A Message for the World

I saw a picture recently of a man standing outside a hospital, wearing a signboard that read, "This virus is God's wrath." How sad, I thought, that someone would make an effort to stand out "for God," yet give such an incomplete, misleading message. How many people saw this man's sign, I wonder, and what were their responses? Likely, most simply brushed it off as a joke. Did some agree, pointing fingers at those they believe brought down this said wrath? Or is there anyone now trembling in fear that God will strike them down with the virus because of their sins?

I wish I could talk to the people who saw this message and tell them what God's wrath really means. Maybe this virus is a judgment from the Almighty...or perhaps it's just a natural result of life in this broken world. The passersby outside that hospital needed to hear the truth that the real wrath of God is actually far more serious than any virus, and we all deserve it. God is not some temperamental, petty deity, dealing out punishments of disease and death as the mood takes him. He is absolutely and unchangingly just and good, and every one of us is rightly doomed for committing treason against Him by our sinful thoughts, words, and actions. But even this is not the whole truth.

I wish I could tell those people that there is another side of the story the man on the street completely left out. Despite His wrath against evil, God is not hateful towards humans - far from it. The suffering and death caused by this virus, and all other evils, deeply grieves His heart. And every rebel traitor His justice condemns is paradoxically an object of His deepest love. Out of this love, God did the unimaginable: He satisfied the demands of justice by punishing His own perfect Son, to freely offer forgiveness and acceptance to those least deserving of it. Jesus received the full terror of God's wrath at the cross, so that those who trust Him need never experience one bit of it. This is the message the world needs to hear, and I pray they will hear it.

But God shows His love for us in that while

we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

For God so loved the world, that He gave

His only Son, that whoever believes in Him

should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16