Is God Angry at Me When I Sin?

00:00:00.000 | Hello again, and thank you for listening to Ask Pastor John with longtime author and pastor

00:00:08.480 | John Piper.

00:00:09.480 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:00:12.320 | As you can imagine, we get a lot of questions about what it means to live as a child of

00:00:15.800 | God.

00:00:16.800 | We go from being a rebel against the king to becoming a child of the king.

00:00:22.040 | So how does God's disposition toward us change in the process?

00:00:25.520 | And specifically, is God angry at His children when they sin?

00:00:30.120 | It's a question from a listener named Kathleen.

00:00:32.200 | "Pastor John, hello.

00:00:33.640 | As a born-again believer, is God still angry at me when I sin?

00:00:37.080 | I believe God's wrath is real, and I have embraced Christ's propitiation for my sins,

00:00:42.480 | but I struggle to understand the differences between God's wrath and anger over my sin

00:00:46.400 | before and after my justification.

00:00:49.520 | I personally hate my own sin and want to be done with it all, but for now, does Christ's

00:00:54.480 | death for my sins and subsequent propitiation mean that God is never angry at me when I

00:01:00.360 | sin or just that His final wrath on me was satisfied?

00:01:05.000 | What is God's affectional disposition toward me in Christ when I stumble and sin in my

00:01:11.760 | life right now?"

00:01:14.560 | It might be possible to put in a sentence or two the complex affectional disposition

00:01:23.620 | of God toward His children in this age, but it seems to me that such effort to do is less

00:01:32.840 | than what the Scriptures actually do when we read them regarding God's disposition

00:01:39.800 | toward us.

00:01:41.640 | It gives some help to try to synthesize those words.

00:01:46.640 | I do this all the time.

00:01:48.120 | That's what preaching and theology is, is the effort to make sense out of all the passages

00:01:53.800 | of the Bible.

00:01:54.800 | But when it comes down to it, early in the morning, late at night, when we need some

00:02:02.020 | word of truth and firmness and helpfulness and encouragement, it isn't so much the

00:02:09.360 | syntheses that have power in our lives, but the very words of God Himself in Scripture.

00:02:18.560 | So let me do both, but really put the emphasis on the Scriptures.

00:02:23.720 | Let me say just a short word of synthesis and then refer, Kathleen, to the very specific

00:02:31.760 | passages of Scripture.

00:02:34.040 | Here's my synthesis.

00:02:37.960 | God's punitive—that is, punishing or condemning—anger is completely absorbed by Jesus when He died.

00:02:49.800 | He became a curse for us.

00:02:51.240 | He bore our sin.

00:02:54.200 | But God may still be angry and displeased and grieved toward His loved children in a

00:03:04.680 | disciplinary sense rather than a condemning sense.

00:03:11.000 | Or let's put it positively.

00:03:13.640 | Whereas before we were believers, we could not please God—Hebrews 11:6, "Without

00:03:21.160 | faith you can't please God."

00:03:23.640 | Before we could not please God, but were by nature children of wrath.

00:03:29.480 | Now that we are believers, we do please God, and He feels great delight in us as His children.

00:03:38.120 | So that's my synthesis of what I see.

00:03:42.360 | So let me turn to specific Scriptures so that these can just sink in.

00:03:48.800 | Let's start with the fundamental truth that God is a very happy God in providing gospel

00:03:56.120 | hope to sinners.

00:03:58.720 | First Timothy 1:11, Paul refers to the gospel of the glory of the blessed or happy God.

00:04:07.520 | We just have to be sure that we rid our minds, we just get rid of a gloomy picture of God

00:04:16.320 | whose Son somehow finagled a way for us to sneak into heaven and stay out of His way,

00:04:25.840 | just to slap us around like maybe our Father did.

00:04:30.480 | We got to be done with thoughts that God is disinclined to save sinners.

00:04:38.640 | Luke 15:7, over and over, like four times, "Just so I tell you, there will be more joy

00:04:44.120 | in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who have no need

00:04:49.280 | of repentance."

00:04:50.280 | And we know it's talking about not just angels throwing a party, but God Himself, because

00:04:54.720 | in the parable of the prodigal son, that's in fact what He does.

00:04:58.000 | He runs out, He grabs His son, hugs him, throws a party, and says, "Come on, come on, older

00:05:03.200 | son.

00:05:04.200 | He's home, He's alive."

00:05:05.200 | I mean, this Father's just oozing gladness, not begrudging, "Well, I guess I have to

00:05:12.240 | save my son who wrecked all my property."

00:05:15.120 | It's just not like that.

00:05:17.560 | So He does hate sin.

00:05:19.440 | I mean, we're not going to gloss over, God hates sin, including mine, my regenerate John

00:05:27.760 | Piper sinning.

00:05:29.840 | God hates sin, not only because it dishonors Him, but because it damages me, it damages

00:05:36.240 | us, Christians.

00:05:38.040 | So Ephesians 4:30 says that we can grieve God with our sin, and 1 Thessalonians 5:19

00:05:46.000 | says we can quench His Spirit with our sin.

00:05:50.680 | And it's plain from 1 Thessalonians 4:1 that some behaviors please God and some behaviors

00:05:58.240 | displease God.

00:06:01.040 | And probably the most important text on feeling the tension and getting it right is Hebrews

00:06:07.080 | 12, where it says, verse 5, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

00:06:14.880 | or be weary when reproved by Him, for the Lord disciplines the one He loves."

00:06:22.480 | This is what is hard for us to feel when we're being disciplined, because the discipline

00:06:26.460 | here is physical suffering at least.

00:06:29.880 | It may be other things as well, because He said you haven't yet resisted unto shedding

00:06:33.900 | of blood, so we know what kinds of things He's talking about.

00:06:37.600 | And He chastises every son whom He receives, and the Proverbs says every son He delights

00:06:43.400 | in.

00:06:45.160 | God—I'm still reading now—verse 10, "God disciplines us for our good, that we

00:06:51.560 | may share His holiness.

00:06:54.600 | For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields

00:07:00.380 | the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

00:07:06.440 | Here's what we have to affirm and see texts.

00:07:12.400 | In and through and under all of this grieving and quenching and displeasing and the resultant

00:07:22.840 | discipline, under, in, through, all of that, we must not lose sight of the following text.

00:07:32.280 | So let me just read them.

00:07:33.920 | They're glorious.

00:07:34.920 | Bathe in these.

00:07:35.920 | Romans 8, 1, "There is now no condemnation, none, for those who are in Christ Jesus."

00:07:45.720 | That is gone.

00:07:46.720 | It's over.

00:07:47.720 | No guilt, no condemnation, no punishment.

00:07:54.200 | Christ took it all.

00:07:55.200 | Romans 8, 31, "If God is for us," which He is, 100%, "who can be against us?

00:08:01.700 | He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not with Him

00:08:06.960 | graciously give us all things?"

00:08:09.340 | God is bent on giving us everything that is good for us.

00:08:15.000 | Ephesians 2, 4, "God being rich in mercy because of the great love," that's the only place

00:08:21.600 | in the Apostle Paul where that phrase is used, "great love," which He loved, "the great love

00:08:27.360 | with which He loved us even when we were dead and in our trespasses made us alive together

00:08:33.400 | with Christ."

00:08:34.400 | If you're alive in Jesus, which means if your heart is alive to Jesus, loving Jesus, trusting

00:08:40.840 | Jesus, He has great love for you, and that's the evidence of it.

00:08:46.440 | Or Psalm 103, my favorite gospel psalm, I think, "He does not deal with us according

00:08:52.720 | to our sins or repay us according to our iniquities.

00:08:56.720 | As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love towards those

00:09:02.300 | who fear Him.

00:09:03.440 | As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us."

00:09:09.360 | And here it gets really tender, sweet.

00:09:11.600 | "As a father pities or has compassion on his children, so the Lord pities, has compassion

00:09:20.040 | on those who fear Him."

00:09:22.080 | Or Zephaniah 317, "The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save.

00:09:28.560 | He will rejoice over you with gladness.

00:09:33.120 | He will quiet you by His love.

00:09:36.400 | He will exalt over you with loud singing."

00:09:42.560 | Can you hear God singing?

00:09:44.720 | No, you cannot, because you don't have glorified ears yet, and you wouldn't be able to take

00:09:50.000 | it.

00:09:51.000 | "He will sing thunderous loud."

00:09:52.320 | Luke 12, 32, "Fear not, little flock.

00:09:55.760 | It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

00:10:00.400 | Oh, I love that verse.

00:10:02.640 | Your Father, little flock.

00:10:04.520 | So He's a Father, He's a shepherd, He's a King, and He's not giving us the kingdom merely.

00:10:10.600 | He's loving to give us the kingdom.

00:10:13.360 | He's finding good pleasure in giving us the kingdom.

00:10:16.880 | Or Psalm 147, 10, "His delight is not in the strength of a horse.

00:10:22.680 | His pleasure is not in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear

00:10:29.920 | Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love."

00:10:32.480 | And the reason I think that's precious is because you might say, "Well, I've got strong

00:10:37.200 | legs.

00:10:38.200 | I can run.

00:10:39.200 | Why isn't God delighting in my strength?"

00:10:40.360 | This text is written for the last hour of your life, man.

00:10:43.520 | I mean, you're going to have no legs.

00:10:45.280 | You're going to be lying in a bed.

00:10:46.640 | You're going to weigh 85 pounds.

00:10:48.120 | You're going to be in a diaper.

00:10:49.840 | You're going to be breathing through your mouth, and you're going to be wishing you

00:10:52.040 | were dead, and nothing is required of you but hope for Him to delight in you at that

00:10:58.800 | moment.

00:10:59.800 | So that's good news.

00:11:00.800 | That is really, really good news for helpless people, and all of us are going to be helpless

00:11:05.680 | sooner or later.

00:11:08.160 | And the last text, one of my favorite new covenant promises, Jeremiah 32, 40, "I will make with

00:11:15.240 | them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them.

00:11:21.680 | And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, and they will not turn from me."

00:11:26.600 | And here it comes, "I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land

00:11:35.280 | with faithfulness, with all my heart and with all my soul."

00:11:43.880 | Maybe one last summary word that might help put God's displeasure with our sinning together

00:11:53.480 | with His delight in us as His children.

00:11:58.280 | Even though God is displeased when we sin, He never looks on us with contempt.

00:12:06.320 | I remember talking to a woman some time ago who was struggling with feeling the affections

00:12:15.200 | of God because of a sense of continual disapproval, and when I introduced the distinction between

00:12:22.840 | the disapproval of the behavior of one you love and contempt for one you find disgust

00:12:29.560 | in, she felt something run off, something clicked in her mind, and maybe this would

00:12:37.080 | help you as well.

00:12:38.880 | He never looks upon us with contempt because He's always for us, never against us.

00:12:48.880 | He will always restore us and bring us unfailingly to an eternity when there will be no grieving

00:12:58.120 | Him, no quenching Him, no displeasing Him anymore.

00:13:03.500 | Really good, so precious.

00:13:05.520 | Last week I was reading an old Puritan book on fellowship with the person of the Spirit,

00:13:09.720 | and there the author made the point that an enemy can be slighted, but only a friend can

00:13:15.720 | be grieved.

00:13:16.720 | That's good, that's good.

00:13:18.300 | Only a friend can be grieved.

00:13:19.300 | That's really good.

00:13:20.300 | So good.

00:13:21.300 | Similar to what you said.

00:13:22.300 | Thank you, Pastor John, for those very helpful words, and thank you for listening to listen

00:13:26.080 | to our past episodes or send us a question of your own.

00:13:28.360 | Go to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:13:34.520 | Friday we return to address the important question over whether or not God created all

00:13:38.080 | of His creation because He needed it.

00:13:41.840 | If He couldn't have displayed His glory without creation, does that make Him dependent on

00:13:47.480 | what He has made?

00:13:49.280 | And of course that is problematic if that's true, God in need of creation.

00:13:53.720 | It's a tricky and weighty question.

00:13:56.640 | It's up on Friday for Pastor John.

00:13:58.760 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.

00:13:59.760 | We'll see you then.

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Is God Angry at Me When I Sin?

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