"Mercy should make us ashamed, wrath afraid to sin"
About this Quote
William Gurnall, the 17th-century Anglican pastor best known for The Christian in Complete Armour, distills a classic Puritan insight about how the heart is moved toward holiness. Mercy and wrath are not opposing forces but complementary medicines. Mercy awakens a tender conscience; wrath erects a firm boundary. Together they teach that sin is both unworthy of the love we have received and dangerous in light of the justice we face.
Shame here is not the crushing shame of self-loathing, but the honest blush of a forgiven person who recognizes the cost and kindness of grace. When someone spares us, protects us, or restores us, the natural response is a reluctance to wound them again. Scripture speaks this way: the kindness of God leads to repentance, not to presumption. Gratitude softens the will and breeds contrition. It makes sin feel not merely forbidden but unfitting. Mercy humbles pride and dissolves the excuses that keep us enslaved.
Wrath, on the other hand, is the sober recognition that sin destroys. It is not a call to live in paralyzing terror, but to recover reverent fear, the kind that marks reality clearly: choices have consequences, God is not mocked, and moral order is not negotiable. Fear, rightly ordered, protects what we love. It steadies the hand when temptation beckons, reminding the soul that trivializing evil is a path to ruin.
Gurnall wrote as a pastor of embattled souls, teaching believers to put on spiritual armor. He knew that love without awe can drift into entitlement, and awe without love into despair. Mercy without shame becomes license; wrath without mercy becomes legalism. At the cross both converge: the severity of sin is exposed, and the depth of love unveiled. To be ashamed by mercy is to become gentle; to be afraid under wrath is to become wise. Holiness grows when gratitude and reverence pull in the same direction.
Shame here is not the crushing shame of self-loathing, but the honest blush of a forgiven person who recognizes the cost and kindness of grace. When someone spares us, protects us, or restores us, the natural response is a reluctance to wound them again. Scripture speaks this way: the kindness of God leads to repentance, not to presumption. Gratitude softens the will and breeds contrition. It makes sin feel not merely forbidden but unfitting. Mercy humbles pride and dissolves the excuses that keep us enslaved.
Wrath, on the other hand, is the sober recognition that sin destroys. It is not a call to live in paralyzing terror, but to recover reverent fear, the kind that marks reality clearly: choices have consequences, God is not mocked, and moral order is not negotiable. Fear, rightly ordered, protects what we love. It steadies the hand when temptation beckons, reminding the soul that trivializing evil is a path to ruin.
Gurnall wrote as a pastor of embattled souls, teaching believers to put on spiritual armor. He knew that love without awe can drift into entitlement, and awe without love into despair. Mercy without shame becomes license; wrath without mercy becomes legalism. At the cross both converge: the severity of sin is exposed, and the depth of love unveiled. To be ashamed by mercy is to become gentle; to be afraid under wrath is to become wise. Holiness grows when gratitude and reverence pull in the same direction.
Quote Details
| Topic | Forgiveness |
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