In Christ Alone

Today I had a discussion with a colleague of mine about a particular song we sang at church this last Sunday morning. Some of you may know the Newsboys version of this song. Its title is: In Christ Alone. My friend was telling me about a particular conversation he and his wife had about one of the lines in this song and as a result of him telling me about their conversation we in turn had a conversation about it ourselves. The line states, "'Till on that cross as Jesus died, The wrath
of God was satisfied". We both seemed to find comfort in these words but our discussion seemed to revolve around whether our experience of the evangelical church was consistent with the affirmation of this part of the song. Are we ever receivers of God's wrath or judgment or has Christ truly satisfied all of God's wrath meant for us on the cross? We both could think of instances where bad things were inerpreted by the church as results of God's wrath. For instance, the idea that HIV is in some sense God's punishment for a certain kind of lifestyle that is unpleasing to him. This is a drastic example but I think it illustrates the point well. Are there times when we rightfully see God's wrath enacted toward his creation, post cross and resurrection? If so, can we really sing that the wrath of God was satisfied as Jesus died on the cross?

Romans seems to say the most concerning God's wrath out of any book of the New Testament. Romans 1:18 says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness". The reason this wrath is revealed is because no one is blameless before God because all men have been given some kind of evidence of God within them. Obviously, a question that comes up at this point is what it means for God to 'reveal his wrath.' Are we to understand this Christologically? Also something to consider about chapter 1 of Romans is the possibility that Paul is explaining the history of man's sinfulness against God and God's just action in revealing his wrath. Understanding the text this ways allows us to understand Paul's concern at the beginning of chapter 2 about not judging others because we also are sinners. Paul does seem to indicate a Christological turn in chapter 2:16 when he says that God will judge the sectets of men through Christ Jesus. I know that these verses in the opening chapters of Romans are arguably some of the most difficult verses to interpret in the New Testament and I don't pretend to be able to give the full picture of what's going on right now but I'm not convinced that the talk of God's wrath in Romans disallows us from affirming the verse of this song.

Colossians is another place where the wrath of God is mentioned. Colossians 3:6 says, "For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience." Part of Paul's concern in these verses is to make sure that the Colossians are aware of how bad sin is and that they are to set their sin aside because it is what brings about God's wrath. Presumably the fact that we are all sinners and that God knows this means that it is possible that God's wrath, which is applied to Christ on the cross, does encompass the future sins that we will commit.

There is no doubt that questions about God's relationship to time and how he sees the creation in time are crucial here. Also, questions of election and predestination are probably unavoidable. However, I will not even attempt to 'clean the glass of its fogginess' on this one. All of this is said in order to conclude that at the moment I don't think I have to stop singing that particular line in the song. Probably more important though is that we should not rush to conclude that God's wrath is happening against particular persons/communities in our contemporary society and that maybe it is possible to see Christ's work on the cross as satisfying all of God's justified wrath toward his creation. I'm sure there are many questions raised by these comments but I'll leave it here for now.