way. OK, this is where I struggle
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with like Tantus, and I suspect Owen does too.
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Yeah, Owen has some issues with it.
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Because when a human gets angry, there is a whole biological
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cascade. Blood pressure spikes the face
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flushes the heart rate accelerates cortisol floods the
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system. It is very physical.
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It is a biological reaction to feeling threatened or losing
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control. It is a perturbation.
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So how can we possibly map that emotional volatility onto a
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perfect, unchangeable God? You really cannot.
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Right, the book of James says God has no shadow of turning.
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If God is immutable, he cannot have blood pressure spikes.
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You are hitting on the precise distinction Owen makes.
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Owen uses that sharp contrast between human perturbation and
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divine immutability to correct Lactantus.
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Because Scripture does use visceral physical terms to
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describe God's anger. Oh absolutely.
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The Old Testament talks about God having smoking nostrils, hot
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fury and anger appearing in his countenance.
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Which sounds like a very human emotional outburst.
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It does, but Owen argues that these descriptions are
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commendations to our weak human understanding.
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Meaning God talks to us in terms we can grasp.
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Yeah, every material circumstance of human anger,
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like the boiling of the blood, the gall, the sorrow, the pain,
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the bodily change, all of that must be entirely excluded from
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our view of God. OK, so if we strip away the
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flushed face, the elevated heart rate, and the emotional
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outburst, it seems like there's nothing left.
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It feels a bit empty at first glance.
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Yeah, I'm trying to visualize what divine anger even is if it
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is not an emotion. Well, Owen relies on the logic
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of Thomas Aquinas to answer that.
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OK, what does Aquinas say? Aquinas clarified that anger in
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God is not a passion of the mind.
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It is not an emotion at all. No, it is it.
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It is the pure judgement and decision of his justice.
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Think of it like a mathematical equation 2 + 2 = 4.
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If someone insists the answer is five, the laws of mathematics do
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not get emotionally agitated. They do not throw a tantrum.
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They do not get a spike heart rate.
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No, they simply remain true, and in remaining true they expose
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the error. That makes total sense.
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So when the Bible says God is angry, it means God's justice
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has rendered a verdict. It is a settled, rational and
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perfect decision to punish evil. Wow, that reframes the entire
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concept. It really changes how you read
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the text. It does.
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If God does not have emotional outbursts, we cannot read human
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volatility into the text. We have to view his anger as a
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constant state of perfect moral reality.
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And that leads Owen to provide 2 functional definitions of God's
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anger. Let's break those down.
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The first definition denotes the effects of anger.
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It refers to the actual punishment that is poured out.
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Like when the Bible talks about the wrath to come.
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Yes, that is talking about the final judgement.
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The wrath is a penalty itself. OK, so the effect is the
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punishment. What is the second definition?
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The second definition denotes a constant immutable will in God
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to avenge and punish every transgression.
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But wait, if I'm sitting here listening to this, I am
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immediately wondering about the timeline.
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Yeah, the timing can seem confusing.
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Because if God possesses a constant, unchangeable will to
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punish sin right now, at this very moment, why does the
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apostle Peter describe him as long-suffering and slow to
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wrath? That is a very common objection
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it. Feels like a contradiction.
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Does patience contradict an immutable will to punish?
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If God has a constant will to punish, it seems like lightning
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should strike every time someone tells a lie.
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You have zeroed in on the exact paradox that bothered Owen.
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So how does he resolve it? Well, if God's will to punish
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his constant, then Peter's concept of slowness has to be
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viewed through the lens of divine time versus human time.
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OK, because we measure time in days and years, but God dwells
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outside of time. Right.
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Owen sites second Peter chapter 3, verse 9 to explain this.
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God's patience, his slowness to bring the final judgement, is
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meant to bring the faithful to repentance.
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It is not a sign that his justice has wavered.
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No, not at all. It is not a sign that he has
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relaxed his standards. So the will to punish his still
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there. His will to punish sin remains
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constant, but in his wisdom He delays the execution of that
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punishment to allow for the salvation of His elect.
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You know, the story of Joni is a fantastic illustration of this
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mechanism. Oh, that is a perfect example.
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Right. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh
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and announce that in 40 days the city will be overthrown.
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He threatens fierce wrath against Nineveh.
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But that threat itself is an expression of this constant will
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to punish sin, and the threat is intended to produce humiliation
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and repentance so that people do not perish.
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Yes, the threat of justice is the very tool God uses to bring
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about their repentance it. Is fascinating.
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The threat is real because the justice is real.
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If the justice were just a bluff, the repentance would be
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meaningless. Totally.
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The people of Nineveh recognize the absolute reality of God's
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punitory justice. They did not assume God was just
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having a bad day. They recognized a fixed moral
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standard, and they repented in sackcloth and ashes.
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So if the thread is always hanging there and the math of
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the universe always demands a penalty, then this will to
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punish is not just theoretical. No, it is highly practical.
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It is not something reserved for the end of time or for ancient
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cities like Nineveh. Owen argues that we can see this
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vindicatory justice right now. And this is where Owen returns
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to Romans chapter one, verse 18 with a very specific
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interpretation. What does he pull from that
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verse? When Paul says the wrath of God
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is revealed from heaven, Owen points out that Paul does not
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simply mean it is preached in sermons.
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OK, so revealed from heaven means something more tangible.
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Yeah, he uses the phrase to mean that God's justice is laid open
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and proved by numberless instances in the natural world
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and in human history. I look at it through the analogy
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of a courtroom. Let's hear it.
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A judge's stance on crime is not just known by reading a
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manifesto he wrote 20 years ago, right?
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No, you have to look at his rulings.
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Yeah, his stance on crime is known by watching him sentence
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criminals day after day, week after week in the courtroom.
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That is a highly accurate way to frame Owen's argument.
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So Owen is arguing that the physical world we live in is a
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courtroom where God's stance on sin is visibly demonstrated on a
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regular basis. Exactly.
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I mean spot on. The reality Owen planes based on
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this is grim. He describes the visible world
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as the fuel of the curse. That is an intense phrase, fuel
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of the curse. He calls it an abode of misery,
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grief, lamentation, and inquietude.
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He. Does not hold back.
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He points to Tempest, thunders, plagues and deluges.
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He says these natural disasters strike horror into universal
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nature, specifically because of human wickedness.
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So the brokenness of the natural world is a direct, visible
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reflection of God's judgement against sin.
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Yes, that is his point. That is a staggering concept for
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modern ears. We are conditioned to view
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natural disasters purely through the lens of meteorology or
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geology. We just look at the science.
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But with hurricane hits, we talk about barometric pressure and
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ocean temperatures. We do not naturally jump to the
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conclusion that this is a visible demonstration of divine
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justice. But we have to remember the
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context Owen was writing in OH for.
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Sure, he lived through the 17th century.
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He lived through the English Civil War, the execution of a
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king, the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London.
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He was surrounded by massive, catastrophic suffering.
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And Owen was dealing with people who wanted to explain away that
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suffering. He highlights a strong
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apologetic point against atheism here.
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How does he counter the atheists?
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He says people desperately want to attribute disasters to
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chance, to fortune, to the influence of the stars or to
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mere natural causes. Why?
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Because attributing these events to chance is an escape
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mechanism. Precisely, it allows people to
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avoid the terrifying thought of a judging God.
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Yeah, if a plague is just bad luck or bad biology, you do not
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have to evaluate your moral standing before a holy creator.
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But the Apostle Paul's phrase from heaven shatters this
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illusion It. Proves that these events are
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directed by a divine Providence that is actively punishing sin
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and manifesting justice. Yes, and Owen brings up the
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specific example of Sodom and Gomorrah to hammer this home.
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Oh, that is a clear biblical precedent.
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The text in Genesis says that fire and brimstone fell from the
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Lord out of heaven. It was a localized, physical,
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catastrophic judgment that set up permanent president for how
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God views impiety. It was not a random volcanic
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eruption. No, it was a targeted sentence
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handed down from the bench of the universe.
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And that physical precedent is meant to obstruct every future
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generation. So we are supposed to learn from
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it today. Owen is saying that God gives a
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copious testimony to His vindicatory justice through the
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works of His Providence. It is just as visible as His
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goodness. Right.
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He sends rain on the just and the unjust, which shows his
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goodness. But he also sends blags and
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tempests, which shows his severe justice.
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You cannot accept the visible proofs of His goodness while
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ignoring the visible proofs of His wrath.
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You have to take both. OK, so if nature is just the
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diagnosis and looking out our window only shows us the
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terrifying math of God's wrath, and humanity is basically
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trapped in a burning building. That is a good way to put it.
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The natural world offers no fire escape.
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It only offers proof that the fire is real.
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Which is terrifying. It is, and that forces us to
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look elsewhere for a mechanism of mercy.
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Which brings us to the historical reality of the Cross.
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This is where we look at the revelation of God in Christ.
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Owen cites John chapter one, verse 18, which tells us that
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the only begotten Son has declared or revealed the Father.
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OK, so Christ reveals what we cannot see in nature.
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Right. While creation and Providence
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show God's force, his wisdom, and His goodness, saving
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knowledge is only found in Christ.
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You cannot look at a thunderstorm and learn about
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free grace or sparing mercy. No, that knowledge only comes
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through the sun. But crucially, Owen argues that
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the clearest display of God's punitory justice is also found
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at the cross. Wait, I need to push back on.
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That OK, go ahead. We usually think of the cross
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purely as a demonstration of love.
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We sing songs about the love of God displayed at Calvary.
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We talk about Jesus dying because he loves.
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Us, which is true. So why does Owen argue that the
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cross is primarily a display of strict, unrelenting justice?
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Why couldn't God, in His infinite love, singly declare
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sinners forgiven from heaven and skip the bloodshed altogether?
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This is where Owen sets a brilliant logical trap for
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anyone who denies that justice is essential to God's nature.
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OK, let's hear the trap. Owen points out that God spared
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not his own son, but laid the punishment of us all upon him.
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God bruised him, put him to grief, and made his soul an
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offering for sin. Right.
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The physical and spiritual suffering was immense.
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So if justice could simply be set aside, if God could just
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issue a decree of forgiveness without requiring a penalty,
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then the crucifixion becomes an unnecessary tragedy.
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Oh wow. It becomes an act of divine
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cruelty to the sun. I see God cannot forgive sin
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without a penalty. For the same reason, gravity
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cannot simply decide to let you float today.
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Right, it is built into the system.
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It is not a policy he enforces. It is the fabric of who he is.
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Yeah, asking God to set aside justice to be loving is like
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asking water to set aside its wetness.
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That is a great analogy. If a human judge can dismiss a
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case without any penalty, but instead chooses to brutally
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execute an innocent substitute, we would call that judge a
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monster. We would be horrified.
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It only makes sense that the penalty was absolutely
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unavoidable. And Owen synthesizes this into a
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core assertion. He asks, What kind of love can
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that be, which God hath shown in doing what there was no occasion
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for him to do? That is a sharp question.
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If there was no strict demand of justice requiring a blood
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sacrifice, then sending Christ to die is not an act of love, it
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is an act of meaningless violence.
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The immense awe inspiring love of God in the Gospel is only
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visible if the punitory justice of God is an absolute,
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unavoidable necessity. Christ had to satisfy that
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specific attribute. That reframes the entire
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crucifixion. The cross is not God relaxing
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his justice to show love. No, not at all.
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The cross is God executing his absolute justice upon a
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substitute so that He can show love without violating His own
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nature. And that is the heart of
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Reformed theology. God cannot deny himself.
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He cannot pretend sin did not happen.
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The Apostle Paul and the author of Hebrews both agree with
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Owen's premise that forgiveness without a penalty is a logical
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and theological impossibility. Let's look at Hebrews chapter
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10, verses 26 and 27 because Owen leans heavily on this
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passage to prove the necessity of sacrifice.
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What does that text say? The text states that if there is
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no sacrifice for sins, there is nothing left but a certain
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fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation.
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The. Author of Hebrews is arguing
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from the very nature of things, yes.
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He poses a scenario where a person sins willfully and the
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sacrifice is removed from the equation.
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What is left? Is it a generalized mercy?
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Is it a light reprimand? No, the only thing left is fiery
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indignation. This proves that divine anger
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cannot be averted without an atonement.
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This connects directly to the Westminster Confessions teaching
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on the active and passive obedience of Christ.
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It certainly does. Let's broke down that economy of
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God. Why isn't a blank slate enough?
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Why did Christ have to actively live perfectly and passively
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suffer? Think of it like a Ledger in a
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cosmic courtroom. OK, a Ledger.
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The passive obedience of Christ refers to His suffering and
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death on the cross. He absorbed the penalty.
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He took the fiery indignation that.
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Clears the debt. Right.
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If you owe a billion dollars, his death pays the billion
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dollars, bringing your account balance to 0.
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But a 0 balance does not get you into heaven.
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The requirement for eternal life is perfect righteousness, not
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just the absence of debt. Precisely that is where the act
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of obedience comes in. Christ lived a perfect, sinless
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life, fulfilling every demand of the law.
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And that active obedience is credited or imputed to the
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believer's account. So you are not just forgiven,
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you are declared perfectly righteous.
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It is a mathematical certainty in the economy of God.
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The demands of justice are fixed.
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The only variable that can alter the outcome for the individual
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is whether or not they have this substitute sacrifice applied to
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their account. If you do not have the sacrifice
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of Christ, you must face the fixed attribute of God's is
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justice yourself. Which is a terrifying prospect.
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We have talked about classical philosophy, the definition of
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immutability, the workings of divine Providence and natural
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disasters, and the theological mechanics of the cross.
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We have covered a lot of heavy ground.
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We really have. We have been flying at a very
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high academic altitude. But toward the end of his
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argument, Owen shifts his tone dramatically.
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He really does. He moves from high theology to
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the intimate psychological reality of the individual.
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Believer. This is perhaps the most
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compelling part of his entire argument.
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Owen introduces the experiential proof of vindicatory justice.
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What does that look like? He describes A hypothetical
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Sinner, though reading it you get the distinct impression it
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is autobiographical. Like he's writing from his own
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experience. Yeah.
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He describes a person whose conscience has been touched by
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the omnipotent God. This person is weighed down by
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the dead of their sin, and their soul is pierced by what Owen
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calls the arrows of the Almighty.
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Imagine sitting across a table from someone who is in the
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throes of a massive panic attack over their moral guilt.
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Is a dark place to be. They have suddenly realized the
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reality of their sin before. Holy God, if you look at that
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terrified person and hand them a cheap platitude.
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Like saying oh do not worry about.
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It right if you say hey God does not care that much, He easily
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wipes away sin with a nod. Just forgive yourself, they will
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not find any real comfort in that.
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Not at all. They will look at you and call
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you a miserable comforter or a physician of no value, just as
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Job did to his friends. Owen analyzes why easy
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forgiveness fails to soothe a truly awakened conscience.
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Because it feels fake. Exactly.
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A person who is genuinely convinced of their sin knows
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deep down in their bones that they are dealing with the
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Supreme Judge of all the earth. They know they're dealing with a
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God who will by no means clear the guilty.
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The human conscience, when illuminated by the Holy Spirit,
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inherently knows that justice is an essential attribute of God.
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You cannot trick and awaken conscience into believing that
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God is a pushover. Owen writes A dramatic plea from
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the perspective of this agonized Sinner.
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I will read it because it captures the psychological
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weight so well. Go ahead, he says.
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I wish I were hidden the grave. Yay.
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Even in the pit, Unless the judge himself say to me deliver
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him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.
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The Sinner does not want to dismiss the case based on a
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technicality or a relaxed law. You know, the Sinner demands a
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ransom, the Sinner demands that the price be paid.
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There are many theologians and philosophers who treat the
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remission of sins lightly, as if it requires no strict justice,
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as if God can just wave a hand and make sin disappear.
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They think they are being compassionate.
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They think they are making God more approachable.
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But Owen points out that these people actually robbed the
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agonizing Sinner of their only real comfort.
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It seems to me that a flexible God is actually a terrifying
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concept for a guilty conscience. Why do you say that?
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If God can just wave away sin on a Tuesday, he could change his
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mind and demand payment on a Wednesday.
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The Sinner is not looking for a loophole, they're looking for a
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receipt. A terrified conscience cannot
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rest on a whim. True peace, lasting
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psychological and spiritual peace, only comes when the
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Sinner knows the debt has been fully, legally and justly paid.
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The conscience only rests when it sees the ransom Jesus Christ
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and knows that God's strip justice has been completely
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satisfied by His blood. Right on.
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Let's synthesize this entire discussion.
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We started by looking at the human desire for a flexible
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standard of justice. But John Owen has shown us that
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God's justice is not a temporary mood.
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No, it is not a biological perturbation or a human temper
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tantrum. It is an essential, unchanging
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part of his nature. We see it visible in the
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physical judgments of Providence, in the tempests and
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plagues that strike a broken world.
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We see that it absolutely necessitated the crushing weight
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of the cross, otherwise the death of Christ was a pointless
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exercise. And finally, we see that this
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strict unyielding justice is the exact doctrine, well, the
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precise doctrine required to bring genuine peace to a
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terrified conscience. I would encourage you as you go
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about your week to view both the natural world and the cross
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through this specific lens. When you see the brokenness of
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creation, do not just see random chance.
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See A declaration of a God who takes moral reality seriously.
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And when you look at the cross, do not just see a generalized
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display of affection. See the terrifying, glorious
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execution of divine justice upon the Son of God, all so that you
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could be declared righteous. That leaves us with a final
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provocative thought for you to ponder.
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We started by talking about how human justice is often flawed,
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negotiable and based on our shifting moods.
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We have spent this time establishing that God's justice
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is so absolute and central to His nature that it required the
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execution of His own Son to satisfy it.
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So if that is the standard of divine justice, how should that
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reality shape the way you view the minor offenses and debts
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that others owe you? How does the strictness of God's
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justice, which was satisfied on your behalf, reframe your own
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standard for human forgiveness? We want to thank you for joining
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us in the room today for this deep dive into the theology of
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John Owen. You have been listening to
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Reform Thinking. We will see you next time.