Thomas Watson, The Ten Commandments
The Wrath of God
The Wrath of God
(3) To you who have a well-grounded hope that you shall not feel this wrath, which you have deserved, let me exhort you to be very thankful to God, who has given his Son to save you from this tremendous wrath. Jesus has delivered you from wrath to come. The Lamb of God was scorched in the fire of God’s wrath for you. Christ felt the wrath which he did not deserve, that you might escape the wrath which you have deserved. Pliny observes, that there is nothing better to quench fire than blood. Christ’s blood has quenched the fire of God’s wrath for you. ‘Upon me be thy curse,’ said Rebekah to Jacob. Gen 27: 13. So said Christ to God’s justice, ‘Upon me be the curse, that my elect may inherit the blessing.’ Be patient under all the afflictions which you endure. Affliction is sharp, but it is not wrath, it is not hell. who would not willingly drink in the cup of affliction that knows he shall never drink in the cup of damnation? Who would not be willing to bear the wrath of man that knows he shall never feel the wrath of God?
Christian, though thou mayest feel the rod, thou shalt never feel the bloody axe. Augustine once said, ‘Strike, Lord, where thou wilt, if sin be pardoned.’ So say, ‘Afflict me, Lord, as thou wilt in this life, seeing I shall escape the wrath to come.’
