[1] The anger which God feels and displays is always against
_sin._ It is never against sinners as offenders against
Himself personally, but as violators of the eternal laws of
righteousness and love. It is not possible for the most
daring transgressor to injure God in the slightest degree,
and therefore He can never feel anything approaching to
that personal vindictiveness which we feel against those
who have wronged us. There are some passages which at first
sight convey a different impression, as when it is said,
"Know therefore that the Lord thy God . . . repayeth them
that hate Him to their face, to destroy them; He will not
be slack to him that hateth Him; He will repay him to his
face" (Deut. vii. 10); and again, "God is jealous, and the
Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take
vengeance upon His adversaries" (Nahum i. 2). But terrible
as such passages are, they admit of a ready explanation. In
them God manifestly speaks as "the Judge of all the earth,"
as the Representative and Administrator of righteousness.
Some years ago, proclamations denouncing the severest
penalties against Fenianism were issued in the name of our
beloved Queen; but no one imagined that she cherished any
personal hostility against those offenders against her
authority. Every month it is her melancholy duty to sign
documents that consign convicted murderers to the scaffold,
but no one regards these death-warrants as any proof that
she delights in the sufferings of those whose sentence she
confirms. Nor will any thoughtful person interpret such
passages as setting forth anything else than God's resolve
to be faithful to His duties as the supreme administrator
of justice, notwithstanding that in being so He must
perform many things that are revolting to His infinite
tenderness and compassion. His expostulations with sinners
to repent and turn from their transgressions are a
sufficient confirmation of this interpretation (Ezek.
xviii. 31, 32, &c.) His anger against sin and sinners is no
passion of personal vindictiveness, but is the natural
revulsion of purity from impurity, of honesty from fraud,
of truthfulness for falsehood; this instinctive abhorrence
of generosity for meanness, of benevolence for malice, of
kindness for cruelty.
If God did not feel and manifest this anger against sin, it
would be impossible to respect and love Him. If He could
look down on the mean and dastardly things that are done
every day, and yet remain cold and emotionless as an
iceberg, as indifferent to the sufferings of His creatures
as some Oriental despots have been to the miseries of their
wretched subjects, our whole soul would rise up in
righteous condemnation of Him.--_R. A. B._
See outlines: GOD OPPRESSED, pp. 28-32; A TERRIBLE RESOLVE,
pp. 61, 62; THE PURPOSE OF PUNISHMENT, pp. 63, 64.