These passages demonstrate the reality of Christ’s humanity, a profoundly comforting truth. As Philipp–ians 2 notes, when Christ became man though He was God, He wasn’t play-acting. He is subject to all the human emotions and temptations we experience. In fact, the great variety of those emotions recorded in the Gospels across the years of His ministry is notable. He is said to have loved His father God (John 14:31), His friends (John 20:2) and strangers; He pitied and had compassion for the hungry, the sick, and for sinners. He felt or expressed indignation, whether at the hardness of people’s hearts (Mark 3:5) or at the disciples for rebuking Mary’s gift (Mark 14:6). In John 11:33 and 38, when Jesus observed Mary wailing at the grave of His beloved friend Lazarus, the term used implies that He was angry—not at her but at death, against which some commentators even say Christ "raged."

Of course, unlike us, in His divinity, Christ was without sin and so became our example. In His humanity, Jesus did fight a battle with the very human longing to avoid the Cross, a horrendous death at a young age. But He obeyed. This was what has been called Jesus’ tension and victory. To be courageous means obeying in spite of fear and the dread of what is going to happen. Jesus’ submission to God came at a high cost or it would not have meant much.

The short answer to this is yes. But God is not a petulant God. As one pastor put it, "If God is angry at my unconfessed sin, as well as at the sin of the whole world, He must be in a perpetual snit—clearly an inaccurate picture of His character." He adds, "It might be more precise to say that God is angry at rebellious sin, at the refusal to do right when we know better." In the Old Testament, God was angry with the children of Israel to the point that only a few of them entered the Promised Land. To cite a few examples, God was angry with Moses for failing to circumcise his sons (Ex. 4:24–26) and at David for conducting a census (2 Samuel 24). In Hebrews 10:26–31, a number of warnings are given to Christians whose commitment to the faith is wavering. This passage speaks of the consequences of deliberately remaining in sin by using terms like "judgment," "fury," "consume," and "punishment."

Still, God forgives us not on the basis of our repentance but rather on the basis of His Son’s pure character and substitutionary atonement. God knew about our behavior and our repeated sin and still sent His Son to die for these sins. We are also kept by this reality. As 1 John 2:1 says, "If anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One." We must, however, come to terms with why we repeatedly sin. Pastor Tim Keller says we do this because we don’t repent deeply enough; we don’t get to the "attitude beneath the sin." Such incomplete repentance is what he calls "insincere," an insincerity that can lead to rebellion. As 1 John 1:6 says plainly, "If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth." With sincere confession, however, "he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).