Martin Luther On “Saved From Wrath”

   In 1 Thessalonians 1:8b – 10 the Apostle Paul says “Therefore, we don’t need to say anything, for they themselves report what kind of reception we had from you: how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.” 

   In our present time and culture we consider the idea of God’s wrath to be repugnant.  In the process of forming God into our own image we like to conceive of Him as “tamed” and “defanged,” in a matter of speaking.   We want a gentler, kinder God who thinks that we are all absolutely wonderful.  As difficult as it may be at times to comprehend, the Bible does indeed teach that God is wrathful toward sin.  He is perfectly just and infinitely holy, He cannot countenance sin.  Romans 1:18 says, “For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”  Unless, Jesus Christ had come to intercept God’s wrath in the great redemptive event – Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross – we would all be facing the wrath of God on the day of judgment and eternally.  Jesus Christ has saved His own people from judgment and wrath.  Speaking to the Thessalonian believers the Apostle Paul says, “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him” (1 Thessalonians 5:9 – 10).

   In his lectures on Galatians, Luther comments on 5:1 in reference to the believer’s freedom.  He explains in what ways Christians have been set free.  One of the things he mentions is God’s wrath.  Following is the quote:

   “This is the freedom with which Christ has set us free, not from some human slavery or tyrannical authority but from the eternal wrath of God.  Where?  In the conscience.  This is where our freedom comes to a halt; it goes no further.  For Christ has set us free, not for a political freedom or a freedom of the flesh but for a theological or spiritual freedom, that is, to make our conscience free and joyful, unafraid of the wrath to come (Matt. 3:7).  This is the most genuine freedom; it is immeasurable.  When the other kinds of freedom – political freedom and the freedom of the flesh – are compared with the greatness and the glory of this kind of freedom, they hardly amount to one little drop.  For who can express what a great gift it is for someone to be able to declare for certain that God neither is nor ever will be wrathful but will forever be a gracious and merciful Father for the sake of Christ?  It is surely a great and incomprehensible freedom to have this Supreme Majesty kindly disposed toward us, protecting and helping us, and finally even setting us free physically in such a way that our body, which is sown in perishability, in dishonor, and in weakness, is raised in imperishability, in honor, and in power (1 Cor 15:42 – 43).  Therefore the freedom by which we are free of the wrath of God forever is greater than heaven and earth and all creation” (quote from LW 27:3 – 6).