Is Christ's Cross about God's Wrath? - part 1

Note: This is the first of a two-part series.  You can read part two here and part three here.

I recently watched a forum discussion considering whether a sacrificial death is necessary for the forgiveness of sins: 

The Protestant position was represented by a friend of mine, Joshua Camacho, and the Eastern Orthodox position was represented by Gabriel-Allan Boyd.  Representing the Protestant position, Camacho makes the case that a sacrificial death is necessary for the forgiveness of sins.  And, representing the Eastern Orthodox position, Boyd makes the case that a sacrificial death is not necessary for the forgiveness of sins.

I found the two-hour discussion to be helpful and thought-provoking but wanted to touch here on just one area where Camacho and Boyd disagree: the wrath of God and how it relates to the cross of Jesus Christ.

For pretty much all of my Christian life (beginning around 2002), I have understood the cross of Christ to be about solving the problem of God's wrath.  That is, Jesus Christ suffered on the cross to bear the wrath of God for sinful humanity so that, having satisfied God's wrath, humans who trust in Jesus no longer are in danger of that wrath coming upon them.

I've recently been reconsidering whether the Scriptures truly teach what I've just stated in the previous paragraph.  I'm no longer sure.

In discussing God's wrath, Boyd makes the case for God being without passions.  In other words, God doesn't respond to human actions with passions (e.g. pleasure or anger).  The theological term for this is to say that God is impassable.  So when Scripture speaks of God being characterized by such passions, it's speaking with anthropomorphic language.  That is, it's merely using language that we would understand as humans to talk about God in a manner that brings the reality of God down to our human level, even though it's not entirely reflective of the truth of God which is beyond us.  Not only does Boyd deny that Jesus suffers God's wrath on the cross; he also denies that God is truly inclined to pour out wrath on anyone in the sense that we understand God's wrath as His measured, controlled, just anger.

Camacho, on the other hand, states that he takes Scripture at face value when, for example, we read:

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Romans 12:19

In other words, God really does have wrath that He intends to pour out on those who do evil.  Furthermore, Camacho makes the case that this wrath was poured out on Jesus on the cross, thus opening the way for humans to be reconciled to God.

After considering both Boyd's and Camacho's perspectives on God's wrath and the cross, I'd like to propose another perspective.

I think Camacho is correct to make the case that God really does have wrath that He intends to pour out on those who do evil.

And I think that Boyd is correct to make the case that God did not pour out His wrath on Jesus at the cross.

And I offer the same reason for why they are both correct in each of the ways mentioned above: the wrath of God in the New Testament is almost always spoken of in the future tense.

Again and again, the New Testament speaks of God's wrath as something that is coming in the future:

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Matthew 3:7

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
Romans 2:5 

but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek,
Romans 2:8–9

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Romans 5:9 

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Romans 12:19

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
Colossians 3:5–6

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
1 Thessalonians 1:9–10

for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
Revelation 6:17

Do humans need rescue from God's wrath?  Yes, we certainly do.  But the all-important question is: how do we escape from God's wrath?  Does God put down the sword of His wrath toward a sinful humanity because it fell on Jesus?  That's what Protestant theology traditionally teaches.  But I'd like to propose — on the basis of Scripture — an alternative reason for why God puts down the sword of His wrath toward sinful humanity:

God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.
If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword;
he has bent and readied his bow;
he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.
Behold, the wicked man conceives evil
and is pregnant with mischief
and gives birth to lies.
He makes a pit, digging it out,
and falls into the hole that he has made.
His mischief returns upon his own head,
and on his own skull his violence descends.
Psalm 7:11–16

If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword.

But if a man does repent... ?

The implication is clear: God puts down His sword.  The sword of His wrath.

God is whetting the sword of His wrath to bring down upon those who obey unrighteousness, the New Testament tells us.  And the only way we can escape it is by repenting.  But by nature we are slaves to sin (John 8:34) who cannot in and of ourselves repent.  So Jesus came to die so that He would be a ransom that sets us free from sin in order that we could truly repent and escape from God's wrath because we no longer obey unrighteousness but instead seek for glory and honor and immortality.  In repentance, we obey the truth.  And the wrath of God doesn't come upon those who obey the truth, as imperfect as that obedience is.

1 Thessalonians 1:10 teaches us that Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come.  This is true.  But the question is: how?  Does He deliver us from the wrath to come by absorbing it in Himself so that it would be satisfied and thus there would be no more to pour out on us?  Or does He deliver us from the wrath to come by setting us free from being those who obey unrighteousness (on whom the wrath of God is coming) so that we might be those who obey the truth (on whom the wrath of God does not fall)?