God’s Wrath Removed

“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.” (John 3:36)

Does this verse teach that it is by believing on the Son of God that God’s wrath is removed? Many think so. However, the Truth is that if any do believe on the LORD Jesus Christ, it is because God “hath” already given them everlasting life because of the LORD Jesus Christ, their Substitute. Their Faith is the Evidence of having been ordained of God to salvation and purchased by Christ’s death, Acts 13:48. However, if any do not believe, their continued unbelief and dying in unbelief is the evidence of ALWAYS having been under God’s wrath. The key to God’s wrath and condemnation being removed is in John 3:14-15, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

The Bible clearly states that some were ordained as vessels of mercy (the elect), and the rest as vessels of wrath, Romans 9:22-23. There is no question that all are deserving of God’s wrath as sinners, “… and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” (Ephesians 2:3) This may be understood in two ways: that in our nature we are all like those who are objects of God’s wrath, and, we are by nature ‘wrathful’ children, at enmity with God. Nonetheless, those for whom the LORD Jesus died were never ordained to wrath, “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our LORD Jesus Christ.” (1 Thess. 5:9) That wrath due to God’s elect, the LORD Jesus Christ bore to the uttermost in His death on the cross, Romans 5:9. When He cried out in Matthew 27:46, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me...” it was because He was willingly delivered up as the Substitute and sin-Bearer of His elect to fully satisfy God’s justice on their behalf. Until His death, all were under the legal condemnation of Adam and the law but God withheld His wrath from them in His forbearance because it was already determined that the LORD Jesus should die for them. Now that Christ has fully accomplished the law in its precepts and penalty, there remains therefore NO CONDEMNATION, Romans 8:1.