“Lord, do not rebuke me with Your wrath; do not rebuke me with Your wrath” (Ps. 6:2). The prophet Jeremiah prays similarly to this: “Punish us, O Lord, in judgment, and not in wrath, so that we may not be humbled” (Jer. 10:24). And another of the Psalmists: “Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for no one living will be justified in Your sight” (142:2). And again: “If you see lawlessness, Lord, Lord, who will stand?” (Ps. 129:3). One must ask for deliverance not just from God’s punishment, but from the wrath and severity of God’s truth, which threatens every sinner with eternal torment. The fatherly punishment of God, although our flesh is sad, should desire it, since “the Lord punishes whomever he loves; and he beats every son whom he receives” (Heb. 12:6). And Christ Himself says: “Those whom I love, I rebuke and punish” (Rev. 3:19). Woe to every man when God, in the severity of His righteousness, enters into judgment with him! Nothing less than eternal torment in the fire of Gehenna should await him. For every sin, even the slightest, in our opinion, is capable of plunging a person to the bottom of hell, if the mercy of God, for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, promised, does not arrive.
What can we say about those who sin by will? Therefore, everyone who wants to avoid God’s judgment must give up their sins and pray to God with faith in Christ: “Lord, do not reprove me with Your wrath,” and so on.
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