Propitiation - I now begin to understand the wrath of God

This is a little long, but please read it all and let me know what you think.

I recently was reading through Lamentations and came across this verse:

Why should a living man complain,
a man, about the punishment of his sins?

I pondered this for a while and came up with some thoughts using Lamentations 3:25-39, Romans 3:21-26, and Romans 6:15-23. The gist of the lesson boiled down to two main ideas:

1. When I choose to sin, how can I possibly feel justified in complaining about the painful consequences of my reckless self-indulgence?
2. When I sin and God allows me to continue in this life – though, justly, I should be struck dead – why am I motivated to rail against God rather than thanking Him for allowing the opportunity to humble myself and correct my life?

To get to the topic of this post, we need to consider Romans 3:25 which speaks of the propitiation that God has offered. What is “propitiation”? To propitiate is to “gain or regain the favor or goodwill of: appease, conciliate.” The clear implication is that something has been done to anger one to whom an act of propitiation needs to be offered. Speaking about God and I, that “something” is sin. And, really, “anger” isn't a strong enough word – God is full of wrath and indignation because of my sin!

Why is God so full of wrath because I've decided to sin? God can have nothing to do with darkness/impurity/sin, so sin clearly separates God and I. I think that is more of a cause of heartbreak or disappointment to God than anger. The answer to where God's wrath comes from is the means by which propitiation is made – the blood of Jesus. Jesus had to die for my sins to be washed away and the relationship with God to be restored. When I sin, I declare the following to God: “I don't care about Jesus nor His sacrifice for me.” I think we all understand that at a superficial level.

I would not have been able to fully comprehend this until two and half years ago. That is when this little bit of pure joy came into my life. When Willow was born, a new way of looking at the world was revealed to me. I want nothing bad to happen to her. I know that she will have her scrapes and scratches and the scars to attest, but I want to do all that I can to take care of her because I love her so much. Even considering something harming her – let alone taking her life – makes me feel like I've just fallen off a cliff and brings tears to my eyes.

Imagine that this situation arose – you have some medical condition or something that no one is able to fix. You're going to lose your life if you don't find a remedy. Somehow, it is discovered that the only way for you to be cured is by something Willow can offer. In order for this to happen, though, Willow would have to die. This is stretching things, but imagine that I actually allow her to die for you. Try to appreciate the thought and turmoil that would have to go into that kind of decision.

Next, imagine that all goes well with your procedure and you are in perfect health. Would you be grateful? Would you show appreciation for what has happened so that you can enjoy your life? Of course not! You would continue living your life exactly as if nothing had happened. Not only that, but you would go out of your way to ignore that any gift had been given you.

Then, try to imagine my reaction. I would beat you nearly senseless all day long for as long as I had strength. I would make your life such a tortured, painful mess that you would beg and plead for me to end it all. There would be absolutely no bounds to the amount of pain that I would enjoy inflicting upon you. My retribution would be unceasing. My wrath would have no limits.

That is how God must feel when I sin. He gave His son's life for me, and I act as if nothing happened. Think about that the next time you're tempted to neglect an opportunity God has blessed you with to share His message or you are about to succumb to some tempting pleasure.

Spare yourself from God's wrath and you will have no reason to complain about anything.