How Angry Was God at Jesus on the Cross?

Someone sent me a great question via e-mail this morning. Here it is:

“If God was truly angry when Jesus died, shouldn’t his wrath have been greater? Especially for those of us who are searching to understand the impact of the cross more??”

Since I spent quite a bit of time formulating an answer and responding to his e-mail, I thought I would share my response in hopes that it would cause others to think about what Jesus did for us on the cross.

___,

Thanks so much for your great question.

Looking at the pages of Scripture, we understand that one of God’s attributes is anger/wrath. It is appropriate and right that God expresses his anger. 

Why?

Imagine walking down a street and hearing a commotion in one of the yards. You look over and see a man mercilessly beating up a toddler. One emotion you might expect to experience is shock that someone could do such a horrific thing. But the other emotion would be anger. You are furious that a brute is beating up a helpless child. And your anger would motivate you to step in to stop the injustice. And I would argue that if such injustice didn’t cause anger to well up in your heart, then something is wrong with your heart.

So, God is rightly angry at sin that destroyed His perfect creation and His perfect communion with mankind. Those who continue to wield sin and to be identified by that sin, in defiance of Heaven’s commands, are, therefore, objects of God’s wrath.

The next question becomes: “How does God demonstrate His anger?”

The answer to that question is varied. There are plenty of occasions in the Old Testament where God’s anger showed up in natural calamities upon His rebellious people. At other times, God brought foreign armies to surround them and then starve, torture, slaughter, and take them captive. So, there are times when God’s answer shows up in active calamity that He brings upon sinfully rebellious people.

This brings us to the cross, where God’s active anger doesn’t seem to have been present.

Your question seems to imply that there wasn’t a big show of God’s anger on the cross. But that’s because God’s anger also shows up in another way – abandonment. If you read Romans 1:18, it begins with the words: “For God’s wrath is revealed from Heaven…” As we read the rest of the chapter, we see how His anger was demonstrated – He abandoned those in persistent sin. Three times, it says, “And God gave them over…” (Romans 1:24,26,28).

Hell is the final place where God’s abandonment (an expression of His wrath) is ultimately experienced. That’s why Hell is called “outer darkness” because it is the farthest place away from “God, who is light” (1 John 1:5). I believe that the greatest pain of Hell isn’t the fire. It’s the total void of the blessings of God’s presence. People are consigned to a place forever where they will never again experience the grace and blessings of God’s presence. God has finally and ultimately abandoned them.

And that’s what Jesus experienced on the cross. He experienced, for 3 hours, God’s abandonment. It was pictured with the sun going dark and expressed in His Words.

Matthew 27:45-46 (CSB): “From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over the whole land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?'”

Not once are we told that Jesus cried out from the pain of the spikes in his wrists or feet. Not once are we told that He cried out because of the beating He had received that apparently exposed his bones (Psalm 22:1,16-18). While these and more of the tortures of the cross would bring unspeakable pain, we aren’t told that Jesus said anything about them.

He did, however, cry out in grief over the fact that God the Father had abandoned Him (Matthew 27:46). That must mean that the torture of God’s abandonment in Hell (and on the cross) is so much worse than any torture mankind can ever inflict.

So, I believe that God poured His wrath out on His Son while He bore our sins on the cross, and that experience was nothing short of the torture of those in Hell. He took our Hell for us. God’s wrath was sufficient to appease His justice, raise His Son from the dead, call Him back home to Heaven, and invite anyone who desires to be saved and forgiven to trust in Jesus because Jesus took God’s wrath in our place.

I hope this helps.

Matt