Imagine a group of Calvinists not wanting to sing about the wrath of God!
But—oh yeah—this is the rapidly declining mainline group of Calvinists known as the PC(USA). Of course their hymnal committee wanted to modify this unfashionable couplet from Keith Getty/Stuart Townend contemporary hymn “In Christ Alone”: “Till on that cross as Jesus died/the wrath of God was satisfied.”
They wanted to replace it with the following, instead: “…as Jesus died/the love of God was magnified.”
Getty and Townend refused the change. Therefore, the new Presbyterian hymnal will not include the popular hymn—which is a shame because it’s theologically rich, not to mention orthodox.
As Timothy George correctly observes, many modern-day Christians feel squeamish about God’s wrath because they mistakenly believe that it stands in opposition to his love and grace.
[I]n his brilliant essay, “The Wrath of God as an Aspect of the Love of God,” British scholar Tony Lane explains that “the love of God implies his wrath. Without his wrath God simply does not love in the sense that the Bible portrays his love.” God’s love is not sentimental; it is holy. It is tender, but not squishy. It involves not only compassion, kindness, and mercy beyond measure (what the New Testament calls grace) but also indignation against injustice and unremitting opposition to all that is evil.
I wonder if both theological conservatives and liberals often accept the same premise: that God’s wrath is something other than a manifestation of God’s love. Southern Baptist theologian Denny Burk, for example, doesn’t mention love in his blog post about the Presbyterian dust-up.
I wish someone would say the following: on the cross, where Jesus died, two things happened at once: the wrath of God was satisfied and the love of God was magnified. Both are equally true.