Above All Else: From Anger to Graciousness

In this week's message from the "Above All Else" series, Julia Price explores the deadly sin of wrath and how the gospel transforms us from anger to graciousness. Drawing on Romans 12:19–21, she unpacks how anger, when disordered, becomes wrath, and how only the forgiveness of the cross gives us a path out.“Of the Seven Deadly Sins, wrath is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel of the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back — in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.” — Frederick BuechnerWhat Anger Is:- Anger = active displeasure toward something that’s important enough to care about (David Powlison)- Wrath = unrighteous anger aimed at the wrong things, sparked too easily, felt too strongly, or held too longWrath’s Disordered Expressions:1. We get angry about the wrong things2. We get angry too easily3. We get angrier than we should4. We stay angry too longMoving from Wrath to Graciousness:1. Understand Our Anger Before It Becomes Wrath2. Release Our Wrath Through Forgiveness“Forgiveness = acknowledging that someone hurt you, absorbing the pain or cost of their offense, and choosing not to seek revenge”“Our English word wrath comes from the same Anglo-Saxon root as our word wreath. Wrath means to be twisted out of your normal shape by your anger . . . And the same Anglo-Saxon word also gives us the now somewhat archaic word ‘wraith’ . . . If you don’t deal with your wrath through forgiveness, wrath can make you a wraith, turning you slowly but surely into a restless spirit, into someone who’s controlled by the past, someone who’s haunted.” — Tim Keller“Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until he has something to forgive.” — C.S. Lewis“Those who won’t forgive show they have not accepted the fact of their own sinfulness.” — Tim Keller“Yielding to God’s will can be hard. And sometimes, it really hurts. But it always brings peace . . . I’m an old man, and this is one of my dreams: that my descendants will one day live in a land where people are quick to confess their wrongdoing and forgive the wrongdoing of others and are eager to build something beautiful together.” — John PerkinsVerses Referenced:- Proverbs 4:23- James 1:20- Mark 3:1–6- Romans 12:2- Romans 12:19–21- Ephesians 4:32