Sodom and Gomorrah Revisited

"Just how different are we today from Sodom and Gomorrah?" Why did God find no redeeming qualities in the men of that time. Is it because of Christ, today, that He withholds his wrath?

This is a comment from the Old Testament Covenants post, and I thought it worthy of a full answer.  In order to answer this fully, there are several aspects to consider.  What are the points of redemptive history for the events in question?  What is the particular relationship of all of the people in each era in question to God?  Does God actually withhold his Wrath today?  That should be a good starting point.

Sodom and Gomorrah are reported in Genesis 18-19.  This is the first action after the discussion of Circumcision and the Abrahamic Covenant.  At this point in redemptive history, man has demonstrated his utterly evil nature and fallen heart badly enough to be destroyed by a flood.  Remember that Noah is still IN Adam and still possesses a fallen heart.  Therefore, all of man still possesses a fallen evil heart.

So, why pick on Sodom and Gomorrah?  By God’s standard of sin, all sin being equal, surely Sodom and Gomorrah are no more or less sinful the rest of humanity?  By the same token though, why not Sodom and Gomorrah?  It is important to understand that this is not necessarily a pietistic commentary so much as an object lesson on the wages of sin.  The question put before Abraham concerns righteousness, not piety.  Find a righteous man in Sodom is his instruction.  If you understand original sin, you know that this is impossible.  In the end, Abraham is declared righteous based upon his faith and belief in the promise.  The lesson here is that there is no righteousness in Sodom and Gomorrah because no one there believed the promise of God.  Abraham is taught an object lesson about the wage of sin being death.  Abraham is taught that the Law only brings condemnation.  Remember, Moses hasn’t even been born yet.  This is the Law as it is engrained upon our hearts.  We know the Law empirically.  Because we continue to fail to understand that we are offending God, He decided to give us the Law in Word, so that we would fully understand our sin.

So, why did God level Sodom and Gomorrah?  Because He decided that they were a good object lesson on Law and sin.  Unfortunately, man still didn’t get it.

Today, the situation concerning our fallen nature is no different.  All men are still fallen.  All men are still IN Adam.  What is different?  The point in redemptive history is different.  We already know about God’s redemptive plan.  There are thousands and thousands of people who are transformed by faith in the propitiating work of Jesus through the Cross.  The Gospel has already been revealed.  It isn’t as if people are any less evil.  God just doesn’t have any particular need to teach another lesson.  He has revealed His plan for His people.  The Holy Spirit is busy about the work of gathering His sheep.  The only part of the plan that remains is Judgment on the Last Day.

Therefore, I would argue that God has no need to give any further examples or object lessons.  He can just sit back and watch His elect come into the world until He is ready to bring us to Judgment on the Last Day.  When the last of the elect is born, we will be within a lifetime of the Last Day.  It isn’t because there were no redeeming qualities in men then, but the situation now is different.  That just isn’t the case.  There is simply no purpose to another Sodom and Gomorrah at this point in redemptive history.

--Ogre--