How do we know when it’s safe?” my wife asked me. It was a good question for which I had no answer. Reluctantly, she had climb down into our dirty, three-foot-high crawlspace with me. An unpleasant feat made awkward in slippers and a robe and made more difficult with well-worn joints. The spiderwebs didn’t help any either. I don’t usually resort to such drastic measures with news of severe weather, but this time the local siren sounded. That’s serious! So there we were, hunkered down in our crawlspace, hiding from a possible tornado. We heeded the warning. We needed the all clear, but knew neither how nor if one would be given.
The Threat
Now, there are definitely times when flight is the only legitimate alternative. We cannot fight a tornado; we need to shelter. Similarly, in this life full of danger, difficulties, and sorrows, many find comfort in the thought of God as a refuge from life’s storms (Psalm 57:1). He is said to shelter his people (Psalm 17:8; 27:5; 31:20). Yet, the gospel expands on this idea of a hiding place. The old hymn by Augustus Toplady, Rock of Ages, begins, “Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.” The symbolism unmistakably points to Christ. It speaks of “the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed,” and the author clings only to “[Jesus’] cross”. So, in what sense is Jesus a hiding place for the believer?
Certainly, every believer shares many of the same troubles that unbelievers do. We live in a fallen world where elemental things like air, water, and fire can serve us or attack us. Our bodies break down and wear out. Evil men and demons roam around seeking to advance their wicked agenda at our expense. In the midst of all this, Jesus is the Christian’s shepherd (John 10:11), physician (Acts 10:38), defender (2 Thes. 3:3), and king (Rev. 17:14).
Yet, a greater threat looms over every human being. One might consider death to be the greatest danger, but there is a fate worse than death. The sting of death is sin because God’s law demands that sin requires condemnation (1 Cor. 15:56). So it is not the fury of death that brings final doom, but the fury of God’s holy wrath.
The Warning
Now, the doctrine of God’s wrath is not popular, but it is reasonable and biblical. The very nature of our universe tell us that something is wrong. If God is all-good and all-powerful, then why do we suffer? Does this world not appear to be broken to some degree? These questions point to a broken relationship with our Creator. We have a sense of a storm approaching.
But we have a more reliable warning system. The Bible clearly speaks of the wrath of God and of future judgment (Matt. 13:40-42; 18:8; 25:41; John 3:18; 2 Thes. 1:8; Jude 15). The atonement sacrifices of Old Testament Israel are a grim provision of a holy God whose justice and righteous anger need to be satisfied. However, they were merely appeals for a deferral and did not actually satisfy the debt (Heb. 10:1-4). They were a solemn reminder that the just retribution for sin is eternal separation from God (Rom. 2:6-11; 6:23).
Nevertheless, a far more urgent warning sounded on the day that Christians commemorate as Good Friday. That hour defined Jesus’ whole mission (Matt. 20:28; 1 Tim. 2:5-6; 1 Pet. 1:17-19; Rev. 5:9). The cup that he prayed to be taken from him (Matt. 26:39), that he sweat blood over (Luke 22:44), and that he nonetheless had to drink was the cup of God’s wrath. Only one moment and place in all of human history was literally hell on earth. It was that day at Calvary when the Father poured out his righteous, holy, wrath on his Son, the Lamb of God. The siren has sounded!
The Hiding Place
Consequently, we need to assess our hiding place. The day of judgment is certainly coming. Are we hunkered down in the filthy crawlspace of our make-shift morality and shoddy good deeds with maybe Jesus added in for good measure? Or is Jesus Christ crucified our sole refuge and hiding place?
Not the labors of my hands
Can fulfill thy law's demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and thou alone.
(Augustus Toplady, "Rock of Ages")
The only safe hiding place from God’s wrath is the one that God himself provided.
The All Clear
Therefore, those outside of Christ wait in vain for the all clear to be sounded. They will never hear it for the storm of God’s wrath will obliterate every man-made refuge. On the other hand, those of us who have taken refuge in Jesus Christ, have already heard it. We were in Christ when the storm hit on that first Good Friday. We were in Christ when he rose bodily from the tomb on the following Sunday. With that resurrection, God proclaimed the all clear. The storm of his wrath was spent and satisfied on our Substitute.
In addition, the resurrection of Jesus secures every other refuge in him. Did the Father send his Son to bear his wrath for us? Did the Son secure for us an eternal reward at no cost to us? Why would that same God bring anything into our lives that was not for our good? “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). In Christ, no trouble, pain, diagnosis, disappointment, or failure can cast a shadow across our glorious future (Romans 8:18, 28-30; 2 Cor. 4:16-18; Col. 3:4).
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:33-39)