“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36)
I would ask you to think about something for a moment, two things perhaps, the people that you know, the ones that are not saved, and just exactly what the end of that verse means. Do those individuals you know look as if they are under the wrath of God, I mean, after all, for a lot of them they have decent if not nice houses, they have vehicles, furniture and clothing, their children seem happy. Granted, they have, at least in some cases, a huge debt load, going against everything that Proverbs 22:7 says, “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” but they have what seems to be a good family life with no real visible difficulties.
So, just where is this “wrath” that the verse speaks of, why do they behave as they do if that wrath is resting upon them today?
This particular verse does not say that it will rest upon them, but that it is, today, right now. When most of us think of the wrath of God we envision Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues of Egypt, fire and brimstone, or at least deathly illnesses, pain and suffering, and yet these people seem to be doing quite well, thank you very much.
To know the totality of a thing, we must understand the inverse of that thing, we must compare the Spiritual with the earthly, the temporal with the eternal. Ask yourself this, what do you suppose the attitude, the demeanor of those individuals would be if by the end of the week both parents lost their jobs, their house was foreclosed on, the furniture and the vehicles were repossessed, and their children received failing marks in all their classes or were even kicked out of their schools. Would they repeat with Job, “What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10)
Where do their securities lie, even if the Lord allows them to live a long and prosperous life, are they or are they not always “on edge,” as it were, do they live in the mindset of what if? What if we lose our jobs, what if we can’t make our payments, what if the stock market crashes, one of our children becomes deathly ill, what if this or that happens, what will we do then, who will we turn to? “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
Herein, in part, is the truth of the wrath of God upon those who do not know Him as Lord, who live their entire lives for themselves, for the world and all that it has to offer, they have no assurance, no continuing security, no abiding hope, they live in a constant state of subdued fear, in the land of what if, and it pleases Satan to keep them there. “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2 Cor. 4:4)
My friends, there was never a need for a supposed pandemic, lockdowns, mandatory injections to keep the populace under control, give them the things of the world, offer them the hope that they will be secure in those things for the entirety of their lives, and you will retain control of them for those short-lived lives. But the rich and powerful are not satisfied with much, they want everything, all the time, and Satan will never stop until he is worshipped.
The wrath of God is upon those who are doomed to always seek, and never find, to search for a thing and never know satisfaction from anything, to obtain a thing, and to never know it as enough. They will never know the peace that passes all understanding that we have been blessed with, they will never know the assurance of a love that will never fade away or die, and they will search throughout their entire lives for what far too many of us take for granted, a Father, a Friend who will never leave us or forsake us. That is the wrath of God that rests upon them today.
