The Wrath of God in John's Gospel
The Eschatology of John Part 12: John 3 Part 4
What do we mean when we talk about the wrath of God? For those of us who have seen the wrath of God weaponized against a particular group of people, whether it be those who believe differently, a different denomination, political opponents, or even parents to their children, we understand how sensitive this topic can be.
Many of us would prefer that any reference to God’s wrath would be taken out of the Bible. Others wish there were more references to God’s wrath. Some of us are okay with references to God’s wrath being within Scripture, so long as we aren’t called on to read that passage during Bible class.
Regardless of what we might like to happen, if you’re like me and have a strong respect for Scripture, we have to work with the Bible that sits before us. Scriptures about the wrath of God exist in both testaments and can be found across authors from Paul to John, so it is a subject we must breach.
Before we get there, though, I need to make a few comments about the friend of the bridegroom.
The Friend of the Bridegroom
He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:29–30
In our study of the eschatology of John, it is important we pick up on a theme that can be found sporadically throughout the book—probably more than I can recognize given the cultural distance.
This theme is the marriage of the Messiah.
In John 2, Jesus’s first miracle takes place at a marriage ceremony, and this may be John’s way of waving his hands in the air and saying, “Be on the lookout for more stuff about marriage!”
Skipping over the Gospel of John for a moment, a brief consideration of the Book of Revelation will reveal how important this theme is:
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” Revelation 19:7–9
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Revelation 21:1–2
The marriage of Jesus is connected with the defeat of Babylon, the judgment of the apocalyptic figures which desired to destroy the church, and the new creation.
This means that the marriage themes that appear in John are eschatological; that is, they are important to our study of John’s understanding of the end of the age and the hope of humanity.
While there isn’t enough here to warrant further discussion of the nature of the marriage between Christ and the church or the kingdom, it is beneficial to our study that we simply recognize the allusion to the marriage motif.
The Spirit Without Measure
As we’ve discussed already in our study of the Gospel of John, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit is inherently eschatological. In the first century, to speak of the outpouring of the Spirit was to speak of the end of the old age and the inauguration of the new.
In Acts 1, when Jesus reiterated the promise of the Spirit, the disciples asked, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).
So when John reports that Jesus gives the Spirit without any limitations, he is affirming that the waters of life are flowing and the restoration of Israel has begun (cf. Ezekiel 37:11-14).
Craig Keener observes,
Because many thought that the Spirit had been quenched in Israel till the future restoration of Israel, and many thought that only a few had merited the Spirit, to say that someone had unlimited access to the Spirit (whether Jesus has unlimited access as giver or receiver here is debated) indicates that he is greater than any person who had ever lived.
Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Second Edition. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2014. Print.
The Wrath of God
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life but must endure God’s wrath. John 3:36
This is the only mention of God’s wrath across all of the literature written by John outside of Revelation. Revelation mentions the word “wrath” thirteen times.
But this solo mention of God’s wrath in John’s non-apocalyptic writings doesn’t mean that the general theme of the wrath of God is absent from the text, as we will see, but John does challenge the common way in which we, or perhaps I, picture the wrath of God.
I think one reason why the wrath of God is such an uncomfortable subject for some, including myself, is that we typically associate it with imagery of an angry character who is just waiting for someone to slip up in the slightest way before he pounces. Sometimes we will jokingly tell everyone to “stand back because the Lord may just strike him down for saying that!”
In other words, we view God’s wrath typically as an action God takes, and this action usually looks human and fits into our themes of revenge, anger, and even pettiness. We might recall our parents saying something about putting the “fear of God” into us, which is hard programming to debug later on in life.
While there are undoubtedly passages that speak of the vengeance or what we’ll call the active wrath of God, there is also a way of taking about God’s wrath in a more passive way. You might picture a parent who, instead of actively disciplining a child, allows the child to experience the consequences of their own actions without intervention, usually after many warnings.
The parent is, of course, right there once the weight of the outcome dawns on their child to comfort them, dust them off, and maybe, in perhaps our weaker moments, throw in an “I told you so.”
But first let’s talk about the comparison John makes between believing and disobeying.
Believes Versus Disobey
In John 3:36, belief isn’t contrasted with unbelief; it is contrasted with disobedience. To John, obedience to the commandments of Jesus could be summed up in, or perhaps consisted of, two things: belief in the Son and love for one another. John wrote,
And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 1 John 3:23
To John, unbelief is disobedience.
But this isn’t new to John.
Numbers 20 records the famous story of Moses striking the rock. In this story, Moses took the staff just as God commanded (Numbers 20:9), but he stole the glory from God by proclaiming, “Listen, you rebels; shall we bring water for you out of this rock?”
While the rock produced abundant water, God was displeased with Moses and Aaron and said,
“Because you did not [believe—NASB] in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” Numbers 20:12
Did Moses believe in God? Absolutely. After all, Moses was speaking to God. But did Moses believe in God? No. He didn’t believe or, as the NRSVue has it, trust in God.
A lack of trust in God leads to disobedience. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer argued in The Cost of Discipleship, the one who has faith obeys, and the one who obeys has faith.
To speak of someone who has faith in Christ and who doesn’t follow Christ is to speak of something that doesn’t exist. The opposite of belief in disobedience because one cannot obey the commands of Jesus unless they trust in him and his message. Similarly, one cannot trust in Jesus unless they are obedient to his command to love one another because faith in Jesus always produces the fruit of love within the individual.
Let me reiterate, unless someone thinks I’m saying something different here, the two commands John specifically has in mind are faith in Christ and to love one another; John does not have in mind methods of worship, ecclesiastical structure, or other disputes, unless of course it could be shown that these things violated trust in Christ or love for one another.
“Have Life” Versus “See Life”
Like in Jesus’s conversation earlier in John 3 where he used the expressions “enter the kingdom” and “see the kingdom” interchangeably, “has enteral life” and “see life” are used synonymously here. While the text doesn’t do it in this passage, we may even talk about “entering life” (Matthew 18:8-9; Matthew 19:17).
One cannot see eternal life without having it, and one cannot have enteral life without seeing it.
I think this point is important because in John, Jesus talks a lot about seeing the Father, but he also talks about the Father abiding in us and him. Since John freely interchanges “seeing” and “having” or “entering,” I think it is fair to say that “seeing the Father” is the same thing as abiding in the Father or the Father abiding in the person (John 14-17).
So to “know God” or to see God “face to face” really means to abide in God and for God to abide in you (1 Corinthians 13:8-13). When we put our faith in Christ, we abide in God and God abides in us, we see God and know God, we see life and have life, and we see the kingdom and enter the kingdom. These concepts are all interconnected and inseparable.
“Endure” God’s Wrath
Endure or Abide?
I think part of the trouble of this passage is the NRSVue’s translation “endure God’s wrath.” The NASB95, for instance, translates this phrase “but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).
One translation suggests a future action performed by God; the other implies that the wrath of God is a state in which someone exists.
The translation “abide” is interesting.
The verb μένω (menō) is used sixty-eight times across fifty-four passages in John’s writings. In some cases, the word might be used to talk about food that perishes or to describe where someone is staying (John 6:27; John 1:38). But in contexts where relationship with God is being described, it is used positively in every case except three, including our passage in John 3.
One can talk about the Spirit abiding on Christ, the believer or God abiding in Christ, the believer or Christ abiding in God, or even one abiding in the commandments and love of Christ (John 1:32; John 6:56; John 8:31; John 15:4; John 15:9).
The three times that I found to be negative were John 3:36, John 12:46, and 1 John 3:14.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life but must endure God’s wrath. John 3:36
I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. John 12:46
We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love abides in death. 1 John 3:14
There is one glaring difference between these texts. In the first, it is God’s wrath that abides in the one who disobeys, but in the other two passages, it is the one who disobeys (read: doesn’t love) who abides in darkness or death.
I don’t think this difference amounts to anything, but it is something I noticed and thought worth pointing out.
Regardless, I believe these two passages illustrate the point I was making about active versus passive wrath, for lack of better terminology.
Active Versus Passive Wrath
It is not as if God floods the unbelievers life with darkness, for John argues, “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). It is also not as if God removes the person from his presence, thereby killing the unbeliever, for Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
In the same way, it is not as if God is following the unbeliever around pouring out his wrath on a person for not believing in Jesus; instead, a person, through not following the Way of Love, will continue to experience darkness and death despite the constant availability of life and light that is, as Paul said “not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27).
A similar idea is expressed by Jesus in a more graphic way in Luke 19. As he approached Jerusalem, Jesus began to weep and said,
If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God. Luke 19:41–44
The “time of your visitation from God” demanded an answer, just a Jesus’s presence demands a decision. Since the people rejected the way of peace and instead chose violence—against Jesus, the disciples, and, eventually, Rome—they would meet an unfortunate end, an end that brought God to tears.
As Ezekiel once said,
Say to them: As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? Ezekiel 33:11
The wrath of God in Luke 19 is revealed from heaven by God giving the people the free will to go whichever way they wished, even if it meant to their own death and destruction. To use language from Paul, as we’ll notice shortly, God “turned them over” to the Romans because of their decision to reject the Way of peace and love.
In Romans, Paul talks about how “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those who by their injustice suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18). Through exchanging the glory of God for the graven images, darkness, and futile thinking, they chose a path that would lead to unhappiness, darkness, and death.
In introducing each paragraph in Romans 1, Paul uses the expression “God gave them over…” That is, had they just listened to God, turned their hearts towards God, and embraced God’s Way of love and peace, all would have been well. But like a child who willfully disobeys the parent who knows best, we often bring our own troubles upon ourselves.
The psalmist used the same language to lament,
But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! Then I would quickly subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him, and their doom would last forever. I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you. Psalm 81:11–16
They had everything before them, but they chose their own counsels.
Conclusion
The one who puts their trust in Jesus will have life to the fullest now and forevermore. Whatever storms may come, whatever troubles may arise, whatever difficulties may befall them, life, love, justice, and peace will be theirs forever.
But the one who “hears these words and does them not” is like the foolish man who builds his house upon the sand. Through harboring hatred for one’s enemies, walking in violence and injustice, and rejecting the image of God as revealed by Jesus, the disobedient one continues to follow a god made in their own image, live a life of despair, and miss out on all the wonderful gifts offered by Jesus to us here and now.
By embracing an image of God that is less than what Jesus revealed God to be, one will cause themselves so many problems. As John Wesley is quoted as saying, “Your God is my Devil.” Many are tortured in life because they haven’t trusted in Jesus’s revelation of the Father, which is never-ending love. They are tortured by their anxiety over judgment, feelings of unworthiness, and the feeling of despair at never being able to satisfy the demands of their version of God.
Jesus offers us another way. God is love. Through putting our faith in Jesus’s revelation of God, which is Jesus’s very self, we have and see life to the fullest.
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