Are You Bracing for God’s Anger?

We have a phrase that we use when we are trying something questionable, about to do something we might get in trouble for, or about to do something we shouldn’t. We say, “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.”

Usually, that term is used for business or trying to be different, but it seems like that phrase only works if the person we ask forgiveness would truly grant it. This quote is credited to a U.S. Naval officer, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. Imagine that if you were in the military and acted this way, I imagine asking for forgiveness would come with a lot of yelling, a lot of anger, and maybe a lot of pushups.

What do you think it’s like when you come to God and ask for forgiveness? There is a lot of language in the Bible about sin, God’s holiness, and His wrath toward sin. I think many of us have this view that when we sin and come to God, there will be a lot of yelling, a lot of anger, and, yes – even pushups.

But the Bible teaches us something quite different about how God responds to the sinner and their request for forgiveness, and we see that in Jesus. Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-29:

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

We probably fly past that sometimes, but Jesus invites the weary and burdened to come into his presence because He is gentle, not harsh and mean, gentle. There is a powerful book that Dan Ortland wrote called Gentle and Lowly that digs into this very topic, and in reflection on a passage in Hebrews 5 about the gentleness of Jesus, Dane writes,

“The point is that Jesus deals gently and only gently with all sinners who come to Him, irrespective of their particular offense and just how heinous it is.”

It’s hard to imagine. That when we come to Jesus with our sin, issues, and brokenness, He would welcome us with gentleness rather than anger and harshness. I think it is hard to imagine how Jesus would respond because it is usually exactly the opposite of how I would respond. Often times when people sin against me, I’m mad, want retribution, want revenge, want payment.

But that’s not what Jesus’s heart is; He is gentle and humble in heart. Maybe today, when we go to Jesus, we could remember that He will be gentle instead of bracing for yelling. Maybe today, when we go to Jesus, we could remember that He will be gentle instead of bracing for anger. And maybe today, when we do to Jesus, instead of bracing for pushups, we could remember that because Jesus went to the cross, the payment has already been made, and therefore He welcomes us with gentleness.