About StriderMTB
Hi, I'm Matt. "Strider" from Lord of the Rings is my favorite literary character of all time and for various reasons I write under the pseudonym "StriderMTB. As my blog suggests I seek to live out both the excitement and tension of a Christian walk with Christ in the 3rd world context of Asia. I started my blog as an unmarried man who was blessed to oversee an orphanage of amazing children in South-East Asia. As of 2022, I am a happily married man to an amazing missionary wife serving together on the mission field. I hate lima beans and love to pour milk over my ice-cream. I try to stay active in both reading and writing and this blog is a smattering of my many thoughts. I see the Kingdom of God as Jesus preached it and lived to be the only hope for a broken world and an apathetic church.
A Theology in Tension 
Sounds strange to me. Where does the Bible say God has no more wrath? And although Paul does say that we should consider ourselves dead to sin, he also makes it clear that our flesh (sinful desires) will war against out spirit. I agree with Wesley that we are freed from the power of sin. With the Spirit’s help we are being transformed as we put to death the deeds of the flesh and live godly lives.
It seems Graham is teaching hyper grace: the idea that all of our sins have been forgiven–past, present, and future–so when God looks at us he sees perfection.
I would argue that all who are “in Christ” start with a deficit, and we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Positionally, we are sanctified, but practical sanctification involves living out our faith and being conformed to the image of Christ.
Hi Peter, you bring up some good points. I have been chewing on this post myself for the past week. I am writing something at present that addresses how I believe we ought to interpret God’s wrath post-cross. For it is the cross where all of God attributes come into fuller focus. For now I think the angle I would take would be to say that those who are in Christ should be liberated from a sense that God is still angry at them when they sin. If we really do believe Christ took upon himself our judgment than it would seem to me that a Christian who lives in fear of God’s anger fails to understand that the Father forsook the Son so that He didn’t have to forsake us. When we sin it is not so much that God is angry AT us, but rather that God is disappointed FOR us. I definitely wouldn’t say that “those who are in Christ start with a deficit.” Quite the opposite. We were formerly cut off from Christ and dead in sins, but are now alive in God and positioned in Christ such that we have access to all that Christ is and wants to be for us. Our starting place is “Christ in us the hope of glory”– no deficit there. If the cross means anything it means whatever debt/deficit we had before with God has been paid in full through Christ’s self-sacrifice. When the Scriptures advise us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” I don’t believe that means we are to live in a state of perpetual fear of God’s anger whenever we stumble and fall into sin. Rather I believe it highlights that we live out our lives in a state of real, spiritual conflict where there exists a roaring lion looking to devour and multiple avenues of sin that can take us captive and rob us of all that God wants to be for us. The “fear and trembling” would be an attitude of alertness and sober-mindedness that we are engaged in spiritual warfare, and not an attitude that assumes God will turn on us like an angry bear whenever we get it wrong.
Hi Matt,
Christians don’t need to fear condemnation, but I’m not aware of any Bible verses that promise God won’t be angry or feel wrath when we sin. I don’t mean to imply that I think we should view God as one who is angry every time we sin, but if we harden our hearts to the Holy Spirit’s conviction and continue in our sins, I suspect he might feel wrath since he hates sin and rebellion. And I believe that those who practice sin and do not repent will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who do not abide in Christ will be removed from the vine.
When I say “deficit,” I’m not referring to a debt. I’m merely saying we come into a covenant relationship with Christ as we are and we receive his Spirit who works in us to help us be conformed to his image. We all start with a significant deficit in this regard but we are being changed degree by degree into the image of Christ (sanctification).
I do not believe the Bible teaches imputed righteousness or that God sees us as perfect because we are “in Christ.” I believe God sees us as we are and lovingly and patiently works in us giving us the desire and power to put to death the deeds of the flesh and walk in the Spirit.
Finally, I agree that “fear and trembling” does not mean we should view God as an angry bear every time we get it wrong; he is our father. However, I think it means much more than being alert. The Bible says we are “being saved” and throughout the NT we are told that those who persevere till the end will inherit eternal life. We are to take sin very seriously and recognize that we are not eternally secure until we are securely in eternity.
Again you bring up some good points and I appreciate it. I actually have some minor problems with imputed righteousness myself and the penal substitutionary view–at least how some people interpret it or explain it for the masses. So I am really not comfortable in viewing Christ’s act on the cross as some sort of “lightning rod” that absorbs all God’s anger towards humanity and sin. It seem to imply Christ’s act of love influenced the Father in some way and changed Him from angry to loving. But I read, “God so LOVED the world He gave His only Son…” In other words I don’t hold that the cross changed something internal to God (angry and wrathful to loving and forgiving). Rather I think the cross changed how God can deal with us as sinners enslaved to a fallen world of evil and the demonic. So in that sense I wasn’t altogether comfortable with the quote of Graham about pouring out all His anger on Jesus. I’m really not sure if I would see the cross in that manner. (I have a more Christus Victor view of atonement).
But regardless I really like his overall point about how we need to consider ourselves dead to sin (now) and recognize that through the cross the Father comes to us in a manner of restoration and healing, not anger over our sin. I particularly liked his point about Christian leaders not viewing those we are discipling with a negative lens that sees them in terms of their failures and mistakes and sins. Rather to see them as those who can be changed and transformed, “from glory to glory” as we encourage them to behold God as for them–not against them. I work with a lot of broken people and easily get discouraged when I see them as they are–in their sin. It really invokes critical, unloving judgment that is sinful itself and part of eating from the “wrong tree in the garden.” I find myself more motivated and renewed to see them with eyes of faith–which is to say I ask God to help me look past their sin and see them as those who are crucified with Christ, seated with Christ in heavenly places.
Lastly I don’t believe many (I didn’t for a long time) properly understand the nature of God’s wrath. Many see it as the flip side of God’s love–but that is so misguided since love is who God IS. I think God’s wrath is what his all-consuming glory and love looks like to those who refuse to be submitted to it. His wrath is ultimately his glory for truth, righteousness and justice unleashed, such that it will consume all that is contrary to it. The same sun can melt butter or harden clay. I am presently wrestling with this now…and hope to post it up sometime in the future. At minimum I think you have shown me I should probably consider changing the title of the post 🙂