From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The words to which I should like to call your attention this morning are to be found in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, in the second chapter and the first three verses. The first three verses in the second chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."

I want particularly this morning to deal with that third verse, "among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." We come back to this vital and all-important statement once more. We are looking at it for the fourth time. And we have spent this time with it because it surely is one of those fundamental statements which is absolutely vital to any true understanding of the Christian message of salvation.

Now, I have suggested that the best way of dividing this tremendous statement, this extraordinary synopsis of the biblical teaching and doctrine with regard to sin, is to look at it like this. That first of all, the apostle describes our state and condition in sin. We are dead in trespasses and sins, entirely governed by the evil principle that is at work in this world in the children of disobedience, controlled by these unseen spiritual forces and powers headed up by the devil himself, the prince of the power of the air. That's our condition. That is the state of all until they become regenerate and receive new life from God through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.

Then secondly, we considered as to why we're in that condition. And there we saw that the apostle's teaching is that this is something which is true as the result of the fall of man. We are born like that. We're like that by nature. It is true of all, he says. We all had our conversation, even as others, by which he means the rest of mankind. It is universal, and it has come to pass in that way.

Then last Sunday morning, we went on to consider the manifestations of this in practice. The life of the unbeliever, says the apostle, is a life lived in trespasses and sins. Well, why? Well, it's because he's really governed by the lusts of the flesh, which in turn manifest themselves as desires of the flesh and desires of the mind. And we looked into that last Sunday morning. And we saw how true it is. We all confirm it in our own experiences that until this new life from God comes into us, we are indeed governed by these drives, these desires, these lusts of the body, the flesh, and of the mind. And so we live a life of trespasses and sins.

But now we come to the last step, the last thing that the apostle has got to say about man in sin. And that is, of course, that he is under the wrath of God. Now, we can regard this, if you like, in this way. Here, the apostle is telling us about man in sin as sin affects man's standing before God. Or if you like it in other language, what the apostle is dealing with here is what God thinks and says and does about man in that condition which I have already described.

And, of course, there is no question at all but that this is the most important aspect of the subject. The others were terribly important, but there is nothing which is as important as this. And, of course, it is because we so constantly forget this that the world is as it is today and, indeed, the church is as she is. We are so self-centered. We are concerned about ourselves. And we fail to remember that the most important thing about everything is the way in which God looks down upon it.

Now, that's the subject with which we have to deal of necessity this morning. And the apostle puts it like this. He says that we were all by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Now, here we have a twofold statement. There are two things stated there. And there is no doubt at all but that these two matters that we are compelled to look together at this morning are two of the most difficult and perplexing subjects in the whole realm and range of biblical doctrine. And that is why, of course, they have often led to great perplexity. And they are subjects which people oftentimes in their ignorance not only fail to understand but resent. There is no subject, perhaps, which has more frequently led people to speak unconsciously in a blasphemous manner than this very matter which we're now going to look at together.

The apostle says two things: that we are all under the wrath of God, and secondly, that we are all under the wrath of God by nature. Now then, why should we look at these things? Someone may well ask that question. Why spend a morning on a subject like that, a difficult subject? There are so many other things that are interesting at the moment and attracting attention. Why not deal with them? And in any case, the whole position of the world is such, why turn to something like this? Why must it be high doctrine of this type? Well, lest there be someone who is harboring some such idea and is provoked to put such a question, let me give certain reasons at any rate why it behooves us to consider this matter.

The first is that it's in the Scripture. It is here in the Bible. And as I'll show you, it is everywhere in the Bible. And if we regard this as the word of God, we cannot pick and choose. We must take it as it is and consider its every part and portion. Secondly, we must do so because what we are told here is, after all, a question of fact. It isn't theory. It's a question of fact. If the biblical doctrine of the wrath of God is true, well then it's the most important fact confronting every one of us at this moment. Infinitely more important than any international conference that may be held. Infinitely more important than whether there is to be a third world war or not. If this doctrine is true, well then we're all involved in it, and our eternal destiny depends upon it. It's a question of fact.

Then another reason for considering it is this. That the apostle's whole argument at this point is that we really cannot understand the love of God until we understand this doctrine. It is the way in which we measure the love of God. Now, there is a great deal of talk about the love of God. And yet, you know, were we truly to love God, we would express it. We would show it. To love God is not merely to talk about it. To love God, as he himself points out everywhere in his word, is to keep his commandments and to live for his glory. Now, the argument here is that we really cannot understand the love of God unless we see it in the light of this other doctrine which we're now considering together. So it's essential from that standpoint.

But let me put it in this way. I suggest to you that you will never truly understand why it is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, had to come into this world unless you understand this doctrine of the wrath of God and the judgment of God. Now, as Christians, we believe that the Son of God came into this world, that he laid aside the signs of his eternal glory, was born as a babe in Bethlehem, and endured all that he endured because that was essential for our salvation. But the question is, why was it essential to our salvation? Why did all that have to take place before we could be saved?

Now, I defy anybody to answer that question without bringing in this doctrine of the judgment of God and of the wrath of God. And still more is this true when you come to look at the whole doctrine of the cross and the death of our blessed Lord and Savior. Here's the question: why did Christ die? Why had he to die? If we say that we are saved by his blood, why are we saved by his blood? Why was it essential that he should even die on that cross and be buried and rise again before we could be saved? Now, there's only one adequate answer to that question, and that is this doctrine of the wrath of God. The death of our Lord upon the cross is, I suggest to you, unnecessary unless this doctrine is true. So you see, it is a vital matter for us to consider.

And last, let me put it in a very practical form. I believe this doctrine is absolutely essential from the standpoint of a true evangelism. Why is it that people do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Why is it that people are not members of the Christian Church? Why are they not Christians? Why does the Lord Jesus Christ not come into their calculations at all? Well, you know, in the last analysis, there's only one answer to that question. They don't believe in him because they've never seen any need of him. And they've never seen any need of him because they've never realized that they're sinners. And they've never realized that they're sinners because they've never realized the truth about the holiness of God and the justice and the righteousness of God. They've never known anything about God as the judge eternal and about the wrath of God against the sin of man. So you see, this is absolutely central in evangelism.

If we really believe in salvation, I say, and in the absolute need of Christ, well then we must start with this doctrine. Very well, there are the reasons for considering it. The apostle supplies them. I'm simply repeating them. Well now then, let's look at the two statements themselves. The first thing the apostle says is that we are all of us who are born into this world under the wrath of God. He says we were all the children of wrath, even as others. We were all the children of wrath as the rest of mankind was. That is what "even as others" means.

Now here, I say, we come face to face with this tremendous doctrine, which, of course, I know full well is not only unpopular at the present time but is even hated and detested. And people can scarcely control themselves as they speak about it. The whole modern idea has been, as you know, for a number of years that God is a God of love and you must think only of God in terms of love. And to talk about the wrath of God, we are told, is utterly incompatible with any idea of God as a God of love. The way in which it's put is this. They say, of course, that idea of the wrath of God, it stems from that ancient idea of God as a sort of tribal God. They say the trouble is there are still certain Christians who believe in that God of the Old Testament, who was nothing, of course, but a tribal God. The gods of mythology and so on, they were all of that type and of that kind. They displayed their anger and their wrath. But of course, they say, we know now from the New Testament and from Jesus that this is quite wrong and quite false. We no longer believe in the God of the Old Testament, they say. We believe in the God of the New Testament, in the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You are familiar with the argument.

Indeed, they go further and some of them put it like this. They would say that it is only in this present century that we really have become sufficiently enlightened to understand these matters. They say in the last century even, to the beginning of this century, people still believed in the wrath of God. But they say it was a completely false conception of God. I remember reading once in a very learned book a man solemnly stating that this idea of the wrath of God was nothing but a kind of projection into the character of God of the typical Victorian father. The stern, repressive father that kept his children down and disciplined them so severely and punished them. And they said people just carried that idea over and they projected it right into God himself. But it was nothing but a false bit of psychology, and that by now, they argue, we've delivered ourselves from all this. And we know that the idea of wrath in a God of love is something which is self-contradictory.

Therefore, I say, we must look at this. Let me clear away one preliminary misunderstanding. There are some people who completely misinterpret the very term "wrath". They think of wrath instinctively as some uncontrolled manifestation of anger. They cannot think of the term "wrath" except in somebody who is trembling in a rage and pale with passion and who's entirely lost self-control and is just speaking in a violent manner and doing violent things. Well, that's quite a false idea with regard to wrath. Sinful man, it is true, sometimes does manifest his wrath in that way. But all that is not by any means an essential part of this term "wrath". Wrath is nothing but a manifestation of indignation based upon justice. Indeed, I'll go further and I'll say this. That wrath, the wrath of God according to the scriptural teaching, is nothing but the other side of the love of God. Indeed, it is the inevitable corollary of the rejection of the love of God. God is a God of love, yes. But God is also a God of justice and of righteousness. And if God's love is spurned and rejected, there remains nothing but the wrath and the justice and the righteousness of God.

Very well then, but let me try to demonstrate to you that this is something which is taught everywhere in the Scripture. Go back to your Old Testament and you'll find it at the very beginning. When man fell in the Garden of Eden, you remember that this is what happened. God visited him and spoke to him, pronounced judgment upon him. He drove him out of the garden. And there at the eastern gate of the garden were the cherubim and the flaming sword. What's the meaning of the flaming sword? Well, it's just this very thing. It is the sword of God's justice. It is God's sword of wrath and of punishment, punishing man for his sin and making it impossible for him to come back of his own and eat of the tree of life and live forever. There is at the very beginning a manifestation of God's righteous judgment, his wrath, upon sin.

But then you find it running right through the Old Testament in the deluge, the flood, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the various punishments of the children of Israel, the punishments of individuals. Why, the Old Testament is simply full of this. God has given his law and has pronounced that if men break it, he will punish them. That's wrath. And when they have done so, he has punished them. He's punished individuals, he's punished the nation, even his own chosen people. He punished them, he poured his wrath upon them by raising up the Chaldean army which came and sacked Jerusalem and carried away the people as captives into Babylon. That's a manifestation of the wrath and the righteous judgment of God. You see, it's everywhere in the Old Testament. You really cannot believe the Old Testament unless you accept this doctrine of the wrath of God.

And, of course, when you come to the New Testament, in spite of what all these modern critics would have us believe, the doctrine is there everywhere. The first preacher in the New Testament is John the Baptist. What did he say? He said, "Flee from the wrath to come. Repent and be baptized every one of you. Flee from the wrath to come." The Pharisees came to be baptized of John, and he looked at them and said, "Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" It was his great message. Indeed, it was the message of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who repeated those self-same words.

But in a most amazing way, we find it in the verse that is generally quoted as the supreme statement of God as a God of love: John 3:16. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." Why? Why did he do so? The answer is "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." The alternative to everlasting life is perishing. And it's John 3:16 that teaches it. But the 36th verse of that third chapter of John is still more plain. Listen: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Here we are, you see. All men are under the wrath of God. And unless we do believe on the Son of God, the wrath of God abideth on us. What could be more plain or explicit? In John's Gospel, the apostle of love, there it is.

But then the apostle Paul teaches it equally clearly. Preaching in Athens, he says that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the whole world in righteousness by this man whom he hath appointed. Judgment. The wrath of God. In Romans 1:18, we read, "For the wrath of God is manifested, is already revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." Paul has no gospel apart from this. It's because of the wrath of God that he's preaching the gospel. In this Epistle to the Ephesians which we're looking at, in the fifth chapter and the sixth verse, you get exactly the same thing. "Let no man deceive you with vain words," says Paul, "for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." Paul, in summarizing his gospel to the Thessalonians in the first epistle and in the first chapter and the last verse, says that the Thessalonians have turned to Christ and await him from heaven. What for? Well, he says, because "he saves us from the wrath to come." Still the same idea. And if you go right on to the Book of Revelation, you will find it there in a most remarkable phrase. Do you remember it? It's a phrase about the wrath of the Lamb. It seems quite contradictory, quite paradoxical. A lamb, you think of a lamb in terms of innocence, harmlessness. And yet there is this pregnant phrase: "the wrath of the Lamb." It is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the whole world who is to judge the world in righteousness. The wrath of the Lamb.

So you see, this idea that love and wrath are incompatible is just a complete denial of the plain teaching of the Scripture. Indeed, I would go so far as to say this. That unless we start with this idea of the wrath of God against sin, we cannot possibly understand the compassion of God. We cannot understand the love of God. It's only as I realize God's wrath against sin that I realize what he has done in himself providing a way of salvation from it. And if I don't understand this, I don't understand that. And my talk about the love of God is mere sentiment. It's mere loose sentimental vanity, which is indeed a denial of this great biblical doctrine of the love of God. Well now then, the apostle's teaching is that until we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are under the wrath of God. And the wrath of God is an expression of God's hatred of sin. It is an expression of God's punishment of sin. And it is a clear statement of this fact, that if we die in our sins, we go on to eternal punishment unrelieved. That's the teaching of the Scripture. The wrath of God against sin manifests itself in hell, where men and women remain outside the life of God in misery and wretchedness, slaves to their own lusts and desires, selfish and self-centered. The wrath of God manifests itself in that way.

And the apostle's teaching is that that is the position of all who are not Christians. They are under the wrath of God in this life. They will remain under the wrath of God in the next life. That is the position of the sinner according to the Scriptures. If you object to the idea, you are objecting to the Scriptures. You are setting up some philosophical idea of your own instead of the plain teaching of the Scripture. You're not arguing with me. You're arguing with the Scripture. You're arguing with these holy apostles. You're arguing with the Son of God himself. If you believe this word is divinely inspired, well then you must not say, "But I don't understand." I'm not asking you to understand. I don't understand it. I don't pretend to understand it. But I start from this basis: that my mind is not only finite but is furthermore sinful, and that I cannot possibly understand the nature of God and the justice and the holiness of God. If you are going to base everything on your understanding, well then, my friend, you might as well give up at this point. For the Bible tells you that the natural man and the natural mind cannot understand the things of the spirit of God. It was the desire to understand that led to the fall. Intellectual pride and arrogance is the last sin. And I stand here not to ask you to understand. It is my commission to proclaim the message. And the message is that all are under the wrath of God until they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But indeed, I must go one step further. That brings me to deal with the second matter. The apostle says is that we are all in that condition by nature. "We were all by nature the children of wrath, even as others." What does this mean, "by nature"? Well, I was trying to show a fortnight ago, so I needn't stay with it this morning, that this has one meaning only and that is by birth. We were all by our very birth the children of wrath, even as others. Now you notice the apostle does not say that we become the children of wrath because of our nature. He says we were. In other words, the apostle, like the whole of the Bible, does not teach that we are born into this world in a state of innocence or in a state of neutrality and then, because we sin, we become sinners and thereby come under the wrath of God. It isn't what he says. He says the exact opposite. He says we are born into this world under the wrath of God. From the moment of our birth, we are already under the wrath of God. It isn't something that's going to happen to us. It isn't something that results from our actions. There are people who teach that, but that it seems to me is a blank denial not only of the teaching here but, as I want to show you, of the teaching elsewhere in the Scripture. He doesn't say that we are under the wrath of God because of our nature or because of the manifestations of that nature. He says that we are that by birth.

Now then, what does this mean? Well, the answer to that, of course, is found in that fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans which we read together at the beginning. That is the very thing which the apostle argues there from verse 12 to the end of the chapter. What is the argument? Well, let me just summarize it for you. You remember that in that chapter, the one great point the apostle is concerned to prove is this: that our relationship as believers to the Lord Jesus Christ is exactly analogous to our relationship formerly to Adam. You remember the comparisons. How he goes back and forth. He talks about what was true in Adam, "not only so but we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, so death passed upon all men," so the second man and so on. Now, I commend you to read again carefully that fifth chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans and especially from verse 12 to the end. And you'll see that all along he says we were like that in Adam, we now are like this in Christ. So that as you come to interpret this, you must bear that in mind. If you believe that I am what I am in Christ because of what God has imputed to me in Christ, you must believe exactly the same on the other side, what was imputed to me in Adam. That's the argument.

But the apostle is not content merely to state it generally. You remember that he states it in particular. Let me pick out the important verses. Take verse 12. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." The punishment of sin is death. Adam sinned and death came upon him. Yes, but not only upon Adam, but upon all men. As the result of Adam's one sin, death passed upon all men. Why? Well, "all sinned" in Adam.

Wait a minute, that's just the statement. I'll expound it later. But come on to verses 13 and 14. There is no more important passage in the whole of Scripture than this fifth of Romans. Paul here introduces a statement in brackets. The brackets start at the beginning of verse 13. Listen: "(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression.)" Now what does all this mean? I wonder whether anybody sitting in one of those pews at this moment is beginning to say to himself, "What's all this about? I can't follow this. I want some simple gospel of comfort." My friends, we like to think, don't we, that because we live in the 20th century, we are greatly superior to all generations that have ever lived before us. That we're so learned and intellectual, we understand great things; the other people were primitive. Now, the apostle Paul wrote these words to people nearly 2,000 years ago, and he meant them to understand them. And he wasn't writing to great philosophers. He was writing to simple Christian believers. Many of them were but slaves, others were soldiers in Caesar's household. And Paul meant those people to understand these things. I frankly cannot understand modern Christians who must be spoon-fed and who just want something nice and easy and simple. If you do not understand this doctrine, well then you're rejecting God's Word.

Very well, what's it mean? Well, let me try to show you what it means. Paul says until the law sin was in the world. The law was given through Moses, you remember. But there was that long interval between Adam and Moses. At the least, it was probably a period of some 2,500 years. Now then, during that whole long period, sin was in the world. But sin, he says, is not imputed where there is no law. In other words, if there isn't a law to define sin, the sin isn't brought home to a man. The business of law is to bring the sin home. If there were no laws, for instance, this morning about parking and about motoring, well, you and I might still do the wrong things, but if there were not a law about these matters, we couldn't be punished. That's what he's saying. Sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless, he says, death reigned from Adam to Moses.

Now here's the problem. Though the law was not given until Moses, there was no law from Adam to Moses, people still died. All the people born into the world died. Well, why did they die? That's the question. What is it that produced death in those people though there was no law imputing sin at that period? And the apostle's answer is this: there is only one explanation. They all died because they were involved in the sin of Adam. There's no other explanation. The only reason why sin reigned from Adam to Moses is that that one sin of Adam brought death upon the whole of his posterity. In other words, we are born by nature the children of wrath.

Now then, notice the next thing which is still more extraordinary. He says this is true, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. What does that mean? Well, he says that death reigned even though over those persons who had not actually committed an act of sin as Adam did when he fell. Who are they? And there's only one answer: they were infants who died in infancy. Because all other men sinned. Everybody who's lived since Adam has committed deliberate acts of sin. The only people who have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who have not deliberately sinned, were infants who were too young to exercise their will because they were not conscious. And death reigned, says Paul, from Adam to Moses even over infants also. Why do infants die? And there's only one answer: infants die because Adam's transgression involves them. Death passed upon all men, even them that have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. What a statement.

But go on to verse 15. "But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead." There it is again, you see. Then he goes on to the other side about Jesus Christ. Come to verse 16. "And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. Now then, for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification." The judgment, the condemnation, was by one to condemnation. The one sin of Adam brought this upon the whole of mankind. But conversely, he says, many sins are forgiven in the righteousness of one, even Jesus Christ. But still go on to verse 18. "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation." Isn't that as explicit as a thing could be? "As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men," no exception, "to condemnation." We are born the children of wrath. And finally, in verse 19, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners." You and I and all mankind were made sinners by that one sin of Adam.

That's the teaching. We were all by nature the children of wrath, even as others. "Ah," you say, "I don't understand that. I can't grasp that. It seems to me almost immoral." My dear friend, I say exactly the same by way of reply once more. Of course you don't understand it. Who can understand such things? It's not a question of understanding, it's a question of whether you believe the Scriptures or not. For the apostle says exactly the same thing in 1 Corinthians 15, that great and mighty chapter which is read at funeral services: "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive," and so on and so forth. It's precisely the same argument. It's the basis of the Christian faith. Whether we understand it or not, I say, it is the truth.

You've got to explain the universality of sin. You've got to explain the universality of death and especially the death of infants. And this is the biblical answer. Adam was the whole of humanity. He represented the whole of humanity. He was our federal head. As the Lord Jesus Christ is the representative of all who are saved, as his righteousness is imputed to us, so Adam was the representative and his sin is imputed to us. We fell in him, we are damned in him, in exactly the same way as those who believe in Christ are redeemed by him and saved in him and righteous in him. That is the argument. And if you believe the one side about Christ, you must believe the other about Adam. If you deny this, you're virtually denying that. Let us be careful, therefore, my friends. To me, nothing is more tragic than the way in which Christian people bring the relics of their philosophies and their own understandings into the Christian faith. And they who claim to believe the Bible from cover to cover reject it at this point because they don't like it or because they cannot reconcile certain matters.

But the reconciliation is here for us. Though we were such, dead in trespasses and sins, hateful and hating one another, polluted by sin, sinful in practice, living in trespasses and sins, and under the wrath of God, and absolutely helpless and hopeless, the very God against whom we've sinned, the very God whom we've offended, has himself provided the way of deliverance for us. And that in the person of his own dearly beloved Son, from whom he did not spare even the suffering and the agony and the shame of Calvary and that cruel death. He has offered us and provides for us a way of complete deliverance and reconciliation to himself in spite of the fact that our sin in Adam and our own sins and our own sinful state deserved nothing but his eternal wrath. That's the love of God. That's the love so amazing, so divine, that God could do that for us who deserved nothing but eternal wrath. May God in his grace, therefore, enable us to receive these things, that together, God willing, we may go on next Sunday morning to that next verse with its glorious "but": though that was true, "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." Blessed be the name of God. Amen.