In 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached a now-famous sermon entitled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”.  Edwards was guilty of propagating a common falsehood, that is, that God is angry because of sin.  This misrepresentation of God continues in our day. On 9/11 I heard two prominent ministers interviewed on television. They both agreed that 9/11 was God’s judgment upon America because of sin.

God is not judging America because of sin. Neither is he judging individuals because of sin. God is not angry about sin. In fact, God is not angry at all.  The reason is that God has already done something about sin.  What he did about sin was to place all the sins of humanity upon Jesus and judge them there, once and for all.  As far as God is concerned, sin has already been judged and dealt with fully. This is why the writer to the Hebrews says that Jesus has “put away sin by the sacrifice of himself”.  Now God is interested, not in retribution, but in reconciliation.

In Ephesians 2, the Apostle Paul spends several verses describing the depravity of humanity.  After this vivid description of sin, we might expect Paul to say next that God is really angry and just about to judge all these rotten sinners. Instead we read this, “But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins…”  The message is clear: God has responded to our sin, not with anger, but with love.

Again, in Romans 5, Paul writes that “God shows his love toward us, in that, while we were sinners, Christ died for us.” Once again, the message is clear: God is not angry with sinners. On the contrary, God loves sinners.

The church world has done a great disservice to the world by present a false impression of God. In an effort to scare people into good behavior, the church has propagated a tremendous lie about God, suggesting that he is angry because of sin, meanwhile ignoring the message of the gospel, that God has already done something about sin, eliminating its power and penalty by the finished work of Christ on the cross. Today God is interested in reconciliation, not retribution.