The Law Brings Wrath

Rom 4: 15 because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law [there is] no transgression.

This is a source of need to examine what this statement means.

Did the law bring about wrath of God or wrath of Man?

Let’s quickly eliminate that law bringing forth mans wrath. Cain immediately eliminates the need for a law to bring wrath of man. He killed his brother and belittled the action many years before the law was given.

As such, can we determine that the law did bring about the wrath of God in some way, as Paul is under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, revealing here.

What I did was try to determine if there is a correlation of God’s wrath consummating in some way after the giving of the law. I did a key word search for wrath in Genesis and found the word appeared one time. It was not about the wrath of God but the unjust wrath of Simeon and Levi. Notably what I expected to see was supported, that the wrath of God was in fact brought to light by the sinful actions of the nation of Israel after he brought them out of Egypt and gave them the Law. As such the law as recorded in Exodus did bring forth God’s wrath. Let’s see what this means:

If we go back to the book of Genesis, we see that the wrath of God was not mentioned in first person by God. Gen 6 says that he was sad that he made man, but wrath was not the emotion referred to, rather sadness that resulted in grief. In fact all thru Genesis, we only see the word wrath used by the translator when Jacob reveals to his sons the blessings and he says that cursed is the anger of Simeon and Levi for their slaying of men in anger and the laming of oxen.

However, if we look to the directives of God’s wrath it was after he chose a people for himself and specifically after he gave them the law, that he states that the disobedience to the law would kindle his wrath. The law was given to Israel in Exodus 20. 2 chapters later, the wrath of God is revealed for Israel to violate that law, and it is intense wrath that depicts slaying by sword for violation. He informed them to not afflict a widow or an orphan, or “My Wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword, your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless. So God gave the Israelites the law, but his wrath was conveyed intensely. Exodus 32, God says, “let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them (The Israelites).”

So make sure we are clear, God chose a people for himself, laid the groundwork that they would be prisoners in a foreign land for 400 years, brought about the means and the end that resulted in their deliverance. Thru all those years, there were seemingly many things that could have angered God intensely, but we do not see the wrath of God mentioned until after the law was given. God could have been very angry and filled with wrath toward Abraham for taking Hagar and have Ishmael. More over, he could have been angry with Jacob’s deceit of his father, the sinfulness of Joseph’s brothers to name a few. But here in Exodus 22, he declares for the first time that if you violate my law to not afflict a widow or an orphan, or in my wrath I will slay you with a sword and make your wife a widow and your kid’s orphans. It is unmistakable to see this. No where prior to this directive is the presence of such wrath conveyed. But the law brought for God’s wrath, and specifically for his chosen nation to violate it would and did bring great manifestation of wrath from God in conjunction with their violation of the laws that he gave.

This may seem elementary. It may seem profound. But as much as one might think that Israel was in an advantageous position for being given the law, know the great sobering truth that the law brought the wrath of God to the people who God gave the law to. Knowing that, it should sober us to understand what we think we mean to say that Israel had an advantage by having the law. They had the law, but they had not an ability to keep the law, and the law brought forth wrath, and to realize that the wrath of God comes with the law, should temper our persuasion that is some great opportunity. Paul does tell us, there were benefits much in every way in Rom 9 for sure. Think about it, they got the wrath of God as well as the law. That wrath resulted in

• Earth opening up and consuming sinful men
• Immediate killing of Aaron’s sons for disobedience / carelessness is priesthood
• Poisonous snakes for complaining and grumbling
• Curses of dispersion for their actions
• Overtaking and oppression by wicked nations for disobedience
  

And there are many other examples of such wrath poured forth on the recipients of the law. It is humbling to see what Paul says here first, before he gets into what results from having the law in Rom 7.

Know that many wrongly think that Israel could have kept the law and obeyed if they would have exercised the proper will. God knew right well they could not and he told them in Duet 29, that they had not the ability: 2 Now Moses called all Israel and said to them: "You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land -- 3 "the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 "Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this [very] day.

Paul clearly tells us that Israel was not an heir. Paul tells us that not all Israel is Israel. He further tells us that the law was given that sin would abound and that the law brings about wrath. May God bless us with an understanding of these great truths and worship God in understanding his grace and Mercy in doing all that he did with the law!