In conclusion, let us pause to consider the most awesome expression of the holy wrath of God the universe has ever witnessed or ever shall witness—far surpassing that which shall be displayed in the punishment of lost sinners in Hell, or the Lake of Fire. It took place 2,000 years ago on Mount Calvary, on Golgotha's Hill, outside the city of Jerusalem, when "[God] spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all" (Romans 8:32). There the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the triune God—out of a compassionate heart of love for lost, guilty, Hell-deserving sinners—voluntarily surrendered His life as a substitutionary atoning sacrifice on behalf of His people (2 Corinthians 5:21). He "bore our sins in His own body on the tree" (I Peter 2:24). It was there that He cried out, in great agony of soul, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46). It was there that the holy, sinless Son of God voluntarily took unto Himself the full stroke of God's justice and holy wrath that would have fallen upon every true believer (John 10:11, 15-18), suffering and dying in our stead, on our behalf (Romans 5:6-11), as the believer's Substitute—satisfying the justice and the wrath of God on our behalf by shedding His own precious blood, when His soul was made an "offering for sin" (Isaiah 53:10). For every true believer, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree" (Galatians 3:13).

The cross of Christ, the cross of a crucified Saviour, is the most powerful and impressive demonstration of the righteous judgment and wrath of God, for it truly magnifies and glorifies the holy Law of God (Romans 3:31). And it is also there, at the cross of Christ, that we see the most solemn warning of the lost sinner's danger in the coming Day of Judgment. If God spared not His only begotten Son when He took the sinner's place (Romans 8:31-33), what then must await that lost sinner who dies and enters eternity without being sheltered under His precious atoning blood?

Read the excerpt below from the chapter, “The Wrath of God,” in

Arthur Pink's excellent book, “The Attributes of God”

 

"If thou Lord, shouldest mark (impute) iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" (Ps. 130:3). Well may each of us ask this question, for it is written, "the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment" (Ps. 1:5). How sorely was Christ’s soul exercised with thoughts of God’s marking the iniquities of His people when they were upon Him! He was "amazed and very heavy" (Mark 14:33). His awful agony, His bloody sweat, His strong cries and supplications (Heb. 5:7), His reiterated prayers ("If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me"), His last dreadful cry, ("My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?") all manifest what fearful apprehensions He had of what it was for God to "mark iniquities." Well may poor sinners cry out, "Lord who shall stand" when the Son of God Himself so trembled beneath the weight of His wrath? If thou, my reader, hast not "fled for refuge" to Christ, the only Saviour, "how wilt thou do in the swelling of the Jordan?" (Jer. 12:5)?