The Wrath of the Lamb

Revelation 6:16 calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,

16 καὶ λέγουσιν τοῖς ὄρεσιν καὶ ταῖς πέτραις· πέσετε ἐφ᾽ ἡμᾶς καὶ κρύψατε ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ καθημένου ἐπὶ τοῦ θρόνου καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ὀργῆς τοῦ ἀρνίου,

If you were to take this verse completely out of context it would look absolutely ridiculous. The phrase  τῆς ὀργῆς τοῦ ἀρνίου looks completely absurd. It's certainly  not something that seems to warrant the preposition ἀπὸ which means "from," but it has the sense not so much of place like εκ does, but it has the idea of being kept apart from something. Their prayer is to be protected from the wrath of the lamb.


You will notice that in this verse the word "Lamb" is spelled with a big "L." It has to be or else it would not make any sense. A fully-grown sheep is hardly threatening. Who is afraid of a lamb? Lambs are for petting zoos. They are certainly not an animal to be feared. You should worry about an angry ram, but not an angry lamb. I keep thinking of the puppet Lambchop.


The point is that Jesus came to be the sacrificial lamb for the world. He was the perfect Passover lamb. He died a humble death on a Roman cross. Just like how the Passover lamb saved the Jews from God's wrath, Jesus' blood saves us from God's wrath and will save us from the judgment to come. 


The problem for those who do not know the Lamb is that He will come back in wrath. He will no longer be like a cute and fuzzy animal to be cuddled. He will return as a conquering king. We can argue about rapture and millenial systems all day. We can talk about the proper way to interpret Revelation for another 2000 years, assuming that the Lord tarries. However, what we cannot do is expect His return to be like His departure. He is going to come back in glory to judge the world. You want to be on His side when He does.

The Call to Sinners

Luke 5:32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."



32 οὐκ ἐλήλυθα καλέσαι δικαίους ἀλλὰ ἁμαρτωλοὺς εἰς μετάνοιαν.

This is Jesus' explanation of why He spent time at Levi's dinner party for his fellow tax collectors and other assorted sinners.  This story is a favorite of missional types who want to spend time with those "in the culture."  I can't really fault them, provided that they don't come home with stains from the culture.  I know that I can't do it in many cases.

What I find fascinating is how Luke phrases this.  Jesus did not come to call the δικαίους.  Rather, he called ἁμαρτωλοὺς εἰς μετάνοιαν.  I find it interesting that the preposition εἰς appears here.  The translation "to repentance" is perfectly good, but I think that it may stop a bit short of the full meaning.

When I see εἰς I think of the Thayer definition as "a preposition governing the accusative, and denoting entrance into, or direction and limit: into, to, toward, for, among."  Now if Jesus wanted to communicate the idea of an action that must be taken once there could be an infinitive here.  But there isn't.  Instead we have the noun that means "repentance."

I think Jesus is telling us that our lives are to be characterized by repentance.  The idea of filling out a card, praying a prayer, or raising a hand and then living as if nothing was different would be foreign to Jesus.  Jesus calls us into repentance.  We are to enter a state in which we are repenting.

This of course convicts me.  If it convicts you I suggest you spend some more time introspectively examining your heart.  We all need to repent.  Where are you going to start?

One Way

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

5 εἷς γὰρ θεός, εἷς καὶ μεσίτης θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων, ἄνθρωπος Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς, 6  ὁ δοὺς ἑαυτὸν ἀντίλυτρον ὑπὲρ πάντων, τὸ μαρτύριον καιροῖς ἰδίοις.

There is an ecumencial spirit afoot in our time that believes in many paths to God.  The goal of life is simply to live in a Christ-like way.  If we do that, these folks say, then we will be at one with the Divine.  That's all that really matters.

This passage tells us otherwise.  As we learned way back in John 14:6, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light.  It is only through His sacrifice that man may be reconciled to God.  This passage speaks to the reality of what theologians call penal substitutionary atonement.  Christ paid our penalty for sin.  We deserved the death that He died on the cross.  He did this that we may live.

We do need to be careful with this verse though.  We see that He gave Himself as a ransom ὑπὲρ πάντων, which means literally, "in behalf of all."  The caution must be exercised with the definition of "all."  If we take this to mean every person who has ever and will ever live then we move toward universalism.  If we rip this out as a proof-text we can see that.  But if we read this within the canon of Scripture (and even just the surrounding verses) we see that Paul is saying something quite radical to his audience.  Christ died not just to save Jews, but also to save Gentiles.

In other words, when Paul writes "all" here, he refers to the fact that Christ's death secured the salvation of Gentile believers as well as Jewish believers.  He is not teaching universalism here, but rather explaining to the Jews that the love of God goes beyond the descendants of Abraham.  As a Gentile I rejoice in this fact.

Let this be a lesson to read every passage in its context, both immediate and far.  To do otherwise is quite dangerous lest we fall into universalism and lose all zeal for evangelism.

Receiving Gifts

Romans 11:35 "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

35 ἢ τίς προέδωκεν αὐτῷ, καὶ ἀνταποδοθήσεται αὐτῷ; 36  ὅτι ἐξ αὐτοῦ καὶ δι᾽ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν τὰ πάντα· αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, ἀμήν.

I am finding that blogging through Romans a chapter at a time is nearly impossible.  Therefore, I find myself focusing on the final verse in some chapters.  This is one of them.  Chapter 11 has been about how there is a native root and vine (Israel) into which wild branches (Gentiles) have been grafted.  Basically, Paul is telling the Jews how salvation in Christ works.  While this chapter is addressed primarily to Jews, as a Gentile it fills me with awe.

Look back at the Old Testament and you will see why I react this way.  The Old Testament tells the sad story of God's unfaithful people.  He set them apart to be His and put them in situations where it was clearly only by His grace that they survived and thrived.  Yet they missed Messiah when He came to earth the first time and now Paul is explaining their need for Him.  Meanwhile, as a Gentile who has come to know Messiah as my Lord, I am amazed that God would look to someone such as me for salvation.  This would have been pretty much unthinkable in first-century Palestine because everyone knew that the Jews were the people of God and the Gentiles were uncircumcised heathens.

This is why I focus on these two verses.  If you know Christ you have been given a gift that you can never repay.  Some focus on works as a way of paying God back.  You can't do that so don't try.  We do works out of gratitude for our salvation, not as a means of recompense.  It is a gift.  It is a gift that even a first-semester Greek student should be able to understand: ὅτι ἐξ αὐτοῦ καὶ δι᾽ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν τὰ πάντα.  Everything is from Him.  What is the proper response?  αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας.  He deserves all the glory.

Where are you?  Are you a wild branch rejoicing at being grafted onto the true Vine?  Or are you a wild branch still on your own tree?  Are you cut off from the true Vine?  Come to the Vinedresser and He will take care of you.

The Most Powerful Ally

 Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

31 Τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν πρὸς ταῦτα; εἰ ὁ θεὸς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, τίς καθ᾽ ἡμῶν;

I had a great time reflecting on this verse this morning.  There are times to get into the deep issues brought up by the preceding verses.  I was floored the first time I heard about the ordo salutis.  I completely buy into it. However, that did not feed my soul this morning.  What fed my soul was contemplating this verse.  God is for me.  Who can be against me?

Do you think much about this?  Do you think about it as you battle against temptation and sin?  Do you think about it as you wonder how you're going to get through the day?  Life certainly can be overwhelming.  But God is ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν.  The word ὑπὲρ quite literally tells us that God is acting on our behalf.  How can we doubt that everything is ultimately for our good?

Of course, this does not mean that things will always work out how we think they should.  Far from it.  But God is for us.  Who can hurt us when we have God on our side?  I can't think of anyone who is more powerful than God, can you?  Those of us who know and follow Christ can make this claim.  How about you?