God Doesn’t Have A Dark side

If we’ve been called to represent the character of God, we need to reevaluate how we think about his anger. Sometimes we can treat God’s anger like the embarrassing uncle in our extended family. It’s as if we’re working hard to keep this attribute of God away from public exposure. Are we secretly worried about causing undue embarrassment to the family of faith?

We’re tempted to act as if anger were the dark side of God’s character. God doesn’t have a dark side! John says, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). It’s impossible for there to be anything evil in God. It’s impossible for him to feel or act unrighteously.

He’s entirely holy in every respect. He’s completely good in everything He does. He’s not evil, can’t be tempted by evil, and doesn’t tempt anyone to do evil. He’s perfectly holy, always, and in every possible way.

All of this has very important implications as we seek to live in this fallen world.

If God is holy and angry at the same time, then anger is not evil in and of itself. If it were, God would never be angry, and the many passages that teach us God is angry simply wouldn’t be in the Bible.

God’s anger is the anger of GRACE. It isn’t the violent anger of unbridled and unrighteous fury. God’s anger always works to right what’s wrong. That’s what grace does!