When is God a Consuming Fire?

The answer is that he is this way when "there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." Heb. 10:26: "If we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." Then verse 27 begins: "But [instead] a terrifying expectation of judgment." In other words there are two possibilities: 1) terrifying judgment or 2) a sacrifice for sins. This means that sin is what God is angry about. And it means that he has made a provision for escaping his anger, namely, the sacrifice of his Son in the place of sinners.

The love of God provides escape from the wrath of God by sacrificing the Son of God to vindicate the glory of God in forgiving sinners. That's the gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ , the essence of Christianity , makes no sense at all apart from the wrath of God. If there is no wrath and no judgment to escape, then Christ was sacrificed in vain.


April 13, 1997
Bethlehem Baptist Church
John Piper, Pastor
Copyright 1997 John Piper
www.desiringgod.org