False Repentance.

“Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.– Hosea 6:1-6 ESV

These opening verses of chapter six have a positive ring to them. It sounds as if the people of Israel are recognizing the nature of God’s redemptive punishment and are returning to Him in repentance. But as we will see in the verses that follow, any repentance they attempt to show will be short-lived. The words in these three verses are filled with truth and accurately reflect the nature of God. He was going to tear them in order that He might heal them. He would eventually strike them down so that He might build them up. But these verses are actually an indictment of the people of Israel and provide a prophetic look at what their pseudo-repentance will look like in the future. When the full weight of God’s discipline falls on them, they will feign repentance, thinking that it will shorten the length of their punishment. That is the message behind verse 2: “After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.” Their overly optimistic outlook regarding the brevity of their punishment reflects an ignorance of the depth of their sin. Like a child who says, “I’m sorry” hoping to escape the well-deserved discipline of his parents, the Israelites would try to appease God with false repentance.

In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul referred to a previous letter he had written to them that contained some severe, corrective words. He had evidently received news that his words had hurt them. But he wrote and told them, “Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death” (2 Corinthians 7:9-10 NLT). The worldly sorrow to which Paul referred is exactly what verses 1-3 in chapter six of Hosea are illustrating. The people will be sorry they got caught. They will be sorry that their actions have resulted in God’s divine discipline. But their sorrow will not lead them to true repentance.

In fact, there would be false prophets who would tell them that everything would be all right. They would try to convince the people that God was not all that mad and that His punishment would not be severe. Even after the northern kingdom of Israel fell, the southern kingdom of Judah would listen to the words of false prophets who showed up, promising good news instead of bad. God had some harsh words for these purveyors of positive motivational messages:

“Do not listen to these prophets when they prophesy to you, filling you with futile hopes. They are making up everything they say. They do not speak for the Lord! They keep saying to those who despise my word, ‘Don’t worry! The Lord says you will have peace!’ And to those who stubbornly follow their own desires, they say, ‘No harm will come your way!’” – Jeremiah 23:16-17 NLT

Later on in the book of Jeremiah, God’s words get even harsher:

“Do not listen to your false prophets, fortune-tellers, interpreters of dreams, mediums, and sorcerers who say, ‘The king of Babylon will not conquer you.’ They are all liars, and their lies will lead to your being driven out of your land. I will drive you out and send you far away to die.” – Jeremiah 27:9-10 NLT

The severity of God’s punishment reflects the depths of their sin. Just saying they were sorry would not be enough. Making a few token sacrifices in the hopes that God would be satisfied and hold off His judgment reflects an incredible misunderstanding of God’s hatred of sin. There are those today who think that hell is either a figment of man’s imagination and doesn’t exist at all or that it is merely symbolic, since, the falsely believe, a loving God would never torture someone for eternity. But both of those perceptions are false and reflect a gross misunderstanding of God and His attitude toward sin. The severity of hell should provide us with a vivid reminder of just how much God despises sin. And ultimately, the sin God despises most is man’s rejection of Him as God. It is a refusal to love, honor and obey Him as God. And concerning the people of Israel, whom God had made His own, He said, “For your love vanishes like the morning mist and disappears like dew in the sunlight” (Hosea 6:4b NLT). They had failed to return to God the love He had graciously shown them. After all He had done for them, in most cases in spite of them, they had rejected Him as their God.

What God wanted most was their love. And man’s love for God is best motivated by an understanding of the severity of his sin and that responds in wonder at God’s gracious and merciful provision of a way to be made right with Him despite his undeserving state. It was while we were sinners that Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). It was while we were hopelessly dead in our sins that God chose to give us life through Christ (Ephesians 2:5). That is why God called out to Israel, “I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6 NLT).

God wanted true repentance. He was not interested in worldly sorrow or religious ritual done in the hopes of appeasing His wrath. King David said it best when he wrote Psalm 51 in the aftermath of his sordid affair with Bathsheba.

You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. – Psalm 51:16-17 NLT

Israel was not yet broken. The hearts of the people had not returned to God. They feared punishment more than they loved God. And the sad truth is that, for too many of us today, any repentance we attempt to show is motivated by fear of God, not a love for Him. We simply want to escape judgment, not know Him better. We underestimate our sin and under-value His sacrificial love for us. But the more we understand the gravity of our sin, the more we will appreciate His gracious, merciful love and show godly sorrow that leads to true repentance.

A Remnant.

And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,  for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.”  And as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.” – Romans 9:27-29 ESV

All mankind is deserving of God’s righteous judgment. From His holy perspective, “None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10 ESV). All are guilty of rebellion against Him and of breaking His holy commands. At no point in the history of mankind has there lived a man or woman who deserved God’s mercy or grace. No one has ever been able to live up to His righteous standards or fulfill His laws perfectly and completely. Abraham was not even a worshiper of God when he was called by God. Noah, while a good man who knew and worshiped God, was far from sinless. And yet God chose to spare him. Moses was a murderer, but God, in His sovereign will, chose Moses to deliver His people from captivity. And the very people Moses was chosen to set free from their captivity had long ago abandoned the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and were guilty of worshiping the gods of Egypt. But God chose to deliver them anyway. All throughout the history of the nation of Israel, we see God choosing to bless some and reject others. He rejected Saul as king of Israel because of his disobedience. He chose David and anointed him to be Saul’s replacement. David, while a man after God’s own heart, was far from perfect. He would end up allowing his passions to lead him to commit adultery, resulting in an illegitimate pregnancy and his attempt to cover it up resulting in the murder of the woman’s husband. But God graciously forgave David and continued to bless his reign.

The nation of Israel would prove to be unfaithful to God over and over again. Their disobedience and that of their king, Solomon, the son of David, would result in the split of the kingdom. Their continued rebellion would force God to send the northern nation of Israel into captivity at the hands of the Assyrians. Years later, the southern nation of Judah would suffer the same fate at the hands of the Babylonians. God had warned both nations to return to Him. He had sent His prophets to call the people back to Him or face His righteous wrath. They refused and God, in His justice, punished them for their rebellion. And yet, in spite of their sin, God chose to spare a remnant. While the entire nation of Israel had been God’s chosen people, they ended up split in two. The northern tribes would be exiled and never return to the land. The southern tribes would only see a small portion of their descendants return to Judah and Jerusalem. The prophet Isaiah predicted what would happen.

In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth. – Isaiah 10:20-23 ESV

God had fulfilled His promise to Abraham and had made his descendants as numerous as the sand of the sea. But only a remnant would return. Not all of them would enjoy God’s grace and mercy. The Greek word Paul used is hypoleimma and it means “a remainder, a few.” The Hebrew word used by Isaiah is shĕ'ar and it means “residue, remainder.” Out of all the nation of Israel, only a handful were allowed to return to the land and enjoy God’s restoration of them as His people. Quoting from Isaiah, Paul writes, “If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of our children, we would have been wiped out like Sodom, destroyed like Gomorrah” (Romans 9:29 NLT).

So what is Paul’s point in all of this? That unless God chooses to show mercy on some, none will ever experience it. All of Israel deserved to experience God’s full wrath and destructive powers, just as much as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had. The people of Israel were no less guilty of sin and worthy of God’s wrath than the pagan and immoral people of those two wicked cities. This all goes back to Paul’s attempt to explain that no one, including God’s chosen people, the Jews, was worthy of receiving God’s mercy. God calls and men must respond. When God got ready to send the people of Israel back to Jerusalem from their captivity in Babylon, not everybody chose to return. Many had become comfortable in their new surroundings. They had acclimated themselves to living in Babylon. Only a relative handful returned.

Not all men will be saved. Not everyone will respond to God’s gracious offer of salvation made possible through faith in His Son. Compared to the mass of mankind who have ever lived, the number of those who place their faith in Christ will be a remnant, a few. And none of us who enjoy a right relationship with God because of our faith in Christ can ever brag about our position or boast in our righteous standing. Paul told the believers in Ephesus, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT). He said the same thing to Timothy. “For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:9 NLT).

God saved us. We didn’t save ourselves. He chose us. We didn’t choose Him. According to Romans 8:30, He called us, He justified us, and one day He is going to glorify us. We are part of God’s remnant, the redeemed. We didn’t do anything to deserve His grace and mercy. We can’t brag about our position as His children. He adopted us. He made us His sons and daughters. He has declared us His heirs. All as a result of His grace and mercy made possible through the priceless gift of His Son.

The Mercy of God.

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. – Romans 9:14-18 ESV Paul had just made the point that not all who are descendants of Abraham are considered children of the promise. God chose Isaac over Ishmael. He chose Jacob over Esau. And His choosing of one over the other had nothing to do with their behavior or perceived righteousness. In fact, while Jacob and Esau were still in the womb, God told Sarah, “The older will serve the younger” (Romans 9:12 ESV). And Paul comments that God made this announcement “though they were not yet born and had done nothing ether good or bad” (Romans 9:11a ESV). Why? “In order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls” (Romans 9:11b ESV). God chose. His plan, ordained by Him before the world was even created, included His choosing of some over others. He chose Abraham over all the other men on the earth at the time, and not because of anything inherently righteous about Abraham. He chose Isaac over Ishmael, even though Ishmael was Abraham’s first-born son. He chose Jacob over Esau, even though they were twins and Esau was the older of the two. He chose Moses, in spite of his murder conviction. God chose David over all the other sons of Jesse. Then He chose to replace  Saul as the king of Israel with David.Paul even quotes the very words of God, spoken through the prophet Malachi. “‘I have always loved you,’ says the Lord. But you retort, ‘Really? How have you loved us?’ And the Lord replies, ‘This is how I showed my love for you: I loved your ancestor Jacob, but I rejected his brother, Esau, and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau’s inheritance into a desert for jackals’” (Malachi 1:2-3 NLT).

The natural, human response to all of this is to question God’s fairness or justice. Our human sensibilities struggle with the idea of God hating one and loving another. We wrestle with the thought of God choosing one and not another. And yet, as Paul illustrates, God’s election or sovereign choosing can be seen all throughout Scripture. God even told Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Romans 9:15 ESV). And what is Paul’s point in all of this? God’s choosing has nothing to do with merit. It is all based on His mercy. “So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it” (Romans 9:16 NLT). Paul even reaches back into the history of Israel to show how God chose to use Pharaoh to accomplish His will and proclaim His own glory. “For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, ‘I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth’” (Romans 9:17 NLT). God used Pharaoh in order to display His own power. Over and over again in the story of the God’s deliverance of Israel from captivity in Egypt, we read that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. He did so to display His power and accomplish His divine will for His people.

We struggle with that thought. We question why God would kill some and not others. We wrestle with the idea of God using people like pawns in some kind of divine game. But in doing so, we fail to ask the question, “Why would a holy God choose to show mercy on anyone?” Why would He choose Jacob over Esau? In a sermon on the story of Jacob and Esau, C. H. Spurgeon commented:

“I can tell you the reason why God loved Jacob; it is sovereign grace. There was nothing in Jacob that could make God love him; there was everything about him, that might have made God hate him, as much as he did Esau, and a great deal more. But it was because God was infinitely gracious, that he loved Jacob, and because he was sovereign in his dispensation of this grace, that he chose Jacob as the object of that love.”

Paul’s goal in this passage is to emphasize the mercy of God. No one deserves His mercy. The Jews, just because they were descendants of Abraham, did not automatically qualify for His forgiveness and mercy. They still had to believe. They had to place their faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Thomas Constable comments, “It is not man’s desire or effort that causes God to be merciful but His own sovereign choice. God is under no obligation to show mercy or extend grace to anyone. If we insist on receiving just treatment from God, what we will get is condemnation” (Thomas L. Constable, Notes on Romans, 2009 Edition).

The Bible states that God “wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth” (2 Timothy 2:4 NLT). But we know that not all men will be saved. Many have rejected His offer of salvation and died in their sinful state. Many more will do so in the years to come. Some will be saved. Some will not. When Noah and his family were protected by God and placed in the ark, they were extended the grace of God. But many others were condemned by their own sinful state to suffer death in the waters that covered the earth. The thought of this is hard for us to grasp and understand. But the Bible clearly states, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23 ESV). All deserve to die. The fact that God extends mercy to any should amaze and astound us. Until we fully understand the gravity of our sin, we will never appreciate the grace and mercy of God. And Paul goes on to say, “but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 ESV). The undeserved, unearned mercy of God should never cease to astound and amaze us.

Peace With God.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. – Romans 5:1-5 ESV Having settled the case of whether justification is by works or by faith, Paul now moves on in his discussion about the gospel of God. Paul emphatically and confidently states, “since we have been justified by faith.” The tense of the Greek word he uses is extremely important because it speaks of an event that has already happened. In essence, Paul is saying, “having been declared righteous.” It is in the past tense. It speaks of an event that has already taken place. Once someone places their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior, they are immediately declared righteous or are justified by God. Their debt to God is paid in full, their sins are removed, and they receive the righteousness of Christ. It is a done deal. And it is all done by God and as a result of faith. We no longer have to justify ourselves with God anymore. No more works to earn His favor. No more effort to try and live up to His righteous standards in the hopes that He will accept us. Our salvation is accompanied by our justification.

And one of the greatest benefits of our justification is peace with God. In verse 10 of this same chapter, Paul makes it clear that, before salvation, we were all enemies of God. We were subject to His wrath. We stood condemned and deserving of His righteous, just judgment. In his letter to the church in Colossae, Paul wrote, “You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault” (Colossians 1:21-22 ESV). God's gospel, His plan for man's salvation, has provided a means by which sinful, guilty, rebellious men and women can be made right with Him, enjoying a state of permanent peace and the uninterrupted joy of His presence. The Greek word Paul used for peace carries the idea of harmony, security and safety. It is “the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is” (Outline of Biblical Usage).

We enjoy this peace with God because of the grace of God. It is His unmerited favor that has made it all possible. We did nothing to deserve or earn it. Paul reminds us that we obtained access into this grace-given position through faith. In other words, we have access into the very presence of God as a result of God's mercy. And it is our faith in the graciousness, goodness, mercy and kindness of God made evident in the death of His Son that makes our reconciliation with Him possible. And our new-found peace with God is permanent, including the future hope of our eternal relationship with Him, which is why Paul states, “we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” There is a day coming when His Son will return and those who have been made right with God through faith in Christ's sacrificial death on the cross will enjoy an eternity of permanent peace with God.

But in the meantime, Paul tells us, we should rejoice in our present sufferings. While we wait for the hope of the glory of God, we find ourselves living on this earth and facing trials and troubles of all kinds. Our new-found peace with God has put us at odds with the world in which we live. Jesus told His disciples, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:17-18 ESV). As a result of our new-found righteousness with God, we stand in stark contrast with the world around us. As we live according to His indwelling Holy Spirit we will find ourselves facing increasing suffering as a result of our faith. Paul reminds us, “continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard” (Colossians 1:23 ESV). The temptation will be to bail out or give up. But we must understand that our “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame” (Romans 5:3-5 ESV). Our reconciled state with God will produce irreconcilable differences with this world. But any suffering we encounter will produce in us a patient endurance. We learn to persevere. And that perseverance produces in us character. As we endure patiently the sufferings of life, we have our character tested and proven to be true or genuine. We see the character of Christ revealed in our lives in the form of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And as we see the characteristics show up in our lives in spite of the suffering we may endure, we grow in our hope. It solidifies our certainty that we really do belong to God. We really are new creations. And our hope will not leave us hanging. We will not find ourselves ashamed or embarrassed because of the faith we placed in God's promises. Our trust in Christ's redemptive work on the cross will not leave us disappointed in the end. We can suffer. We can endure, we can grow, we can hope, “because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5 ESV). The very presence of the Spirit within us is a reminder of God's love for us, but He is also the source of our enduring love for God. Our justification is by faith. Our sanctification is by faith. Our capacity to endure is the result of faith.

The Wrath of God.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. – Romans 1:18-20 ESV In verse 17, Paul states that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God from faith for faith. That word, “reveals” in the Greek is apokalyptō and it means to make known what was once hidden. So Paul is saying that the way to achieve righteousness, which was at one time hidden or unknown to men, is through faith. Faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. That is why he says, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17 ESV). This new or formerly hidden means to getting right with God was revealed through the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In other words, through the gospel. Now, in verse 18, Paul unveils another once-hidden mystery. The gospel also revealed the wrath of God. He states, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” In the gospel, the good news regarding salvation through Jesus Christ, we also see the wrath of God poured out. Jesus’ excruciating death on the cross is both a picture of God's love and wrath – at the same time. Isaiah, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, wrote of the coming Messiah:

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Peter referred to this passage when he wrote, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24 ESV). The full extend of God’s hatred of sin was revealed on the cross. The innocent died for the guilty. The sinless One had to pay the price for the sinful. God died for the godless. In order for men to be made right with God, He had to pay the ultimate price and sacrifice His own Son. Jesus came to die. His death was the only means by which the wrath of God could be satisfied, the sins of man could be forgiven and righteousness could be achieved. Later on in this same letter, Paul asks a somewhat rhetorical question: “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?” (Romans 9:22-24 ESV). God would have been completely just and right if He had chosen to destroy all mankind, because all men are guilty of having rebelled against Him. They were all vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. But instead, God chose to pour out His wrath on His own Son, in order that men might be saved from destruction. Some have described that idea as divine child abuse. They struggle with the idea that God would kill His own Son, even though it was for a good cause – to redeem millions upon millions of people. But God knew what man couldn't know – that a restored relationship with Him was impossible without His help. Man could never live up to God's righteous standard. Man was totally incapable of producing the kind of righteousness God required. That's why Jesus told His followers, “unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:20 NLT). That statement from the lips of Jesus did not come across as good news to His audience. It sounded like mission: impossible. But that was His point. Their righteousness was going to have to come from a source other than themselves. It was going to have to be the righteousness of God that had been revealed from heaven in the form of Jesus Christ.

But while the gospel is good news, you can't have good news without bad news. And the bad news is that God hates sin and has to punish it. He cannot tolerate or overlook sin. Mankind is inherently ungodly and unrighteous, and in their state of unrighteousness, they suppress or hold back the truth. This doesn't mean they in some way restrain or the truth of God, but their actions deny the reality of the holiness of God and His expectation that His creation reflect that holiness. Paul goes on to say that they are without excuse. God has revealed Himself to them through His creation – “his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world” (Romans 1:20 ESV). The very existence of idols throughout the history of mankind lends credence to Paul's statement. The human race has always recognized the existence of a greater power outside of our everyday experience. Men reveal the reality of God in their built-in need to worship someone or something. Martin Luther writes, “This demonstrates that there was in their hearts a knowledge of a divine sovereign being. How else could they have ascribed to a stone, or to the deity represented by stone, divine attributes, had they not been convinced that such qualities really belong to God!” (Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans).

So man is without excuse. But man is not without hope. While the full extent of God's wrath was revealed on the cross and poured out on His Son, His love was also made known. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16 ESV). God's wrath was satisfied by Jesus. But men must accept God's gift of His Son. They must rely on the payment made by Jesus to provide for them the righteousness they could never earn on their own. But John goes on to tell us the sad, but true reality. “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19 ESV). Men can choose to accept the love of God or remain under the wrath of God. He has provided a way of escape. But all men must choose to accept or reject it.