What Does The Bible Say About God’s Anger

Anger in its purest form can be a very beautiful and desirable emotion. One of the greatest features of God is that He can be angry. However, His anger is entirely different from ours. God is superior to us in every way and every nature or attribute that He has is beautiful. God’s anger, according to the Bible, is the result of displeasure and hostility against sin and evil. The anger of God is not out of control. It is logical, but not hypocritical. The anger or wrath of God is perfect. Upon careful rational and moral scrutiny, we will discover that God’s anger is without flaw or shame. Most of us fail miserably when we get angry. Our anger can hurt people— even ourselves. That said, when God gets angry, it is for His good and our own.

Unlike human beings, God’s emotions do not overwhelm Him to the point where His feelings begin to shred wisdom and love into broken fragments. God is always in control and He is always wise and compassionate. Just because He exercises His wrath doesn’t mean that He is no longer just and righteous. Whatever God does, it is always fair and selfless. What makes God even more astonishing is that He is slow to anger and quick to forgive (Psalm 103:8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.).

The Bible tells us that our righteous God is angry with the wicked every day (Psalm 7:11), but let us not equate His anger with our own human experiences of anger. The Bible tells us that it is possible to get angry and not commit sin (Ephesians 4:26-27). Since God is righteous and cannot sin, His anger is therefore always righteous. Human anger can be harsh and unfair. It is said that “Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires” (James 1:20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.).

The Reason for God’s Anger

In order for us to have a better understanding of God’s anger, it is important that we dig deeper and study the Bible. The anger of God is provoked when there is a violation of His nature or character. God is holy, righteous, and just; these attributes of Him cannot be compromised (Exodus 20:4-6). God doesn’t grow angry without any reason. In the Old Testament, God was always angry with Israel because the people were stubborn and forgetful, and disobeyed God’s commandments. Therefore, instead of experiencing the lavish and unfailing love of God, the Israelites suffered war, disease, famine, and natural calamities. 

God gets angry whenever people turn away from His commands (1 Kings 11:9-10; 2 Kings 17:18). Our Holy God gets angry when mothers sacrifice their babies to false and imaginary gods. He gets angry when sexual perversion rules over the land, or when people are murdering their neighbors because of greed. God is angry when, instead of loving each other, we destroy one another. God is called the Father, and what is a father that does not get angry when something evil and harmful has befallen the lives of His children. God is angry because of sin and wickedness. Yet in His divine anger, He still declares, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live” (Ezekiel 33:11).

God’s Anger is Love

Believe it or not, it is because of this anger that God has saved us. God is the transcendent paragon of love, and love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in truth (1 Corinthians 13:6). God is angry because there is a good reason for Him to be angry. He is angry with all the “sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness” (Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,). God is the antithesis of wickedness. In Him, there is no evil and no matter what the critics say, the Bible is always clear that God’s anger is just. 

God’s anger or wrath is to be feared because He is powerful and faithful enough to do what He promises (Jeremiah 32:17). Fear the anger of the Lord because He promised eternal punishment to those who are not righteous (Matthew 25:46), and a human being can only be righteous through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22). What is more astounding than God’s anger is the love of Christ. In order for God to save us from His own wrath or anger, He did something that we could not do and has done what we don’t deserve, which is to give us Christ, His only begotten Son. Because of Jesus, we are justified (Romans 3:26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.). We are saved from the eternal wrath that is about to come.

The Love of God

For God to save us, Jesus experienced the full measure of God’s wrath on the cross. Because of what Jesus did, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit,” Romans 8:1-4 (ESV). We are very blessed to have a God who hates sin and evil. Because God grows angry at sin, we encourage you to be angry at sin as well.