The Wrath of God and the Work of Christ

This is going to be a long one today.

Scripture: Romans 4:5 "But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness."

Observation: The phrase "who justifies the ungodly" never really stuck out to me until I heard John Piper preach on the subject. My first thought was simply, "Of course He does. He did it by pouring all His wrath on Jesus for all the sins of the world," but after thinking about that statement it is clear that not all of those things are true, at least, not at face value.

So, how did God justify one sinner? 

Common answer: By punishing Jesus for his/her sins. But obviously Jesus died for more than one of us. How much of God's wrath did Jesus take? All of it? No, for only two chapters earlier Paul described the wrath that is revealed from heaven against ungodliness (1:18-20) and in Chapter 3 he says that there is a day in which God's wrath will be revealed against sinners. Plus, if Jesus suffered the wrath of God for all the sins of every person then God would be unrighteous in attributing the same wrath twice - once on Jesus and once on the unbelieving person.

That really only leave two possibilities as I see it.

First, that God, knowing who would come to faith in Christ throughout all of history, laid on Jesus the iniquity of those individuals, or

Second, God inflicted wrath on Jesus, not in a sort of pound-for-pound punishment measured out carefully based on specific, individual sins, but rather the wrath was exacted based on a display of God's wrath to the extent necessary to bring God glory. In a way, God had to be satisfied with the punishment of Jesus (see Isaiah 53:10).

My initial thought against both of those possibilities is that the Bible says that Jesus took the sins of the whole world. Isaiah 53:6 says that Lord took "the iniquity of us all." John 3:16 says that God loved the world so much that he sacrificed His only Son, Jesus. In John 1:29, John the Baptizer is quoted as saying, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!" Furthermore, 1 Timothy 2:5 and 6 says that Jesus, who is the only mediator between us and God, game Himself as a ransom for all."

After further study though, those seemingly straight-forward and plain interpretations aren't as cut-and-dry as they seem.

1. In Isaiah 53:6, Isaiah is prophesying about the life, suffering and death of the Messiah. His foretelling became a reality completely in Jesus. The question is who is Isaiah referring to when he writes that God will lay on the Messiah "the iniquity of us all." Who is "us all?" In the context, Isaiah has the physical, biologically descending people of Israel in mind. In reality though, that is not how this was  fulfilled. We know that every Jew according to blood has not been saved. Paul makes clear in Romans 9:how we should understand this phrase:

"But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, 'In Isaac your seed shall be called.' That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed." (Romans 9:6-8)

So, "us all" only actually refers to those that have or will be saved by faith in Jesus. This removes the confusion that comes just a few verses later in Isaiah when he writes, "By His (speaking of Messiah) knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities." (Isaiah 53:10) 

2. What about the two verses in John and the one in 1 Timothy? The John verses are especially important to this discussion because they are two of the most well known verses throughout the world. In trying to understand these verses I start in the verse and then draw from the literary context of the passage, chapter, book, and Bible as a whole.

In the verse itself the word used for "world" has the following meanings:

I. an apt and harmonious arrangement or constitution, order, government
II. ornament, decoration, adornment, i. e. the arrangement of the stars, 'the heavenly hosts', as the ornament of the heavens. 1 Pet. 3:3
III. the world, the universe
IV. the circle of the earth, the earth the inhabitants of the earth, men, the human family
V. the ungodly multitude; the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ
VI. world affairs, the aggregate of things earthly
     A. the whole circle of earthly goods, endowments riches, advantages, pleasures, etc, which although hollow and frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God and are obstacles to the cause of Christ
VII. any aggregate or general collection of particulars of any sort
     A. the Gentiles as contrasted to the Jews (Rom. 11: 12 etc)
     B. of believers only, John 1: 29; 3: 16; 3: 17; 6: 33; 12: 47 1 Cor. 4: 9; 2 Cor. 5

So the question is, which should be understood here. My first thought is I should trust the language experts and go with VII, B considering they specifically say John 1:29 and John 3:16 are only referring to believers.

What does the context of Chapter 3 say? It begins with Jesus telling one of the Jewish leaders that only specific people can be saved - those that are experience the work of God through faith. It continues with Jesus using an Old Testament reference in which only a portion of the Israelites were saved. Jesus follows verse 16 up by dividing people up based on some that will love evil and perish in their sins, and other who will repent of their sin and live in eternal life. The chapter ends with another distinguishing verse "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

Ultimately, I don't see in John 3:16 the requirement to understand the verse to mean that during Jesus' suffering and death God poured out all the wrath for every sin for every person that has ever lived or ever will live.

First Timothy 2:6 also does not need to imply every person in the history of the world. Word study on the Greek word "pas" shows that it could be understood to mean, especially in this situation, some of all parts (i.e. some people from every nation or people group in the world). While this may be the case, it is difficult to rectify that interpretation considering that the word "pas" is used twice in verses 5 and 6 and the first one doesn't make much sense unless it is referring to all people in the history of the world. But even then, just because God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" that doesn't mean that it is going to happen (clearly it hasn't!) and therefore it is not support for thinking that Jesus' blood covered every sin of every person who ever lived or who ever will live.

I think the conclusion that more aligns with the whole of Scripture, God's character, and God's work to save a people for Himself is the second option from above: The amount of wrath inflicted by God on Jesus was only the amount necessary to bring God glory as the righteous judge of humankind and to adequately establish Jesus as the perfect and eternal sacrifice that could atone for and cover the sins of anyone that had faith in God or that would have faith in God in the future.