“…even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”
(1 Thess. 1:10)
As surely as night follows day, God’s wrath will most certainly and inevitably come upon sinners who choose to live and die in their sins. The reality of this truth ought to be of primary concern for every person alive, since Scripture makes it clear that this coming wrath of God will result in both unimaginable and unending suffering for guilty sinners. “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power,” (2 Thess. 1:7-9).
But thanks to his infinitely marvelous grace, this same God secured complete deliverance from his wrath for those he chose to redeem. This, in fact, is one of the primary reasons the blood of the Lamb of God had to be shed; it was the only way by which his people could be rescued from this inevitable “wrath to come.”
The blood of Jesus – the price of our redemption – ransomed man both fully and freely from experiencing the righteous and terrible anger of God toward sin. “Much more then, being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him,” (Rom. 5:9). Christ’s mediatorial answer to God’s wrath was no temporary reprieve, mitigation, or abatement but rather a full and enduring deliverance, completely and utterly sufficient to deliver his people from the outpouring of God’s vengeance for sin.
John Flavel said, “He did not think it worth the shedding of his blood to respite the execution for a while. No, in the procurement of their eternal deliverance from wrath, and in the purchase of their eternal inheritance, he has but an even bargain, not a jot more than his blood was worth. Therefore is he become the Author of [Eternal Salvation] to them that obey him, Heb. 5:9.”[1]
As Romans 8:1 affirms, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,” for every ounce of God’s great and terrible wrath for sin was squeezed out into that bitter cup of which Christ drank fully and completely.
Contemplations:
- Lord, when you came to redeem your people, you did it all fully and freely. Your divinely designed plan of salvation housed the infinite treasures that are found in the precious blood of the Lamb of God – the only currency sufficient to purchase our deliverance from your wrath.
- Lord, this deliverance obtained for us by your death is a special and distinguishing deliverance. It is not common to all, but instead peculiar to some who, by nature, are no better than those that are left under wrath.
- What a wonderful salvation this is Lord! It would weary the arm of an angel to write down all the wonders that are found in this salvation. That ever such a design should be laid, such a project of grace contrived in the heart of God, who held every right to allow the entire human race to perish… if he so chose.
- How ungrateful and disingenuous it is for those who have obtained such a deliverance as this to begrudge those light afflictions they temporarily suffer on Christ’s account in this world! What are these sufferings, that we should complain about them?
- I can never suffer for Christ anything that comes close to being comparable to what he endured by the price of his own blood to rescue me from God’s coming wrath for sin.
Further References for 1 Thess. 1:10:
1 Thess. 5:9; Rom. 5:9; Matt. 1:21; 2 Cor. 5:18
[1] John Flavel, The Fountain of Life Opened, (London: Printed for Rob. White, for Francis Tyton .., 1673), 524.
