How to Understand the Anger of God

So, just as these things cannot be understood literally, without horrible irreverence, of him whom the authority of Holy Scripture declares to be invisible, beyond words, beyond understanding, beyond measure, simple, and not made up of parts, so neither can the passion of anger and wrath be attributed to that unchangeable nature without fearful blasphemy. For we ought to see that the limbs stand for the divine powers and the boundless workings of God, which can be represented to us only by the familiar language of limbs. By the mouth we should understand his utterances, which in his mercy are continually poured into the hidden senses of the soul, or which he spoke among our fathers and the prophets. By the eyes we can understand the boundless reach of his sight, with which he sees and looks through all things, so that nothing we do or could do, or even think, is hidden from him. By the word “hands” we understand his providence and his work, by which he is the creator and author of all things. The arms are the emblems of his might and government, with which he upholds, rules, and controls all things. And to say nothing of other things, what else does the white hair of his head signify but the eternity and everlastingness of the Godhead, by which he is without any beginning, before all times, and above all creatures? [a]

So then also, when we read of the anger or fury of the Lord, we should take it not in the unworthy sense of a human passion, but in a sense worthy of God, who is free from all passion. By it we should understand that he is the judge and avenger of all the unjust things done in this world; and because of these terms and their meaning we should dread him as the terrible rewarder of our deeds, and be afraid to do anything against his will. For human nature tends to fear those it knows to be indignant, and is afraid of offending them. So it is with some very just judges: those who are tormented by some accusation of their conscience usually fear their avenging wrath. Not that this passion exists in the minds of those who are going to judge with perfect fairness; but while the guilty are afraid, the judge’s attitude toward them is what goes before a just and impartial carrying out of the law. And this, however kindly and gently it may be carried out, is thought by those who are justly to be punished to be the most savage wrath and fierce anger.

It would be tedious, and outside the scope of the present work, to explain everything that Holy Scripture says of God figuratively, in human terms. Let it be enough for our present purpose, which is aimed against the sin of wrath, to have said this much, so that no one may through ignorance draw down on himself a cause of this evil, and of eternal death, from those very Scriptures in which he ought to seek holiness and immortality as the remedies that bring life and salvation.