Offense and Wrath
Listened to the John Piper sermon “The Greatest Thing in the World” which reviewed Romans 1-7 in the midst of his 8 or so year long series on Romans.
The whole thing was outstanding, but two things struck me:
1) We are so much more offended and agitated about injustice done to man than rather than the constant offenses God that we all are guilty of.
The infinite, all-glorious Creator of the universe, by whom and for whom all things exist (Rom. 11:36) – who holds every person’s life in being at every moment (Acts 17:25) – is disregarded, disbelieved, disobeyed, and dishonored by everybody in the world. That is the ultimate outrage of the universe.
Why is it that people can become emotionally and morally indignant over poverty and exploitation and prejudice and the injustice of man against man and yet feel little or no remorse or indignation that God is so belittled? It’s because of sin. That is what sin is. Sin is esteeming and valuing and honoring and enjoying man and his creations above God. So even our man-centered anger at the hurt of sin is part of sin. God is marginal in human life. That is our sin, our condition.
This reminded me of conversations I’ve had over the years with Christians who, in political discussions, emphasize standing up for our rights. They are much more concerned about their right to freedom than about the offense to God. (It’s convicting to me that the first thing I think about is how other people manifest this sin rather than think about how I manifest it. Need to work on that…)
2) We deserve the unbridled wrath of God
Piper says that Rom 3:24-25 are the most important verses in the Bible, and he goes on to break down phrase by phrase. What struck me was the phrase “as a propitiation”. The text of the sermon says:
“As a propitiation” is precious because it means that the wrath of God that we deserved was removed. Christ absorbed it, and took it away. He became the curse for us and took away the judgment of God. God was propitiated.
But when you listen to it, he adds a description that is much more powerful. He describes propitiation as satisfying the wrath of God. Then he sets the scene — Jesus standing in front of God the Father saying “the people are as wretched as you say they are, every one of them, and they deserve the full force of your wrath. I am offering myself, your perfect, sinless son, to take on that wrath for them to as a propitiation.”
Take the time to listen. It’s good stuff.
