Reconciling God's Mercy With His Wrath

People—those who are far more ignorant of the Scriptures than they care to admit—love to claim that the Bible presents two contradictory images of God. They point to the loving Jesus who embraced sinners and then to the wrathful God who commanded Israel to wipe out entire nations in Canaan.

"How can these possibly be the same God?" they shriek, as though they’ve uncovered a theological inconsistency that has somehow eluded two thousand years of church history. But the issue isn’t with the God revealed in Scripture. The problem lies in the faulty, sentimental worldview they’re using to judge Him.

They—whether professing Christians trying to sanitize the Bible for modern sensibilities or unbelievers intent on dismissing it altogether—base their conclusions on a worldview that is profoundly deficient at its core. It assumes that human beings are fundamentally good, and inherently deserving of kindness, affirmation, and endless second chances.

This is the same worldview that produces the belief that God’s role is simply to ensure everyone’s happiness and self-fulfillment. In this line of thinking, God exists to affirm whatever choices people make, to pat them on the back and tell them how special they are. But the God of the Bible doesn’t conform to such naive fantasies.

The Bible couldn’t be clearer about the true condition of humanity. From the very moment of conception, we are stained by sin (Psalm 51:5). We are wicked, rebellious, and spiritually dead (Romans 3:10-18). The heart, far from being a reliable compass as modern culture would have us believe, is described as “deceitful above all things and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9).

Despite what some modern-day church leaders teach, sin is not a series of unfortunate mistakes—it is the defining characteristic of fallen humanity. And the result? We are separated from God (Isaiah 59:2), and apart from Christ, we are “dead in trespasses and sins” and “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1-3). This isn’t the feel-good message people want to hear, but it is the truth.

So when someone with this syrupy, human-centered worldview picks up the Bible, it’s no surprise they find themselves offended. They aren’t looking for God as He has revealed Himself—they’re looking for a god who aligns with their assumptions.

They come to Scripture expecting a god who conforms to their preferences, who exists to make them feel good about themselves. And when they encounter the God who is holy, righteous, and just—who doesn’t hesitate to judge sin—they recoil. They cry “contradiction” not because the Bible contradicts itself, but because it contradicts them.

This is why it’s vital to approach Scripture on its own terms. The Bible presents a unified view of God, but it does so within its own worldview, not ours. Psalm 34:15-16 states:

“The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous,
    and His ears toward their cry.
The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
    to cut off the memory of them from the earth.”

At first glance, someone with a humanistic lens might see two opposing portrayals of God. On one hand, He’s kind and attentive. On the other, He’s harsh and vengeful. But the supposed contradiction vanishes when you consider to whom God is kind and to whom He is unkind.