Is There No Wrath of God in the New Testament?

It is fallacious to regard this as essentially an Old Testament problem, and to set the "bloodthirsty" Old Testament over against the "gentle" New Testament. Possibly the phenomenon is more crude in the Old Testament than in the New, but of the two the New Testament is the more terrible, for the Old Testament seldom speaks of anything beyond temporal judgments.... whereas the Son of Man in the Gospels pronounces eternal punishment.

- John W. Wenham, The Goodness of God

Quoted in Dr. Christopher Wright's, The God I Don't Understand, p. 81


Many people see the New Testament as the more gentle of the two Testaments. In the Old, we have many scenes of blood, carnage and the justice of God is a frequent refrain. But consider the wrath of God that we see in the New Testament:

Romans 1:18: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

God is said to have killed people because they did not observe The Lord's Supper correctly:

1 Cor. 11:27 - 32: Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

In Acts 5 we see the immediate justice of God poured out against the sin of Ananias and Sapphira:

Acts 5:1-11: But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.

After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

The book of Revelation is full of the wrath of God. Revelation 14 is one the scariest passages in all the Bible:

Revelation 14: 14-20: Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.

Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia.

But the most poignant picture of God wrath in all the New Testament is of course the cross of Christ. Most of us think of the cross as only showing us the picture of God's love for us (which is gloriously true - Romans 5:8) but we HAVE to see the wrath of God poured out as well or we will minimize our sin and defame the justice of God that is essential to his nature.

Romans 3:25
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

Hebrews 2:17
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

1 John 2:2
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 4:10
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

(Click here if you are unfamiliar with the word, propitiation)

The NT is full of evidence of the wrath of God (there is many more passages that could have been cited). This is central to the gospel and never must be diminished. Don't let people continue in the belief that the OT = wrath and the NT = grace and mercy. Both Testaments are unified in their expressions of wrath and grace. It's one story with Jesus' righteous life and sin bearing death and resurrection as the centerpiece.