Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Men, Being by Nature the Children of Wrath, Needed a Mediator. In What Sense God is Said to Be Angry. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter 33.—Men, Being by
Nature the Children of Wrath, Needed a Mediator. In What Sense God
is Said to Be Angry.
And so the human race was lying
under a just condemnation, and all men were the children of wrath.
Of which wrath it is written: “All our days are passed away in
Thy wrath; we spend our years as a tale that is told.”1140 Of which
wrath also Job says: “Man that is born of a woman is of few days,
and full of trouble.”1141 Of which wrath also the Lord Jesus
says: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he
that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God
abideth on him.”1142 He does not say it will come, but
it “abideth on him.” For every man is born with it; wherefore
the apostle says: “We were by nature the children of wrath, even
as others.”1143 Now, as
men were lying under this wrath by reason of their original sin,
and as this original sin was the more heavy and deadly in
proportion to the number and magnitude of the actual sins which
were added to it, there was need for a Mediator, that is, for a
reconciler, who, by the offering of one sacrifice, of which all the
sacrifices of the law and the prophets were types, should take away
this wrath. Wherefore the apostle says: “For if, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much
more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”1144 Now when
God is said to be angry, we do not attribute to Him such a
disturbed feeling as exists in the mind of an angry man; but we
call His just displeasure against sin by the name “anger,” a
word transferred by analogy from human emotions. But our being
reconciled to God through a Mediator, and receiving the Holy
Spirit, so that we who were enemies are made sons (“For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”1145 ): this is
the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|