“I know and understand God’s wrath being towards unbelievers. What about believers? Can God’s wrath be on believers with sin in their life? Can unrepented sin cause God’s wrath to be on them even though they believe in Christ and have faith? OR does Christ’s death cover all our sins? Past,present,and future? I think about Romans 3 where it speaks of Christ being the propitiation for our sins…”
The answer is hit dead on in this question with the word propitiation. Propitiation is another one of those big words that we must know and will greatly impact our lives.
I agree with how Wayne Grudem defines propitiation in his very helpful systematic theology: “A sacrifice that bears God’s wrath to the end and in so doing changes God’s wrath toward us into favor.”
In the place of believers Christ was set forth publicly to propitiate God’s wrath, that is to satisfy completely, put an end to and completely remove (Rom. 3.25; Heb. 2.17; 1 Jn. 2.2; 4.10). In completely satisfying the wrath there no longer remains any guilt for sin (cf. Rom.8.1, also Col. 2.13).
I really like Grudem’s definition because it brings with it the idea of favor. Propitious as defined by dictionary.com is to be favorably inclined. Jesus Christ was offered to make God propitious towards believers. He accomplished this propitiation upon the cross and as long as this sacrifice towards believers is accepted God is inclined towards Christ’s sheep (another reason why you cannot loose your salvation, btw, it is tied to the complete work of Christ, but that is, as my pastor says, for free.)
With reference to a believer’s sin, how does God deal with it? He does discipline us (Heb.12.5-10), but this is in love, with Christ likeness in view. A believer must also repent of sin (1 Jn. 1.7-8) for we understand that unconfessed sin dishonors God and even hinders prayers (Ps. 66.18; 1 Pet. 3.7). The thing to remember is that believers do not like sin, in fact they cannot continue in it (1 Jn. 2.4, 3.9-10), for it grieves them as it grieves God.
Great question. Hopefully this is helpful and it surely does fit with the goal of this site, namely, to aid us in becoming more impressed with Jesus.
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